Google gives businesses option to add Hangout button to their websites

Google this week asked business to add a little face time to their websites by adding buttons that would launch a Hangout video chat from right on their pages. The company said it has already enlisted a few top partners to test out the free feature.

"Whether you’re a sales rep working in a CRM app or an engineer in a project management tool, it only takes one click to launch a Hangout and your team will automatically be invited,” Steven Cho, head of Google’s apps and Hangouts technology, wrote in a post on Google’s Official Enterprise blog.

The Hangout service was initially a feature on the company’s Google+ social networking platform, but has seen deeper integration by the California tech giant, including stand-alone smartphone and tablet apps and pairing it with the company’s chat feature in Gmail.

Salesforce uses Hangouts to start meetings with sales reps, but also uses Hangouts to video chat with prospective customers, Google said. Support company Zendesk also uses hangouts to connect with staff and customers.

Human resources firm Zoho Recruit also uses the Hangout button to launch chats between interviewers and job candidates, Google said.

Google’ Hangouts allow several people to join the same video chat from multiple devices, including smartphones.