  Using the Effective One Body approach, that includes nonperturbative resummed
estimates for the damping and conservative parts of the compact binary
dynamics, we compute the recoil during the late inspiral and the subsequent
plunge of non-spinning black holes of comparable masses moving in
quasi-circular orbits. Further, using a prescription that smoothly connects the
plunge phase to a perturbed single black hole, we obtain an estimate for the
total recoil associated with the binary black hole coalescence. We show that
the crucial physical feature which determines the magnitude of the terminal
recoil is the presence of a ``burst'' of linear momentum flux emitted slightly
before coalescence. When using the most natural expression for the linear
momentum flux during the plunge, together with a Taylor-expanded $(v/c)^4$
correction factor, we find that the maximum value of the terminal recoil is
$\sim 74$ km/s and occurs for a mass ratio $m_2/m_1 \simeq 0.38$. We comment,
however, on the fact that the above `best bet estimate' is subject to strong
uncertainties because the location and amplitude of the crucial peak of linear
momentum flux happens at a moment during the plunge where most of the
simplifying analytical assumptions underlying the Effective One Body approach
are no longer justified. Changing the analytical way of estimating the linear
momentum flux, we find maximum recoils that range between 49 and 172 km/s.
(Abridged)
