UTICA, April 19, 2009 -- We all hate having 3 or 4 phone numbers. It's difficult enough checking one voicemail, but between home, work and cell phone -- having to check 3 or 4 different voicemail boxes is a real chore. On top of that, it's become impossible to try and fit all your contact information on a tiny business card these days.
Craig Walker hated it too. As he got off a plane in California one day, Walker, who worked for a voice-over-IP company, was checking his 3 separate voice mail boxes when an idea popped into his head:
Let users roll all their phone numbers and voice mail boxes into one.
Walker partnered up with Vincent Paquet, who was working for Yahoo at the time, and in 2005 they created GrandCentral.com.
Their new slogan: "One Number.. for Life."
As their invention grew from idea to reality, they caught Google's attention. Google bought GrandCentral.com for over 50 million dollars in 2007. Google fan's have been watching anxiously for the last two years as nothing appeared to be happening ... until now.
Google Voice had been born ... and it looks as if it may radically change the way we manage our own personal and business telecommunications.
Finally GV is bringing us the ability to have just one number that will combine up to 6 phone numbers. Imagine, your home, work and cell phone numbers all functioning as one. The service is totally free, with no ads and is as easy to use as email.
Currently, a Google Voice account is not easy to get and right now, there are only 3 ways to get one. One, is to convert your existing GrandCentral.com account to GV, if you happen to have one. The second is to be put on a waiting list, because at this time, GV is not available without a GrandCentral.com account.
Third...pay up to $800 for an existing GrandCentral.com account on eBay. The birth of Google Voice has made the limited amount of GrandCentral.com accounts a hot commodity as people become more excited about Google Voice.
How does it work? With my own configuration, when you dial my GV number, my home, office and cell phones all ring simultaneously. When I answer, I am informed of who is calling and I can do one of four things:
1. Dump the call to voice mail.
2. Dump the call to voice mail with listen in with pick-up options.
3. Answer the call normally.
4. Answer the call and record it.
What's really amazing, is that if I answer the call on my house phone, I can move the conversation over to my cell phone, leave the house, and not miss a beat.
Additionally, once you call me, you are in my "callers list" and this is where the fun begins.
Using the web interface, I can now customize how future calls from your phone number are handled.
I can create a unique greeting message for each group I create, or even for an individual phone number. For example, I can have a group of phone numbers called "family," and have a customized voice mail greeting just for my relatives. I can also have a greeting message for my job, and other for my freelance work. And my former girlfriend? She gets her own special greeting message when she gets my voice mail. I love having multiple greetings.
With Google Voice, I can also bypass call screening and send the caller directly to my phones. For example, when my friend Susan calls she would be prompted to give her name. When I answer, I hear "You have a call from Susan" and it's in her own voice. But I also have the option to disable that so her calls are not screened at all.
And now here's a dream come true for all of us who have ever wanted to remove someone entirely from our life ... I can now block a number with the official phone company message that says "the number you have called is no longer in service."
Stay with me here, because it gets even more exciting.
When someone leaves a voice message, GV is happy to transcribe it and send it to my cell phone as a text message. This is my favorite feature because it saves time in retrieving voice mails and prioritizing messages. The transcription is not always perfect, and I suspect it will improve. GV is also nice enough to send you an email with a link to the actual voice mail, the transcription itself and the caller ID information.
Everything is archived on the GV website with added options such as forwarding the message to other people or adding your own notes.
For web developers, GV offers a widget that can be added to a web page. A person clicks on the widget and enters his phone number. GV will then call that person, call you and join the two lines together. That allows for communications while still keeping your GV number private.
Some people work 9 to 5, and now you can have your phone work 9 to 5 too. It's easy to schedule GV not to ring any of your phones past a certain time or even choose to have it not ring on the weekend.
As if that's not enough, GV also offers conference calling, which is limited to 4 people, and is simple to connect the parties. As people call you, just press the 5 key to keep adding them to your conference call. There are no special phone numbers or codes for your callers to use. GV tops things off with low cost international calling (domestic calls are free) and GOOG-411 integration (an information service).
It's all wrapped up in a pretty neat user interface that not only resembles the gmail look, but interfaces with your gmail contact list.
I know you're all on the edge of your seats wondering how to get started in this wonderful life of total phone integration.
If you have a GrandCentral.com account - just log on there. Eventually you will be prompted to convert from GrandCentral to GV (almost all accounts have been converted). If you are not prompted, wait a couple of days and try again. The conversion is being done in batches.
One important tip about security. When you add a phone number to your GV account you will be tempted to turn on the auto-authenticate feature. It allows GV to see your caller ID and give you immediate access to your account, without a PIN number.
That sounds great, but did you know that your caller ID can be spoofed? That's right - it's not only easy to do but legal to do. Some sources say this security hole has been closed and other sources say it has not.
I suggest you play it safe and turn off the auto-authenticate feature. In your phone settings just click on "show advanced settings" and then select "require pressing star and entering PIN to check voice mails from this phone." Your potential problem is now fixed.
So what's Google got in store for us down the road? GV apps for your smartphones, GV hardware, porting of numbers to GV and custom ringback tones.
I suggest you jump in now before they run out of phone numbers in your area code.
It sure is a glorious time to be a geek!
SEE SCREEN SHOTS OF GOOGLE VOICE IN GALLERY AT RIGHT >>
Joseph Mezzanini is columnist and photographer with the Utica Daily News. You can email him at: JMezzanini@UticaDailyNews.com
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NO MORE WAITING
go to google.com/voice to get your free line !
Thanks so much Joe - wonderfully written!
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