Posted by admin on August 5th, 2009 in Technology, cell phones

I originally wrote about Google Voice several weeks ago but never published.  Here’s what I said:

Google Voice essentially allows a person to integrate all of their various phones onto one Google phone number.  This is how Google describes their product:

“Google Voice is a service that gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail that is easy as email, and many enhanced calling features like call blocking and screening, voicemail transcripts, call conferencing, international calls, and more.”

When you visit the “Voice” page, you’ll see it is  not available today but rather  you register and they contact you at an undetermined time in the future.

Through this service, Google aims to take on the telephony market.  Watch out AT&T and T-Mobile… Using Google Voice, a customer would be assigned a single “phone” number they would use to route home and other numbers.  The service includes a number of other options like calling U.S. based numbers for free, conference calling, switching between phones during a call, the ability to read a voice mail transcript and other features.

According to one article, Google has reserved over a million phone numbers to handle requests for the launch.  Since it’s not available to the general public today ( you need an invitation) it’s hard to say whether that will be enough or if they will run out.  Another problem is you lose your number – you get ANOTHER phone number.

Big Brother??

My concern about Google Voice is regarding the written transcript of texts and phone calls.    Now, Google will have a written transcript stored in their vaults of every call you make.  Not sure I like that.  On the other hand, for the people who have multiple phones, this may be good.  I actually prefer to keep my personal phone, home phone and business phone separate.  The phone of origin tells me who is calling and I can judge the level of importance.  It also allows me to know instantly if I need to be in  quiet place to take the call or not.  I even have specific ring-tones for each family member so I know instantly who is calling.  But that’s me.  I’ll be interested to see where Voice goes.

The End of the Post

OK.  That’s where my post ended.  In the meantime, my son assessed the product and discovered advantages I had not seen.  Specifically, that text and calls would essentially be free (everything is over the internet) So, I’ve decided to test it.  I’ve signed up and am waiting for them to contact me with a number and account activation.  My son is already trying it.  I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.  I’ll give a report in a few months.  Oh, by the way, it only took a few weeks for my son to get an “invitation”.