Google Voice dialed up for launch. Will it shake up the way you make calls?
Next step for the Google juggernaut: revolutionizing the way Americans use the telephone.
Although the service is not yet widely available, today Google announced details of its long-awaited Google Voice program, which introduces an array of free features, from voice-mail transcripts to call conferencing and call blocking. Most important, Google Voice each user to create a single phone number for all his or her phones 鈥� a service especially attractive to those folks still juggling a work phone, a cell phone, and a home phone.
Beginning today, users can for an invitation for a Voice account. Once the invitation arrives, you'll be able to use a "number picker" to find digits that contain your name, a specific word, or a favorite number combination.
A history lesson
If you missed out on all the hype, here's a condensed history of Google Voice. In 2007, Google GrandCentral, an Internet company created to link up different phone numbers under one single set of digits. Then a couple of months ago, Google Voice launched a closed testing period for an audience of GrandCentral users. They tacked on a few of their own features: a transcription service for voice mail, and free text messaging.
, which was part of the closed beta program, Google Voice is "remarkably powerful and easy to use. It has a number of killer features, such as support for switching between lines during the middle of a call and recording incoming calls by simply pressing a button. Recorded calls and voicemails can be heard directly in the browser through a streaming playback interface and can also be downloaded as MP3 files."
