Google Voice! 1 Number, Unlimited Phones!

Ok, so new today is Google Voice. Well, it's not really new, but I just stumbled upon it. So what it is, is a phone number, that you not only get to pick, but you also choose how it works! Now people that know me know I use a different voicemail provider called YouMail (www.youmail.com). Now Google Voice is like YouMail + Vonage on crack! Now first off you can not only tell google which of your phones to ring (Work, Home, Cell, Fax, Summer Home, etc), but you can setup GROUPS! So for family, it'll ring all your phones. For that friend that just can't listen that you said "don't call me at work", you can have it just ring your home and/or cell. For co-workers, just work. I think your seeing where this is going.

So that's how google voice is like Vonage, but as I said it's also got alot that YouMail does also! Not only does google voice ring your phones, but it also can do voicemail. Not just your regular voicemail, but also does Transcriptions (sends you an email with what the person said!). Now you can get this with YouMail (and other places) but Google is giving you transcriptions for FREE! Now that's hard to compete with folks. You can also do custom greetings for people like YouMail, but not a SmartGreeting (where it says Hi " based on caller id info). Google Voice is in closed beta (you can signup for the list, or visit ebay and find a cheap "invite" code), but it's worth checking out. Google Voice is like the PO Box for phones. No matter where you move to, your address (or phone in this case) stays the same.

So if all that isn't good enough, there's free long distance calling with VOIP. You log into your google voice, tell it which of your numbers you want it to call you on, the number of the person you want to call, and it connects you. You can also make widgets for webpages (I have one at the bottom of my blog) so people can call you and you don't even have to give out your number! I mean I've used this for all of about 10 minutes and I can see how great this is, and how much better it can get! I'm just wondering how google is going to cover the costs for all this. The business model for google is typically ads, and I don't see this as being different. So far this looks like a great service to have for pretty much anyone!