Google moved into telecommunications Wednesday with a new service to help people manage voice calls. Dubbed Google Voice, the service will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a company Google acquired in July 2007.
The service lets users get transcripts of voice mail and archive and search all SMS text messages sent and received. The service can also be used to make low-priced international calls and access Goog-411 directory assistance.
“As you may know, GrandCentral offers many great features, including a single number to ring your home, work and mobile phones, a central voice-mail inbox that you could access on the Web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voice mail,” wrote Google Voice product managers Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet, and Wesley Chan on the Google blog. “You’ll find these features, and more, in the Google Voice preview.”
Merging Telco and Computers
Google’s latest innovation further merges the telephone and computer with a laundry list of benefits, including a single number for all calls and SMS texts. Other features include call screening, listening in, blocked calls, phone routing, forwarding phones, notifications, personalized greetings, and shared voice mail.
Google Voice also offers the ability to record calls and store them online, switch phones during a call, view an inbox from a mobile phone, and set up preferences by group. For example, set up contacts, click the groups button and choose a group name, then add contacts to the group. Groups could be friends, family, work or some other group.
“If you want to talk to more than one person at once, just tell everyone to call you on your Google number,” Walker, Paquet and Chan wrote. “When you get a call-waiting notification, you will have the option to press 5 to add them to your existing call.”
Google’s Hook
According…