It's hard to describe -- it's like a do-everything voice number. You get a phone number assigned to you when you sign up (you get to pick your area code and then choose from a list of about 30 numbers). Then you go in and configure your account and set up all the phone numbers you have (home, work, cell, etc.). Then you can configure your contacts, set up a voicemail PIN, etc.From there, you give out your Google Voice number as your main number. You can designate in your settings which of your phones to ring when someone calls your Google Voice number. You can ring them all simultaneously, set it up to only ring certain numbers between certain times, or define that certain contacts or groups of contacts always ring on specified numbers only. You can also define custom greetings for individual callers.
i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.i only have one phone number, my cell phone..BUT I am envisioning this being useful.I work in the office with my dad - one of us takes call on weekends in case someone has a dental emergency.I wonder if I could set up this google voice to be the phone number that we leave "on call" and then it can just forward the call to one of us so that patients don't have my actual cell phone #.or so that we could screen these calls better...thoughts?Memphis Foundry said:Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now.
if you don't have a grandcentral account it's a mute point. When I had a chance to get one, I passed it off.i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.i only have one phone number, my cell phone..BUT I am envisioning this being useful.I work in the office with my dad - one of us takes call on weekends in case someone has a dental emergency.I wonder if I could set up this google voice to be the phone number that we leave "on call" and then it can just forward the call to one of us so that patients don't have my actual cell phone #.or so that we could screen these calls better...thoughts?Memphis Foundry said:Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now.
Nah, it really isn't. When you are a technician by trade, you get to be pretty jaded as far as your expectations for technology. See one product rollout and you've seen them all. But every once in a while, something comes along that could be considered revolutionary in the same sense that e-mail was revolutionary. This is one of those things, IMO.i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.Memphis Foundry said:Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now.
for now, u can't.how can i get an invite?
They've begun to issue beta invitations to media as part of the Google Voice rollout, the first that have been issued since Google bought GrandCentral and closed the beta around 18 months ago. My guess is they're probably still a couple of months away from opening the beta back up to the public, though.how can i get an invite?
a watif you don't have a grandcentral account it's a mute point.i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.i only have one phone number, my cell phone..Memphis Foundry said:Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now.
BUT I am envisioning this being useful.
I work in the office with my dad - one of us takes call on weekends in case someone has a dental emergency.
I wonder if I could set up this google voice to be the phone number that we leave "on call" and then it can just forward the call to one of us so that patients don't have my actual cell phone #.
or so that we could screen these calls better...
thoughts?
Keith is about the least prone to hyperbole guy I know. When he says it's the coolest thing going, it's the coolest thing going.JNah, it really isn't. When you are a technician by trade, you get to be pretty jaded as far as your expectations for technology. See one product rollout and you've seen them all. But every once in a while, something comes along that could be considered revolutionary in the same sense that e-mail was revolutionary. This is one of those things, IMO.i appreciated your post, but this statement was a tad excessive.Memphis Foundry said:Seriously, it's about the coolest thing going right now.
well i'm glad that's settled.Keith, if you could please start a thread called "Coolest thing going" and update me with what i need to know to stay cool i'd appreciate it.Keith is about the least prone to hyperbole guy I know. When he says it's the coolest thing going, it's the coolest thing going.J
StLB, did you just come across this or do someone tell you about this? I am always impressed by people who keep up with the latest in technology. I am interested in doing so, but just don't know how.St. Louis Bob said:
As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
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Google bought GrandCentral a year or two ago, and are just revamping it as Google Voice now.As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
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Its very easy: add the following sites to your daily routine or RSS reader...www.boygeniusreport.comStLB, did you just come across this or do someone tell you about this? I am always impressed by people who keep up with the latest in technology. I am interested in doing so, but just don't know how.St. Louis Bob said:
It was a standalone company for about a year. Google bought them, closed the invites, and hid it til about 2 weeks ago when they launched Google Talk. Since I sign up for so many sites to "try" and rarely integrate any in to my daily routine, I picked a number in Mountain View, CA (where google is located) instead of in Austin (where I live). Since I joined relatively early, my number is easy to remember (the whole 10 digit thing only has 4 different digits and the last 7 digits repeat a pattern). I have a new Cell on the way with a new number and if ATT won't let me switch my current number to my new line, then I'll likely switch to my Mountain View number permanently and tell all my friends and family that I've moved to California.As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing
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Thanks for the great post!!!!!!!!!!!! One thing...I have been using Google Talk for a while now, just as a standard IM that stores your chats in Google. Was it called something different previously?Its very easy: add the following sites to your daily routine or RSS reader...www.boygeniusreport.comStLB, did you just come across this or do someone tell you about this? I am always impressed by people who keep up with the latest in technology. I am interested in doing so, but just don't know how.
www.gizmodo.com
www.engadget.com
www.techcrunch.com
gadgets.boingboing.net
I also suggest a subscription to "Wired" ($10 a year) which covers not only gadgets, but pretty much most of the cool stuff going on in geek-science.
It was a standalone company for about a year. Google bought them, closed the invites, and hid it til about 2 weeks ago when they launched Google Talk. Since I sign up for so many sites to "try" and rarely integrate any in to my daily routine, I picked a number in Mountain View, CA (where google is located) instead of in Austin (where I live). Since I joined relatively early, my number is easy to remember (the whole 10 digit thing only has 4 different digits and the last 7 digits repeat a pattern). I have a new Cell on the way with a new number and if ATT won't let me switch my current number to my new line, then I'll likely switch to my Mountain View number permanently and tell all my friends and family that I've moved to California.As GranCentral, was it still a Google product or did Google buy them out?I've been using GrandCentral (now Google Voice) for a few years. Its amazing <_<
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Keith already said a few posts up he thinks Google Voice is the coolest thing going. No need for a new thread.Jwell i'm glad that's settled.Keith, if you could please start a thread called "Coolest thing going" and update me with what i need to know to stay cool i'd appreciate it.Keith is about the least prone to hyperbole guy I know. When he says it's the coolest thing going, it's the coolest thing going.J
Well sure.. but surely in a few months there will be a new coolest thing going.Frankly if that thread existed i could've known about google voice months ago.I want to stay on the cutting edge of "coolest thing going"I need this new threadKeith already said a few posts up he thinks Google Voice is the coolest thing going. No need for a new thread.Jwell i'm glad that's settled.Keith, if you could please start a thread called "Coolest thing going" and update me with what i need to know to stay cool i'd appreciate it.Keith is about the least prone to hyperbole guy I know. When he says it's the coolest thing going, it's the coolest thing going.J
I don't have a texting plan, so when people send me texts its costing me .20 a piece even though I don't look at them. If they text my google number, is this going to cost me, or would I only see the texts if I go to the google voice web page? I have an iphone so it's not a problem to bookmark that page.Too many features to figure out right nowThe service also acts as an SMS gateway. So Google Voice acts as an SMS proxy both inbound and outbound. People send text messages to your Google Voice number and it forwards the SMS messages to your cell phones(s). When you reply back, you can set it up so that the text appears to come from your phone number or from the Google voice number. It threads your text conversations like GMail does email and stores them in your Google Voice inbox. You can send, receive, or reply to text messages directly from the Google Voice webpage without using a cell phone.
Voice communication, eventually, is going to Internet Protocol (IP), and the very cool features like what Google is offering through Grand Central, in about 5 years will look fairly commonplace. Next step: We really need cell phones to support Wi-Fi and make all calls free when we are at home while offering crystla clear reception as long as we have broadband at home or a Femtocell device to expand signal, so we wont use 3G or CDMA, rather our own Wi-Fi network. I hope this is coming sooner than later. I havent looked at Google's visual interface for voice is yet, but the interface will mean a lot and the features will be ubiquitous across many different IP services for homes and small offices. What scares me is Spam and hackers (such as Internet traffic injection attacks, trojans etc.) infiltrating our phones the way it does our computers. That will suck but seems inevitableTo Keith's point, this is the logical place for phones to go. For years, phone numbers were meant simply as a way for people to track you down and talk to you on the phone if you answered. But the proliferation of Cell phones has made a phone number as much of an identifying factor (if not more so) then anything else out there. It is only logical that the next frontier in mass communication would be giving people more power and functionality as it relates to their communication capabilities.
The flipside to all of this is that Google wants to own its users and all of our activity and GMAIL/email being sucked into their big brother like massive databases where eventually our behavior, words, phone calls, texts etc. become a behavior model to them and possibly sold to marketing organizations unless Google is simply using it for placing the most relevant ads.Tthis technology in office is called "find me follow me" Voice communication, eventually, is going to Internet Protocol (IP), and the very cool features like what Google is offering through Grand Central, in about 5 years will look fairly commonplace. Next step: We really need cell phones to support Wi-Fi and make all calls free when we are at home while offering crystla clear reception as long as we have broadband at home or a Femtocell device to expand signal, so we wont use 3G or CDMA, rather our own Wi-Fi network. I hope this is coming sooner than later. I havent looked at Google's visual interface for voice is yet, but the interface will mean a lot and the features will be ubiquitous across many different IP services for homes and small offices. What scares me is Spam and hackers (such as Internet traffic injection attacks, trojans etc.) infiltrating our phones the way it does our computers. That will suck but seems inevitableTo Keith's point, this is the logical place for phones to go. For years, phone numbers were meant simply as a way for people to track you down and talk to you on the phone if you answered. But the proliferation of Cell phones has made a phone number as much of an identifying factor (if not more so) then anything else out there. It is only logical that the next frontier in mass communication would be giving people more power and functionality as it relates to their communication capabilities.