Google Voice Gives You One Number to Ring Them All

The service, which launched publicly this week, includes
automatic transcription of voicemail and recording of calls.

Google Voice is one of those technical advancements that
could change your way of communication. With it, you can sign
up for a single phone number that rings every phone you own.
Then you can hand out the number to everyone you know.

Google acquired GrandCentral.com, the creator of the service,
in 2007, and changed the name to Google Voice. The service
now supports speech-to-text, using Google's technology, so
that voicemails are transcribed automatically and sent to you
by email.

Once you sign up, when someone calls your Google Voice number,
your home phone, cell phone, desk phone at the office, and
even your Internet voice-over-IP number will ring, all at the
same time, no matter where you are. It means you can switch
phone numbers at any time, but retain a single Google Voice
number for years.

This week, the service started granting access for public use,
so if you signed up several weeks or months ago, you will
likely receive a message that the service is live.

The service has several interesting additional perks. When
a call arrives, you can press 4 to record the call. You can
also listen in while the caller leaves a message, and
interrupt to answer. Recorded calls are not transcribed, but
you can listen to them online.

There are some minor caveats. Some people will be reluctant
to give over yet another aspect of their life to the giant;
Google reads our mail, and now it's listening to our phone
calls. Placing calls is cumbersome: you have to go to a Web
browser on your phone, access Google Voice, select which
phone to use, and place the call. And Google Voice simply
hands the call off to your wireless carrier. But the power of
one number ringing many lines, and near-instant text
transcription of voicemail, is enough to make the service
worth a try.