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I am a big fan of Google Voice. Now everyone in the U.S. can enjoy the service. Visit voice.google.com now to sign up.
TechCrunch reported in early April that Google was internally testing (“dogfooding”) a desktop app for Google Voice. This is the outgrowth of Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5 back in November 2009. The latest incarnation of the rumor is that Google Voice will be fully integrated with Gmail, according to the (unofficial) Google Operating System blog. This is a screenshot of the dialer, courtesy of GOS:
Oddly, I started a Buzz last night about the implications of Google Voice going fully VOIP. If device manufacturers step up to the plate and create Wifi-only phones, Apple will be faced with a heck of a dilemma. It could either approve the Google Voice app that it has denied admission to the App Store before or lose ground to Android-based iPod alternatives. It will also be very interesting how Google Voice + VOIP will shake up the mobile space.
P.S. Google Voice users still want number porting! Please.
Google is rolling out it’s free telephony service, Google Voice, to all students. As of today, anyone with a *.edu email address can register for Google Voice and receive an invitation within 24 hours. Sign up at https://www.google.com/voice/students.
Reasons you might want Google Voice:
- A second phone number
- A vanity phone number
- Simultaneous ring
- Free long distance to U.S. and Canada
- Free SMS
- Bulk SMS
- Voicemail transcription
- Voicemail archives
Android and Google Voice, not surprisingly, integrate amazingly well. Just head over to the Market or load up AppBrain and install the official Google Voice app.
[via Official Google Blog]
In terms of the interwebs, the last decade could aptly be described as the search decade. Google ruled the day. As newbies came online Google was the launchpad where they all began. The company grew to a massive $170 billion market cap. It fended off competitors and, in the process, put more than a few out of business. By any measure, Google won the search war.
I predict that the next decade will be less about one single theme and significantly less about search. Obviously, I am on the outside looking in but these are my thoughts: Google is keenly aware of the fact that this transition is already occurring. To counter this anticipated reduction in traffic, Google has diversified into, well, just about everything relating to your preferences. Google continues to focus on its mission of organizing the world’s information. To do this, it needs to collect information. Where is lacks information, it devises a solution for obtaining it. In no particular order:
Whom do you phone? Google Voice.
To whom do you write? Gmail, Google Wave and Google Buzz.
What do you buy? Google Checkout and Google Product Search.
What do you watch on television? Google TV, which is anticipated to launch with Sony next month.
What do you read? Google Reader and Google Scholar, despite some bumps in the road.
Where do you eat? Google Maps, 800-GOOG-411, Google Places.
What ailments do you have? Google Health, although it appears to be a flop.
Where do you work? Google Profiles.
Where do you live? Google Maps.
What do you look like? Google Profiles and Google Visual Search, perhaps tied together one day.
Where are you? Latitude, Google Buzz and Google Places.
Where did you go and where will you go? Google Calendar.
And, I’m sure I’m missing more than a few fronts where Google is amassing information. As we all know, Google collects this information to sell advertisement space on your screens and mobile devices tailored to you. The genius of this all is that people actually trust Google, perhaps rightfully so. Advertisers do not have access to the answers to every question above, only Google does. Google has been and will be fundamentally an advertising intermediary. The game has changed: it’s no longer about finding something.com hidden away somewhere in the deepest depth of the internet but it’s more likely about giving you what you want, often for free, in exchange for your preferences. What do we receive for free? Search, email, voice transmission, video transmission, web apps, operating systems (albeit not directly but, rather, by eliminating the OS “tax” on devices), news, financial information and the list goes on and on. Most of the world has decided that we benefit from this exchange of preferences for free services. It’s really a unique and fascinating model. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, recently used the term “platform provider” to describe what Google wants to become. It’s a unique type of company unlike any other.
[As an aside, contrast the Google model with Facebook which simply wants to collect your preferences and share them with the world. The Facebook model is a far less comfortable compromise for the person the least bit concerned about privacy.]
Google is diversifying in other ways too. Google Apps, the enterprise version of the free online office suite, will probably meet with tremendous success. This arena is monetized differently. No business enterprise wants to share its confidential information with Google in exchange for advertisements. Instead, for a reasonable cost, companies pay for the cloud-based services. Google Apps fundamentally differs from just about every other Google property in this regard.
Google sits on a boatload of cash right now and could diversify into other areas as well. It dipped its toes into the hardware water with the Nexus One but I do not anticipate a significant push in the hardware direction. Google simply wants more, better information and faster. By diversifying, Google has solidified itself as the conduit through which we deposit our preferences and information and donate some eyeball movements and mindshare to advertisements that we might find appealing.
[I will likely write a follow-up piece regarding competition in the "platform provider" business with a focus on Facebook.]
Google Voice and Gizmo5 integration is far along and TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is reporting that a desktop app for placing and receiving voice calls from the desktop is being internally tested at Google. I wrote about the Gizmo5 acquisition back in mid-November. I’ve been whining about the Google Voice project but this is a significant development, a potential Skype killer. It is unclear if VOIP to landlines will be free but if anyone could pull that off, it would be Google. Simply slapping up some ads on the interface would probably cover the bills.
P.S. I’d still like to see the ability to port your existing number to Google Voice and voice responses to caller presentation for safer hands-free operation. I suppose I’m not done whining.
The Google Voice team is cheerfully celebrating the 1st birthday of Google Voice, Google’s voice transmission service. Google Voice, which is still by invitation only, offers users a free telephone number in any U.S. area code, the ability to ring multiple phones, visual voicemail with transcription, free SMS, free long distance calling within the U.S. and Canada and significantly discounted rates to other countries.
I’d like to remind those with short memories that this really isn’t the 1st birthday. GrandCentral launched the service in 2005 and Google acquired it in July 2007 (see here). It should be celebrating a 5th birthday. Apparently, the Google Voice team feels that it is the 1 year anniversary of the “launch” of the service. Other chest-beating about Google Voice advancements in the past year also disappoints. Consider:
- Mobile Apps. Yes, decent mobile apps for Blackberry and Android. Wasted time on an iPhone app that was never approved by Apple.
- SMS-to-Email. Yes, you can receive SMS in email now. So what?
- Chrome extension. Yes, it’s actually quite nice. Score one for the team.
- Voicemail in Gmail. Not essential but, yes, an improvement.
- Google Voice with Existing Number. This is complete nonsense. It existed before Google acquired GrandCentral and it’s not a feature at all. It’s a way to use Google Voice for voicemail only. It’s a feature offered by your cell provider to forward unanswered calls to your Google Voice number. You have to forfeit simultaneous ring and other bells and whistles to use it. I addressed this back in November 2009.
These are some features that users have been requesting for many years (note again: plural) that have yet to be implemented:
- Number porting. Users want to keep their phone numbers but use all of the Google Voice services. This could be accomplished with number porting. Since the early GrandCentral days, this feature has been requested. Is it in the works? To add insult to the intelligence and taste of Google Voice users, we were offered colorful business cards to show off our unwanted Google Voice phone numbers.
- Voice response to caller presentation. Caller presentation allows Google Voice users to screen calls or listen in as voicemails are being recorded. Unfortunately, it only responds to touchtones. Accordingly, I turned it off entirely, as I suspect many others have done.
- VOIP integration. It would be helpful if we could place calls from a computer by VOIP transmission, instead of exclusively by telephone. This is probably in the works because Google acquired Gizmo5 back in early November 2009 for $30m in cash and has nothing to show for it yet. (Query: when will Gizmo5 similarly celebrate a 1st birthday? It dates back at least as far as 2005.)
- For a complete list of missing features, look here. It’s basically the Google Voice team’s official to-do list.
So, why all this whining? Well, GrandCentral (pre-acquisition) was rolling out features much faster than the Google Voice team. Some protest that we should all be thankful because this is a free service. I contend that it certainly isn’t. For starters, low cost international calling has the potential to generate significant revenue. There are fees for various items like changing your phone number. And, perhaps most importantly, we are donating our voices to improve the quality of Google’s speech-to-text, a precursor to Google voice translation. Arguably, we’re all paying for the service.
As many of you know, I’m a Google supporter but the Google Voice project has been nothing but a disappointment vis-a-vis where this project would be had it stayed with the GrandCentral team. I still use Google Voice and I like it but this may be another case of a large company acquiring a small company to the detriment of the services offered.
Happy stinkin’ 5th birthday, Google Voice.
There’s a lot of buzz being generated about the MagicJack home cell tower gadget (femtocell) being demoed at CES. There’s also a lot of misinformation and confusion about the device. This post clears up some of the misinformation and confusion. Ultimately, it appears that many of the advantages of the MagicJack femtocell are overstated.
This evening Google announced that users who signed up for Google Voice “lite” (keep your existing number) can now upgrade to the full service… a Google Voice number of their choosing. I strongly recommended picking a number upon signup because you can always forward your unanswered calls to your Google Voice voicemail and receive transcriptions, thus simulating the “lite” service. If you missed my advice or did not follow it, you’re now in luck.
Google is asking Google Voice users to opt-in and donate their voicemails to improve the transcription service. Donated voicemails may be listened to by humans and manually transcribed to improve the transcription service. If you’re so inclined to donate voicemails, I recommend donating the really juicy ones to spice up the job of listening to them.
On a more serious note, this shows Google’s dedication to improving the quality of the transcriptions which I believe is the stepping stone for the Google Translation service for Android.
Google Wave just put out a survey about the Google Wave Preview on Twitter this evening. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/u1N61 . If you are participating in the Google Wave Preview, I encourage you to complete the survey. It is very long but covers almost every aspect of Google Wave, including its current deficiencies. Specifically, I would like to see improved scrolling and a mobile version of Google Wave. Check. That is covered in their survey. They now know that. Kudos to the Google Wave team for putting out the survey and checking with the users. I betcha that some of this feedback is acted upon quickly.
Earlier this week Google entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Gizmo5 for $30m. The Gimzo5′s VOIP services will be integrated with the Google Voice services.
This acquisition will add another critical piece to the Google Voice service which will make it more competitive with traditional telephone service providers. According to a post on the official Google blog, “while we don’t have any specific features to announce right now, Gizmo5′s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience.”
Google Voice recently unveiled the new “lite” version of its phone service. It was warmly received but it is nothing new at all. In fact, it existed even when Grand Central operated the service prior to Google acquiring it back in July 2007. The “lite” version is touted as a keep-your-existing-phone-number variant of the service and it is somewhat confusing to some. You could always use your existing phone number and forward your unanswered calls to Google Voice. If you sign up for “lite,” you end up with a phone number arbitrarily assigned from Google’s portfolio of phone numbers — in any area code. You are simply instructed to forward your unanswered calls to the new number and it becomes a voicemail-only service. Instead, I recommend signing up for the full service because you can choose your area code and even search through the portfolio for numbers you like.
