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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.

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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]

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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.]

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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.

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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.

[via Official Google Voice Blog]

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What is the MagicJack “femtocell” home mini cell tower?

It is a small device that plugs into a computer’s USB port, receives a dialing signal from a cell phone located within 8 feet of the device, connects to a local cell tower and then switches the call from the local cell tower to a VOIP call transmitted on the MagicJack system, the same VOIP system as that the original MagicJack uses. After a call connects, the MagicJack femtocell would have a range of about 3,000 feet.  The MagicJack femtocell is being touted as a legal way to make air-time free calls from your cell phone. Like other femtocells, including those offered by cell carriers, someone with a weak cell signal in the home could experience better call quality or fewer dropped calls, if the VOIP transmission is better or more reliable than the cell transmission.

Which cell phones work with the femtocell?

GSM phones only, according to most reports.  AT&T and T-Mobile phones would likely work but Verizon and Sprint CDMA phones would not work with the version of the MagicJack femtocell being demoed.

How much will it cost?

$40 for one year of service, which includes unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada.

When will it be available?

In about four months.

Analysis and Concerns…

1. Questionably legal.  The FCC is reviewing the legality of a 3rd party femtocell not provided by the cellular carrier (some cellular carriers sell their own femtocells which usually run around $200).  If the FCC gives its blessing on the MagicJack femtocell or concludes that it fits within the spectrum laws, then I predict that cell carriers will simply cook into their contracts provisions that prohibit the use of 3rd party femtocells (like prohibiting TetherBerry on Blackberry phones).

2. Unless it has improved markedly in the past two years, the MagicJack VOIP network is spotty. I received repeated bursts of static using a traditional MagicJack.

3. Consumers would only achieve cost savings under two scenarios. First, the consumer exceeds his/her minutes and thus is able to reduce the overage by VOIPing some calls. Second, the consumer VOIPs enough calls to reduce his/her monthly allotment of minutes and incurs a lower monthly cell phone charge.

4. According to some reports, the service requires a MagicJack SIM card inserted into the phone. While this isn’t a big drawback for users who don’t need to insert SIM cards for other reasons (international roaming or switching networks), it may detract from the appeal of the MagicJack femtocell.

5. The advantages are somewhat overstated by some bloggers and commenters. You can use a traditional MagicJack for unlimited VOIP at the same price. The primary advantages of the new scheme are using the same handset for your VOIP and cellular calls and consolidating your VOIP and cellular calls to one phone number (the latter of which you can do with Google Voice too, a free service).

6. Consumers with with friends-and-family plans or pick-any-10 or the like can effectively make unlimited cell calls for free by adding a Google Voice outdial number as a airtime free call.

7. Google acquired a VOIP company in Q4 2009. When it slaps that together with Google Voice and enables number porting, then many of the purported advantages of the MagicJack femtocell will be available through Google and, most likely, for free.

I suppose the good news is companies are getting creative about ways to reduce communications expenses, particularly cell phone bills. If Google Voice rolls out VOIP too, perhaps the bottom will fall out of the cell phone companies sooner rather than later.

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To upgrade, click “Settings” and then click “Get a Google Number.” You can choose not to switch to the new number by setting Google Voice to Do Not Disturb and forward your unanswered calls to the new Google Voice number (Verizon customers diall *73+Google Voice Number and to unforward just dial *73).

You can pick your area code and search the portfolio of numbers for one that you prefer. Pick a winner!

[via Official Google Voice Blog]

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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.

[via Official Google Voice Blog]

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This survey is in sharp contrast to Google Voice user feedback.  Google Voice feedback seems to fall upon deaf ears.  For example, where is voice response to caller presentation?  They have only had, ahem, four years to implement it.  I wrote a semi-rant on the Google Voice forum about it that elicited some interesting replies.  You can find it here: http://bit.ly/2B7e0d .  Where’s number porting?  Were the silly colorful business cards we were offered to promote our new numbers a message that it has been delayed?

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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.”

The addition of VOIP services might allow users to make outgoing calls from their Google Voice numbers from any internet connection around the globe.

Google Voice customers can dial internationally at very low rates.  Presently, only U.S.-based users can sign up for the Google Voice service.  The addition of VOIP features could allow for expansion into markets outside of the U.S.

The Google Voice service was first created when Google acquired Grand Central in 2005 for $45m.  Other than adding text messaging, few other features have been added to the Google Voice service since the acquisition.  The addition of VOIP services will be one giant leap forward for the Google Voice service.

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