
Grand Central To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It’s Very, Very Good. - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/11/grand-central-to-finally-launch-as-google-voice-its-very-very-good/
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dmix
> _GrandCentral will also remain solely a U.S. service._

Alright, I am now adding Google Voice to my (Canadian) technology waiting list
along with:

Amazon Kindle, Skype Inbound #, Mint.com and Braintree Gateway.

~~~
Hexstream
and Hulu! and Google Checkout...

~~~
racetrack
I'm pretty sure that Hulu's problem is the fraking CRTC's CanCon laws.

~~~
wvenable
I don't understand how youtube would be allowed but Hulu wouldn't. The real
problem is that all the content is licensed regionally; Hulu has the rights to
content in the US but not Canada. And we're probably just not worth the
hassle.

So much for the World Wide Web; I feel like it's getting more regional every
day.

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evbart
I've been using Grancentral ever since it was aquired by google, and its been
great.

The main use was so that I didn't have to give out my personal cell phone
number for work, and so that I didn't have to carry a second phone.

Having a separate voicemail box just for work has been great, and I've even
used the call recording feature when someone was giving me very important
detailed instructions.

No concerns with spam, and I haven't noticed any downtime, so I'd recommend
it.

Would love to see more integration so I don't have a whole separate address
book in Grandcentral...

~~~
sgoraya
I've been using my GC# in a similar manner and its been a great experience.
The call log and the ability to filter #'s is a good way to categorize and
'file' my phone calls - And I really like the new UI too!

I was skeptical at first when GC launched (mainly having to give out a new
number), but once you properly configure your settings and start getting phone
calls you start realizing the service's usefulness.

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peregrine
I wonder how this will integrate with Android. I suspect soon they will have a
feature to use grandcentral voice mail, then I will get the fancy visual voice
mail but with the text underneath.

Awesome.

~~~
brandonkm
I've been using G1 Central on my phone for a couple weeks now to make free
calls. It's pretty awesome. Visual voicemail works great (minus the app
downloading the voicemails to your sd card) and being able to sort everything
online is really nice too. I'm hoping we get an official Google voice app with
the cupcake update thats coming in April.

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scorpioxy
So i can't imagine why they made this a free service. I think that a lot of
people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for this. I know i would(if
i was in the US).

Missed opportunity? Or a lack of vision from my part?

~~~
briansmith
A lot of the Google technology is based on statistical analysis, which only
really works well for huge data sets. Accordingly, a lot of Google's services
exist so that Google can build giant data sets based on your use. As far as I
know, Google records (or can reconstruct) every single byte that you
send/receive through its services except for a few of your IP address, in
order to build these data sets. For example, Google Reader is free so that
Google can collect attention data. Google Analytics is free for the same
reason. Google's 411 service is designed to collect voice data to fine-tune
its voice-to-text engine.

Some of those services also provide a platform for presenting the user with
tiny classified ads, which is an additional revenue stream for them. Finally,
some services are offered for free with no SLA and no customer support in
order to stress-test the paid versions of those same products (Google Apps,
Gmail).

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daveambrose
"About damn time."

Gmail integration will be the killer feature here.

~~~
physcab
Has anyone checked out the TOS of this thing? I'm a pretty connected guy, and
I don't mind technology infusing with my lifestyle, but where does the line
get drawn?

With Google Voice, they now have access to every bit of your private life.
Even if they are a "don't be evil" company, that doesn't exactly sit well. I'm
surprised there hasn't been more _negative_ press about this addition. Those
wire-tapping cases got massive amounts of attention in all the major media
outlets.

I'm not a paranoid person, but wow. I'm definitely staying away regardless if
it makes things more convenient.

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rufo
<https://www.google.com/voice/about> has a bunch of videos showing off the new
features.

I must say, the new interface looks like a nice improvement over GC - although
I'd love to see integration with my Gmail Inbox (Gmail Labs, anyone?)

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jorgeortiz85
_One phone number for all your phones, for life._

I already have that. It's called a cellphone.

~~~
pieter
I don't get it... I'd rather prefer unlimited phone numbers for some of my
phones.

What if you give your phone number to the wrong people? They'll keep calling
you. You might be able to filter out some, but they can always call from
another number (think phone spam).

I'd rather have the option to generate new phone numbers and give one number
to each person / 'community'. Then if I quit my job I can just filter away all
people calling me on my job number.

That's also why people use multiple email addresses, or plus addressing.

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Xichekolas
Except your standard 10 digit phone number scheme only allows 10 billion
numbers... which isn't exactly a big enough space to allow you to generate new
phone numbers whenever you want.

The idea is kind of cool though... like generating one-time-use credit card
numbers for dodgy e-commerce sites.

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jlam
CNET News posted a more in-depth article
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10194446-2.html> and gave an answer to a
question i had: can i port a number to Google Voice? (No, not yet.)

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calambrac
Cell phone companies have to port numbers between carriers, I wonder why
Google can't do it? I would be all over this if I could keep my cell phone
number...

~~~
edfrghjk
I suspect like Skype they are being careful not to claim they are a telco - so
they don't get hit with all the regulation and requirements stuff that real
phone companies have. At the moment they are treated like those companies that
sell cheap international calling cards.

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RK
Please tell me this will finally kill SMS, at least in that an incoming SMS
can just be routed to my gmail and I can designate an outgoing email as an
SMS...

Of course I'd rather have end to end mobile email with instant (configurable)
notification.

~~~
Raphael
I'm with you. The SMS feature would still be useful if your contacts still use
it. Or if you are the one stuck with SMS, route that as an email (assuming the
recipient does not use Google Voice).

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smoody
it doesn't sound like they've solved one of the bigger single phone number
issues: people still have to know my mobile phone number because when I dial
direct from my mobile phone, I cannot get my Grand Central number of come up
as my caller ID number (the best I can tell anyway and for obvious reasons).

~~~
dotpavan
You can- 1) If you initiate a call via browser from GC's site, you have the
option of making the number of your choice (your GC or cell/land #) or 2) if
you use GrandDialler app on iPhone, it too can make the call with your GC # as
the source

edit- forgot to add, there is vocito app (<http://code.google.com/p/vocito/>)
for mac

~~~
rufo
In addition, there's now an option when you dial your Google Voice number to
just dial directly - the "Place Calls" video at
<https://www.google.com/voice/about> demos it.

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pj
Hi, this is Google Voice. It sounds like you and your friend are talking about
Widgets. Here's a list of widget retailers you may be interested in. Press the
2 button to hear more about Acme Widget company. Press 3 to hear about Joe
Widget and Sons...

Acme widgets are currently $2.99, press 4 to enter your credit card number and
purchase widgets directly from Acme widget company. How many widgets would you
like to order? Please enter the number of widgets followed by the pound
sign...

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mcav
> _We have 100 Google Voice accounts to give out to readers, but you must have
> a gmail account. If you’d like one, please send an email from your gmail
> account to techcrunch@gmail.com (note that this isn’t an account we check
> regularly) with the exact subject “Google Voice Account” - the first 100
> will get an account invitation from Google._

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ejs
How annoying, I signed up with the beta link to be notified probably over a
year ago, I am sure others have as well. But a bunch of random tech crunch
people get invites instead of the people who signed up so long ago?

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Erwin
Transcripted voice mail? I wonder how well that will work out (looks good in
the screenshots on techchrunch but are those real). Next step would be to do
to this for ordinary phone calls as well and integrate them with Gmail, so
you'd have a "Phone Calls" link like you have "Chats", with gmail search being
able to find those.

That might be awesome for a business though perhaps unfcomfortably
transparent.

~~~
charltones
These people <http://www.spinvox.com/> do exactly that. The answer is that it
works quite well, but maybe not well enough to rely upon. It struggles with
people's names, jargon and noisy environments as you might imagine. Also
there's been a few occasions where it missed a vital word and changed the
whole sense of the message "Hi, I'm calling to let you know I'm going to be at
the station tonight as planned" - missing a NOT. Ooops.

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aphistic
Does anyone familiar with the service know how the Google Voice number you're
assigned works with long distance providers? I've been using my cell phone as
my primary phone for a long time now and get free (domestic) long distance but
if someone who pays extra for long distance tries to call my Google Voice
number would it be considered long distance even if they're local to me?

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blasdel
Oh man, I have a GrandCentral account from right before the acquisition. My
number gets a lot of voicemails from collections agencies. For a while I had
it forwarded to my office number, and something in the process must have
confused their autodialers, because I'd get at least one dead call a week.

I never thought to sell the account on eBay!

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andreyf
I'm wondering if it's worth trying, or if I'll get scammed... does anyone have
experience with this?

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kolya3
My favorite feature of GrandCentral is that you listen in while the voicemail
is being recorded and then jump in at any moment.

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minalecs
any word on how to port existing grandcentral account to google voice ? - i
wish i could delete this now.. but i see a big upgrade me link now.. last
night was not there sorry

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smoody
anyone come across instructions for upgrading a grand central account to a
google voice account yet?

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pauljonas
Really need a /ignore techcrunch.com article filter for HN.

Yeah, I know it displays here on the HTML page displayed in my browser, but it
doesn't show in my RSS reader (Google Reader).

~~~
unalone
This was a useful, informative article. TechCrunch writes a lot of shitty
things. This wasn't one of them.

I'm fine with TechCrunch rants, but unless you've got something interesting to
say beyond "I dislike TechCrunch," save it, ignore the article, and move on.

