Google Voice plans to be the Gmail for phones

There's been a lot of talk regarding Google Voice, but very few people actually know what it is. Obviously, it's from Google, so it's going to be a free service that integrates with telephones, but there are so many features that are going to revolutionize the way phone numbers are managed.

Long ago, Google purchased a company called Grand Central, a cloud-based telephony solution. Pretty much only nerds in the know signed up for it, but know that we see its potential, everyone is in line. Ever since that purchase, only original Grand Central users have been able to use it. There have been no new users since.  Just recently, Google bought up one million phone numbers, which is an obvious signal that Google Voice will be launching soon.

Google Voice provides an individual with a new, unique phone number. That number will be their public number to put on business cards and public documents. That number, managed online, can associate with numerous existing numbers, like a landline, cell phone and anything else. A common use is to have incoming calls sequentially call lines in order, which comes in handy in business environments where "line 3" should only be called if lines 1 and 2 are unavailable. Another use is to have all connected lines ring simultaneously, which works as long as it's only one person. There’s even a schedule function, meaning that lines will not ring at designated times, like when you’re sleeping.

Of course, the question is, "how does Google benefit from this?" With their free Gmail service, Google makes money through ads in the website. Instead of generating ad revenue through phone service, Google is working on their transcription (speech-to-text) technology. Instead of relying on one line's voice mail sesrvice, Google Voice hosts voice mail that can be accessed on any phone, through their website and even as text in e-mail. Audio is transcribed and color-coded to show Google's confidence that the words are accurate. If "dinner at five" gets written as "testify", users can correct the message, helping Google adapt to an infinite variety of accents, dialects and possibly languages. This crowd-sourced transcription technology will be invaluable once its in the hands of a million people for a few months.

Have annoying, repeat callers? If they're calling your GV number, you can block them, but not if they're calling you directly. Unfortunately, it probably won't help aliased calls from robo-callers about your car warranty, but there should certainly be an option to block "blocked numbers". Most people screen those calls, anyway. Unfortunately, calls can be screen on cell phones. Until Google Voice. Calls can be recorded to voice mail and be listened to live, then be ignored or answered at the recepients discretion. Anyone that gets used to the web-hosted voice mail will want to take notice at the feature to record calls that have already been accepted, with the necessary automated disclaimer, “call recording on.”

Does that mean that anyone that signs up now will get in soon? Not likely. All the people that have been requesting invites ever since Google's acquisition are still waiting in line and invites will be first come, first served. If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is, at least for some. Gmail users are no strangers to very personalized advertisements. E-mails are crawled for keywords to generate targeted ads. Expect this level of privacy when outsourcing your phone management. No word on receiving advertisement voice mails or ads within their web management, but there will likely be a sign of phone calls being crawled.

This service will most likely be adopted by smartphone users at first, as Google will likely release apps for major platforms to manage this service (Android users expect to have first dibs). By all means, sign up as soon as possible, but like the early days of Gmail, don't expect to get in without having someone invite you directly. For more reasons why you will or will not like it, check out Lifehacker's post on it.