Google Voice, anybody using it yet?

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Yesterday I got the invitation to open a Google Voice account. I went ahead and did it - got a number with a local area code and attached it to my home phone.

The biggest disappointment is that I cannot call a telephone from my computer. Other than that, it's a great product to have just one phone number and manage phone your life from one spot. The transcription of the voice mails is great, too.
 
I'm sure that feature is just around the corner... I love my Magic Jack and have saved a bundle of money using it.
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I looked for it but they do not have advertisements when you open your voicemail inbox (pretty much the same design as GMail but without the ads). But I'm sure they will start doing that when they integrate Google Voice with GMail.

It's amazing how much Google knows about someone - addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, medical history (through Google Health service), general interests, etc. Even the CIA has no such access to our information so readily. And yet I do not feel too threatened (just concerned). I would have never done that with MicroSoft or some other yahoo company.
 
Surprisingly, it's neither alpha nor beta. I looked for it thinking that they will be in beta for a few years but looks like they had the full functionality when they acquired the company that had this service. They have integrated it with the other Google features since then, obviously.
 
No, it's more like a call forwarding service. You never talk through the computer, it's always through physical phones (i.e. it does not compete with mobile, VOIP or land line phone providers).
 
I've been using it for several days now. I took that call presentation off. when I first tried it out, I thought my phone call was going straight to voice mail. It's great that my phone and home numbers ring at the same time. I'm not able to sync my work number though! I think my work blocks it. It's saving me T-mobile prepaid minutes though!! I can leave my cell phone off all the time so when my family from out of town calls, it will go straight to my home phone. I have VOIP at home. They rather call my cell because's it's a local number for them.
 
By analyzing people's social networks, when one person in a network buys a product, you can then target their close friends and have a greater chance of causing a sale, since you usually get some free word of mouth advertising via the social network.
 
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
Yesterday I got the invitation to open a Google Voice account. I went ahead and did it - got a number with a local area code and attached it to my home phone.

The biggest disappointment is that I cannot call a telephone from my computer. Other than that, it's a great product to have just one phone number and manage phone your life from one spot. The transcription of the voice mails is great, too.


I've had it for over a year now... it's cool even though I am suspicious that Google is really the CIA :). I got it mainly so my in-laws could call my wife for free. I got a number that was local to their area code.

If you want to make phone calls from your computer, checkout the gizmo project. It's about two cents per minute. I've got an ATA box from the failed SunRocket VOIP service I used to have. I set it up to work with my gizmo account so I can make calls using a regular phone instead of the computer.

I've only heard good things about MagicJack... that would be my next move if gizmo goes out of business.
 
This google voice may not be that great. It took my dad four phone call attempts to get through this morning. 1st call, my dad said it was a disconnectted line. I've only had the number for 4-5 days. 2nd phone call, my home phone rang once with my dad's caller ID on the phone and before I could answer it stopped. 3rd phone call, same thing, one phone ring then hung up. 4th phone call, worked perfectly. I don't know what's up. but I asked my dad, he said the phone rang only once on his end and went straight to voice mail. I'm going to have to figure out what's going on.
 
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