Google Voice is Remarkable. Get your own.
When I received an invitation to try out Google Voice, my burn-out level for VoIP technology had been reached and passed. But... I'm a sap so I accepted and was issued an account. The initial task was to answer a raft of questions (leading to the assignment of a single global phone number that will hunt you down at home, work, cell, wherever your other phone numbers might lead).
After a half hour with Google's telephone number selector (many, many thousands of choices sorted by area code or desired number -- go ahead and try 333-333-3333 in the search window), I picked 415-997-8717. And I set it up to automatically transfer to my land line, VoIP line and cell phone, in that order. It will hunt me down. Phone Routing offers many customizations based on who is calling. Click the link above to see the full feature set that Google has set up. Very impressive. And free for domestic calls. This all happened weeks ago. I've not had time to try it out... until this morning. I used my VoIP line to call the new number. The land line rang immediately. I let the call go into voice mail (fearing perhaps that answering my own call would be a sign of mental disturbance. I don't need any more signs). My own message greeted me. At the tone, I barked out a new message. A few moments later, my Internet Voice account on Google had the text neatly typed out, converted from the audio stream. It was absolutely correct except for one thing: it said Maria, not Murry, was the caller. Very cool stuff. I wonder how it will handle accented voices. So, Jorge in Brasilia, give me a holler. I won't answer but hope to see the text of your message. The number again is 415-997-8717.-
