Google Voice: Internet Telephony on a New Height

Google was in text, it has started to intrude into our electricity and now It is in our telephones. Google Inc. introduced Google Voice the other day.  The new service weaves traditional phone features with Google’s Gmail email product, allowing a person to store transcripts of voicemail phone messages in their email inbox and to find a specific nugget of information within a phone message as if trawling through a sea of emails - as Reuters reports. If you do not remember, Google Voice is based on the technology of Grand Central Communications, a company that Google acquired in July 2007.

Be it anything but one can not just deny the diversification Google makes week after week. Its almost amazing how wonderfully they are enhancing their brands by tagging one into another and thereby forming a complete google-o-sphere which is very hard to ignore unless you want to compromise on quality.

How Does it Work

The main benefit is Google Voice allows users to route all their calls through a single number that can ring their home, work and mobile phones simultaneously. It also gives users a single and easy-to-manage voice mail system for multiple phone lines.

Calls can be made two ways. One is for users to dial their Google Voice number and press 2 at the prompt. Or they can click a number in their online dashboard to have the service ring their phone, and then connect with the other party.

Unlike domestic calls, international calls are charged per minute and require users to open a Google Checkout account(here is how they push one of their less appealing products), which stores credit card numbers. Calls to landlines in the United Kingdom and France cost 2 cents per minute, while a call to a mobile line in France costs 15 cents per minute.

What is the Motif

The next question is, why would Google launch something like this for now. How do they benefit? Because as of now, there are no plans to bring out corporate facilities too. So a free consumer grade product at this time will not make that much sense. But Craig Walker, the group product manager assures us of the intention - Google Voice, which will be available to existing Grand Central users on Thursday and to the general public in the following weeks, provides another reason for people to spend more time on Google’s various online properties, which benefits the company.

He ends in an optimistic note..

There’s all sorts of things we can do down the road. But right now we’re just totally focused on getting the consumer product out.

Do You think its gonna hurt Skype if at all? Whats your take on this.

[Picture courtesy: venturebeat.com]