Adam DesAutels

Will Google Be Your Phone Company?

Thomas Petty on 11 2, 2009

We all know that Google has some amazing tools, all available at no cost, like:

• Google Analytics – Web analytics for everyone
• Gmail – free e-mail that connects to all our e-mail accounts
• Google Docs – Web-based office software
• YouTube – free video sharing
• Google Wave – the next gen communication tool

Their latest new tool, available by invitation only by the way, is Google Voice. Google wants to help you with all the phones we’re tied to, and give you one phone number for everyone. They launched Google Voice in March, and just last week expanded its capabilities to allow you to use your own phone number, rather than having to get one of theirs. Google Voice uses VoIP (Voice over IP) to provide free or low-cost phone calls through a unified phone number and system.

If you sign up to use your own phone number, Google Voice provides you with:

• Voicemail – available via the Web or your phone
• Transcription – your voice mails are transcribed and sent by e-mail or SMS (text)
• Custom Greetings – Your mom would get a different greeting, than say, your boss
• International Calling – discounted calls to overseas locations

However, if you decide to go with one of Google’s phone numbers, you get a lot more bang:

• One Number – Anyone can reach you through one single phone number. You can set it to ring one phone, all phones (home, work, cell, etc.), or different phones based on who is calling (like your Mom or your boss)
• Free SMS – You can send and receive (and store) text messages free of charge online
• Block Callers – Got a pesky neighbor? Send them straight to voice mail every time
• Record Calls – Store your important calls online
• Conference Calling
• Screen Callers – Hear who’s calling you before you answer

Google has developed applications to use Voice with your BlackBerry or Android. What about the iPhone, you ask? Well, they developed one for the iPhone too, but Apple pulled it from the shelves. The official reason is that it had too many similar features to the iPhone. However, there is speculation that AT&T had some influence in this, since the Google Voice app allows you to send free SMS messages and get discounted overseas calling, circumventing AT&T’s for-charge service.

In the end, Google is trying to expand adoption by now allowing people to use the service without using a Google-provided phone number. Like Gmail that has been widely adopted, this system too may become widely adopted, despite alleged meddling by AT&T. As an innovator in free tools, Google has a long track record with extremely useful free tools, that put paid services to shame. After all, they are in the information business. By giving away free tools that gives them complete access to your Web sites, online documents, videos, e-mail, and now voice mail, I wonder when Google will actually become self-aware.

Read more from Thomas Petty at: Bay Area Search Engine Academy and on Twitter

Thomas Petty is President of the Bay Area Search Engine Academy. He teaches SEO and internet marketing classes in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, California.

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