It's Google Voice Day
So today is a day that I’ve been waiting a long time for. The first set of invites have come out for Google Voice. I signed up for the invite about six months ago and just got mine this afternoon.
If you don’t know about Google Voice it’s a new Voice Over IP service run through Google. Much more, Google Voice will soon be for VOIP what GMail is for email.
Google has branded the service as being a solution for people who have so many different numbers in their lives but don’t want all the phones that come with it (business, home, personal cell phone, business cell phone, etc).
Imagine one phone number for everyone without having to actually give out your personal cell phone number. This means your family can have your cell number but your clients and boss can have your Google Voice number. It will still go to your cell phone when you want it to but it re-establishes the boundary that has since been lost in the days of instant contact. If only I had this at my last job.
This also means that you can give this number out when you fill out paper work which will then direct the telemarketers to your Google Voice number and not your home almost creating a junk-mail filter (I do this with email where I sign up for stuff under a different email address to free up my REAL email addresses).
What I am most excited about is the business application. Small, home-based businesses often result to paying high monthly fees for a business line or must give out their cell phone which doesn’t allow them to unplug when they go out with their families after work. Google Voice is a free local number that combines a professional image (a phone number) with the mobile convenience of your cell phone but allows you to turn of the forwarding so you don’t have to turn off your cell phone when you’ve closed down shop for the day.
Even more, it requires no investment! If you are like me and you test market a lot of different businesses you don’t want to pay AT&T or whoever just so you can try a new business model. Now you can setup a number and it will ring wherever you want with no upfront costs.
Today is only day one so I haven’t tested it too much but I will keep you posted as things progress.
