Re-centralised

Yesterday I got my invite to Google Voice, and I wanted to talk a little bit about it.

Firstly, I don’t recall when i signed up so I can’t provide you a time table of when invites are going out. Sorry.

I also have not been following it at all, nor did I watch the video or read any info about it, nor was I fammilar with GrandCenteral, so i came into it really without knowing what to expect.

That said I was blown away!

I’m not so cynical to say its rare I get excited these days. Alot of things excite me, and this is one of them. It had me franticly fliping through the setup tabs and sending urgent SMS’s to everyone I knew within reach of their phone, urging them to call my new number.

Basically, Google Voice feels like GMail for SMS & Voice. It integrates decently with gmail & your contacts (it some how knew my brothers phone numbers. wtf?) and offers a whole ton of features that make me giddy. Press 4 to record the conversation? Yes please.

But we’re jumping the gun a bit.

When you accept your invite to Google Voice your brought to a familiar “Goolge Screen” where you put in a few details and then move on to the selection of your phone number. Like always, coming up with something is the portion I spent the most time on. I spent quite a bit of it poking and prodding and seeing just what I could get.

Example:

(Note: Nice CA. Ha)

I decided to opt for something a little less out there. Thinking about it for a moment I soon decided I wanted a phone number from Compton. So I got one. 424-242-4454. Unfortunately 4242424242 was unavailable.

After setting up my fancy new phone number, I was greeted with the main screen:

Looks alot like Google Mail, right?

Things I love:

Timed Rings. Filters. Do not Disturb Mode. All brilliant!

MP3 Voice Mail that’s downloadable!

Transcription. It had problems decoding a friend of mines new york accent. It thought the Jewish homeboy was did you show more but its still bad ass. Seems to work better with plain ol’ midwestern accents. When you get a voicemail it notifies you via email, with the transcription as well as sends you an SMS with the transcription of the message!

the number forwarding seems to work just fine. When someone called my Compton number it rang me in Fargo Nd with little to no delay.

25 free business cards!

Things that are not so good:

I’m unable to record my own voice mail greeting in my project studio (and add appropriate background sound and/or music) and upload it. I really hope this is a feature they will implement soon. With the ability to download the voicemail as MP3, it seems like a startling omission.

Labels & Colour Coding from gMail. While it’s true I get a considerably greater amount of email then phone calls, I imagine once I start sharing the number, using the number like its intended, I will start to build up a large history – a certain level of organization beyond stars will be required.

When you get a voice mail and it send you a notification it dosent attach the mp3. Rather it makes you go to the gVoice site. A minor quibble, but one anyways (and one more tab/window open!). With the interface so similar, why not offer an integrated solution – combining gMail & gVoice in 1 page?

It’s not a replacement for Skype Out yet. Right now I can call out, but it will call my party with my gNumber, then connect them to my mobile (or any other phone i point it at). How about merging it with gTalk and letting me call out from my gNumber without having to use my mobile? Do that and then we’re talkin.

Thoughts:

Google Voice has impressed me considerably. It’s free, it’s crazy, its powerful. I don’t think its for everyone. I think its really geared towards tech-savy people & Small Businesses at the moment.

It givesSayNow (http://www.saynow.com/) a solid run for its money. If you have been thinking about SayNow for your band or other application – Google Voice should be more then adequate.

In closing we can ask it the traditional new-tech question: Would my Mom use it (often)? Not yet. That said I know a few people who will be racking up mileage on it, my self included.

One more thing.

I’m not a huge fan of cloud computing. A part of me isn’t exactly comfortable with my junk in someone elces hands – especially someone I don’t know too well. Google Voice is another powerful app that makes cloud computing so alluring. Armed with my smart phone I can orchestrate all sorts of things from almost anywhere.

gDocs needs to play better with my mobile phone, but its not a deal breaker. I can view files, just cant write em direct into gDocs

gMail works fine on my phone. it gets the job done.

gTalk is lacking on my phone. Palm Garnet..eh…not the end of the world.

I mention these other Google apps because frankely with Google Voice I am now waiting for my Virtual Personal Assistant.

We’re close, too.

A google task application that I can update like twitter or an easy way to leverage google tasks (sms? email? transcribed voice mail to self?).

When can I use gMail & gVoice to update my Google Calender? I want to create events on my calender via email/sms/voicemail. I can refil a prescription over the phone, with my new Google Voice number I should be able to call it, drop to my appointments menu, enter date, times, etc.. and have it update. I want Google Voice to send me SMS’s reminding me of meetings, events, and other things in my calender.

I also want to be notified of scheduling conflicts, and have the ability to have my Virtual Assistant mediate this (via quasi-automated emails / voicemails) in addition to mapping out my travel routes / interstate exits in Google Maps to meetings & sites and emaiiling/sms/voicemail them to me.

And I want all of this for me & other people in my organisation (via Google Apps for my domain).

They have all the tools. All they need is a little more synergy between them. With extremely portable ChromeOS & Android powered devices it would make a VERY powerful package.

And I havn’t even gotten into some of the google apps I hardly use (Financial, books, scholar) .

I think the next few years will be very interesting.