I just had to take a second to talk about a new service from Google. You already know Google provides tons of great free applications such as Gmail, Google Sites, and Google analytics just to name a few. The newest Google product I’m experimenting with is Google Voice.
Google voice works like a standard phone service but with a cool twist. With a standard phone service such as AT&T or Verizon you get a local phone number, voicemail and some other features we are used too. With Google voice you get a local phone number, voicemail and the cool part is Google will transcribe your voice mail messages and send a text of the message to your cell phone (fully awesome). Just like a standard phone you can also have your Google phone number ring on any other phone you like such as cell phone, home, etc.
Ok- so the best part is all these services are currently free. So now I can fire Mr. Whiskers (my cat); that currently answers the phone. Mr. Whiskers is also free but he has been doing a crappy job taking messages.
I’m experimenting with Google voice as my business phone number because it has some many great options such as:
- It allows me to view a text message of the caller’s voice message (transcription) even when I can’t answer the call. I can get important information from the text like the caller’s name and phone number to call back later.
- I can send my clients SMS text for free. I can also receive SMS text messages in an email.
- I can forward calls to any number at any time I like. For example my cell my not work well from inside my house so I can forward my calls to my land line during evening hours when I might be in the house. But who wants to get business phone calls at home anyway.
- I can schedule when my phone will ring and when it will go to voice mail. This is very important when creating a good work life balance. For example I schedule my calls to go straight to voice mail during non-work hours.
The latest Chrome (Google’s web browser) extension shows me how many messages I have and allows me to make calls from my browser. How cool is that?
If anyone else has tried Google Voice I would like to hear what you think about the service. You can find out more about Google voice on their blog http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/. Google voice is by invitation only now.
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