Skip to main content

Is Google Voice about to finally roll-out?


Sure looks like Google Voice is getting ready for a massive roll-out.

When they converted from Grand Central to Google Voice in March, they said wider rollout to the public would come in a matter of weeks.

The frustration level was building to a fever pitch as weeks stretched into months, and little news came out of the Google Mountain View Monolith. Then a couple weeks ago, they announced that people on the Grand Central and Google Voice waiting lists would begin getting invites.

I can tell from Twitter chatter some have received them, but many are still waiting.

Today Google announced current users could change their phone numbers for $10.

And I am starting to see some 3rd party companies announce products tied to GV.
All of this seems to point towards a pending wider release.

If you have read this blog, you know I think Google Voice is an awesome product. You may wonder why Google is going to offer you such an awesome product, much of it for free.

Mike Elgan wrote in ComputerWorld a good theory.

"The common assumption that Google's customers are its users is false. As a Google user, when is the last time you paid Google for services rendered?

"Google users are the "product" -- users are not Google's customers. By this I mean that Google is selling information about its users to advertisers, which are the company's real customers."

...

"I'm going to give it to you straight: I believe Google Voice is free because Google wants to track your phone calls, read your voicemails and text messages and invade your privacy to offer you up on a silver platter to advertisers."

He points out this is already true with Gmail. Go into your Gmail, pull up an email and then look to the right at the ads. They are related to your email, aren't they?

Google is going to do the same with GV.

You know something? I don't have a problem with it. Others might, but I don't.

Everything I do online is somewhere already. Afraid of Big Brother? Too late. If you are being investigated subpoenas will get investigators everything about you from your Twits, your Facebook Wall, and your Google search terms.

But what if all that information can help you find worthwhile products.

Dilbert's creator Scott Adams wrote recently that Shopping is Broken. He said : "How much more stimulated would the economy be if the people who have money, and are willing to spend it, could be reliably connected with the products that they desire?"

So don't look at GV as invading your privacy, look at it as giving our economy a needed boost.

And it can save me money on my phone bill to boot.

And help me when I drop my cell phone in the toilet. That's a topic for another day though.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Notes Folder : My new note taking system

I'm in the process of moving to a new way to keep my notes. It would be best to make a separate post on my long time notetaking app, Evernote, and how it now disappoints me.  Bottom line, I no longer trust the company behind Evernote since it was acquired. My first inclination was to finally look at alternatives. like Notion, Joplin, Obsidian, etc. I was not enamored with any of them, so I gritted my teeth and stayed with Evernote. The situation made me think about how I use Evernote. To keep up additional posts on this topic, search on the tag Notes Folder Updates : January 24, 2024 and in updates noted here. Most of the things I store are quick notes, lists, online receipts for online bills, that sort of thing; kind of an online file cabinet if you will. If I were a doctoral student though I could see storing PDFs of papers and research materials.  If were working on a large project, then plans, communications etc. would all be there. Back when I began using Evernote way b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recording your own notes with Google Voice

Note :   April 2016:  Frankly I don't know if this works anymore.  It is 7 years old. I stopped using this when Google Now became useful on my phone, and I could dictate reminders using it. I found a way a while ago to use Google Voice to record a personal note, transcribe it, and email it to me. A recent Lifehacker post "Five Things We'd Like to See in Google Voice" lists that need as their #5 request, so I realized what I'd figured out is not common knowledge. In GV's Contacts, create a Group "Special Transcription" To avoid listening to my standard voice mail when I call, I recorded a short voice mail greeting for this group simply saying "Record note now" I added a contact with my own cell phone number as the only number, and made it the sole member of this group. In GV's phone settings, I edited the settings for my cell phone. In the section "Direct access to voicemail when calling your Google number from th...
62 comments
Read more

Your First Day with Evernote

I've written many times before about Evernote .  I love this program.  It is my brain's memory on steroids.  I have over 6000 notes in it now.  And I keep finding ever more uses for it. While originally written in 2009, this post has been frequently updated. New January 2012:  If you like what I write about Evernote, check out my 136 page e-book,  " Get Productive Fast with Evernote ".  Just $10. Sunday October 11, 2009 I wrote about Evernote in my print column, Family Tech. If you are wondering what is Evernote, and why would I want to use it, start with the column . I promised in that column this post to help new users get efficient fast with Evernote. I thought I'd write a quick plan for someone's first day with Evernote. This is really meant for after you've installed the client to your computer, so this picks up after you've gone to  Evernote's Get Started Page and created an account and downloaded and installed a clien...
31 comments
Read more