Newssup

Google’s latest service offering, called Google Voice, is a one-number online calling and voice-mail system that was announced several months ago. At that time it was only made available to people who had previously subscribed to the forerunner of the service, GrandCentral.

Now, however, Google has begun opening Voice to a wider audience. People who registered their interest for a preview are now receiving access. Google has yet to announce a fully-blown public release, but this first step does mean that there are a lot more hands-on reviews around.

Google Voice provides a single call number that ties together a user’s work, home, mobile and other numbers. The service includes voice-mail, which can be accessed online.

The difference with Voice is that it’s not tied to anything in particular: there’s no handset, there’s no cell phone, there’s no IP address. The assigned number is only tied to the user, so if they change job, house or mobile handset, it stays the same – rather like forwarded email.

Google Voice is also free at the moment, though there will no doubt be some kind of revenue model applied to it when it goes public: perhaps porting an existing number to the service or (particularly for businesses) being able to choose a memorable number. The specifics are still a long way off.

The service isn’t a new Skype, either. It is mostly designed to forward incoming calls to the Google number onwards to a handset of the user’s choice, to notify of voice mails via text message, to transcribe messages, to record calls and – perhaps most importantly – to call US numbers for free.

Sign-ups are still open, at the Google Voice site.

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