Google launches Google Voice

12 March 2009

Google has launched its latest service, "Google Voice," a tool to help users manage voice communication more efficiently, the search engine leader said in a Google blog post announcing its release.

Apparently, the software "converts" voicemail into text messages or Emails so that users can read them - instead of listening. Google Voice makes use of technology from Grand Central Communications - a firm that it acquired back in 2007. The service is currently limited to users of Grand Central in the US. For US users, Google Voice gives an option to use a single Google number that can route incoming calls to home, office, and other numbers.

Domestic calls will be free but international calls will require users to set up a Google Checkout account. Calls to landlines in the UK will cost 2 cents per minute. EBay's Skype offers free domestic and international calls made over the Internet from one computer to another, but there is a charge to landlines and mobile phones.

Google does not view the service as a threat to Skype or other telecom companies any more than its Google Talk offering, which lets users chat over the internet for free.

"This is about allowing your existing phone to work better," said Craig Walker, now group product manager for real time communications at Google and co-founder of Grand Central. "It's not that we are replacing your phone, we are giving [it] the ability to work better.''

Google Voice also allows all voice messages to be turned into text that will then be sent either through an e-mail or an sms.