Google Voice Review

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Yesterday I got an invite to Google Voice. I think this is pretty cool if you don’t want to give out your phone number on the internet. I can use the Google Voice number for all internet related things. I have it forward to my cell phone because I don’t have a home phone. I have to say the sign up was very easy and it was able to pull a lot of numbers from the Syracuse New York area to pick from.

Google_Voice_inside

You can make a call from the dashboard and it will connect you to the person that you are trying to call from phone that you picked to forward your calls.

I think the coolest feature is the transcription of the voicemails that you receive in Google Voice. You can also setup different voicemail depending on the person that is calling you. They will send you an email when you receive a new voicemail, and they will give you an option to text your voicemail transcription. I can’t do the text message part because I don’t have a text messaging plan so opted out of that part.

Google_Voice_Voicemail

Google Voice gives you widgets that you can put on your website and can connect you to your visitors. I placed the widgets on my contact page and my about me page of this blog. Google also gives you different options on the widgets also. You can send them to voicemail or you can send them to your phone.

Google_Voice_Widgets_settin

You can also have groups in Google Voice. If you have multiple phones that are connected to your account you can group your callers and forward them to a specific number. Just like the widgets, you can have personalized voicemail messages play or you can forward them to your phone.

Google_Voice_Widgets_Group_

I am probably missing bunch of different features in Google voice. Have anyone else tried out Google Voice? How do you like it?

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August 7, 2009 | Filed Under Internet

13 Comments

Comments

13 Responses to “Google Voice Review”

Bill on August 7th, 2009 8:58 am

I have been using Google Voice (since it was Grand Central) for about 2 years. I really dig it too. I put my review up here: http://cf-bill.blogspot.com/2009/07/2-years-of-grand-centralgoogle-voice.html

I touch on a couple extra benefits but, in general, I fully agree with your opinion.
.-= Bill´s last blog ..Links o’ The Day 2009-08-05 =-.
nyegik on August 7th, 2009 11:20 am

is my first time to visitign here, wow ur blog is so very very nice…and ur articles to, i’m glad to be here and i think maybe i found something to learn in here….thanks my friends
Doug Dillard on August 7th, 2009 2:24 pm

Very cool Greg! I was just talking to my business partner about this earlier today and we were not sure how it worked. This was a perfect timed post for us.

So can you actually make phone calls with your computer and a microphone… or just from an actual phone?
.-= Doug Dillard´s last blog ..Lee Silber – Business Spotlight Interview =-.
Greg Ellison on August 7th, 2009 5:19 pm

@Doug In Google Voice you enter a phone number and it will call your phone to talk to the person that you are trying to call. So if you are in Google Voice and you enter 444-4444 it will forward the phone conversation to your phone that you entered in the settings. The person enters their number so Google will call them to connect you the conversation. Google Voice is the middle person. I like it because I can use that number online. No one will know my cell phone number. It is very cool. You should enter to try and get an invitation try it out. Greg Ellison
Isaac | GoBlogger on August 7th, 2009 10:31 pm

Nice post. This is the first time I hear about Google Voice. Interesting feature right there.

Btw thanks for commenting on my site.

Cheers
.-= Isaac | GoBlogger´s last blog ..10 Ways to Make Your Blog More ‘Alive’ =-.
Ridiculous blogger on August 8th, 2009 3:24 am

I have of this before from other bloggers and I know that it is hard to get an invite from them.

My question would be how do you get an invite?
.-= Ridiculous blogger´s last blog ..Follow me on Twitter =-.
Greg Ellison on August 8th, 2009 7:59 am

I just used their singup form and that was it. Greg Ellison
Christie on August 8th, 2009 10:30 pm

Glad you got Google Voice! It is so cool that you never have to give your real cell number again. We all know how we get cornered into that sometimes – often for work or just some random aquaintance. Just give them the Google Voice number then put the person in the proper group. Yep they can call you this time, but they can’t call you on a weekend in the future just because they can’t print their spreadsheet.
.-= Christie´s last blog ..MiscBytes is now DoFollow! =-.
Extreme John on August 9th, 2009 7:07 pm

I never even considered using a Google voice number in place of my own phone and forwarding it, very nice idea.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..UFC 101 Review =-.
Motion Blogger on August 10th, 2009 1:02 am

I just got my invite to google voice. I am looking forward to playing around with it and setting it up in more detail. Thanks for the review.
Bob Jones on August 10th, 2009 10:31 am

I recently got an invite, activated it, and got told by Google that it doesn’t work in Australia. Now that was funny.
.-= Bob Jones´s last blog ..Is your blog leaking money? =-.
Ricky on August 11th, 2009 6:06 am

I haven’t tried it yet. But it looks like a good service. Thanx for sharing it over here.
.-= Ricky´s last blog ..Friendship Award Has Got Bigger And Better =-.
Jared Little on August 12th, 2009 11:40 pm

Greg, I got my account last week pretty cool need to spend some time testing it but very happy about having a number I can share that is not a personal.
.-= Jared Little´s last blog ..Learn SEO in 15 Minutes Part 1 =-.