Analysis: Google Voice versus … everybody?

Google today launched Google Voice, a rebranded and expanded version of its GrandCentral unified communications service. The new offering includes the basic follow-me and visual voicemail services GrandCentral always included as well as a slew of new features that threaten not only incumbent service providers but a variety of smaller players as well.

Here’s what the free service offers, and who should be watching their backs:

• Single number, follow-me ring / Internet calling
  At its core, the service provides users with a single phone number that they can use to consolidate all their other numbers – home, cell and work. Calls are forwarded based on rules the user establishes. In addition, you can use the service to make free Internet-based calls to any US number, and for a small fee, to international numbers. In the most common scenario, the service dials out to one of your numbers and then the number you are calling to connect the two at no charge. Watch your back: All service providers: incumbents, VoIP players like Skype and Rebtel, etc. Google wants to sit in the middle of the call flow in a big way. It requires a major change in behavior from end users, but the potential impact is huge as well.


• Multiservice, visual voicemail
  Google Voice also offers visual voicemail, which lets you see your voicemail queue and listen to messages online. The service can also consolidate voicemails from multiple services, such as home, mobile and work. Watch your back: This represents another attempt to wrest away control of the user from their main service providers; it also head-on addresses Apple/AT&T, whose visual voicemail was ahead of the curve – at least for a while.


• Better text messaging
  This is one of the service’s new features: It can route text messages the same way as voice calls. Previously, Grand Central couldn’t handle text messages; Google voice cannot only accept text messages, it can route them to multiple cell phones. It also saves them to your Web-based inbox, from which you can respond to them as well. Watch your back: It’s hard to imagine anything slowing down the use of mobile phone-based SMS, and you could argue that Google Voice actually will result in more SMS usage. All the same, Google is very creatively placing itself in the middle of a transaction previously owned exclusively by mobile operators.


• Voicemail Transcription
  Voicemail can be a pain, particularly if you are keeping tabs on multiple boxes or living your life out of your email inbox rather than your phone. One popular answer has been voicemail transcription services, from companies including Spinvox and CallWave. Those services can be costly; offered through carriers, SpinVox typically costs about $5.99 per month. Google Voice transcriptions are free. Watch your back: Transcription providers mentioned above, plus in some cases the service providers partnered with them. Google’s transcription service is all computer-based, so there should continue to be room for more accurate, human-based transcriptions.


• Free Conference Calling
  Google Voice makes setting up a conference call very easy – just ask participants to dial into your Google Voice number and a press of a button adds them to the original call mid-stream. You can also record your call, a common feature in more expensive services. Watch your back: Conference services have been under pressure from cheaper alternatives like FreeConferenceCall.com for a while now. Google Voice would seem to work well for no-cost ad hoc conference calls but leaves plenty of room at the top of the market for more feature-rich and moderated conference call services.