Google gives its Voice to all Americans

US only?

So when will they decide to aim for global domination? :)

Meanwhile, I couldn't help but notice that one of their sources for that graphic was Wikipedia...

Need I say more? :)

Icon? One number to rule them all, one number to find them...

Great free service

This is an awesome service. With Google Voice I have a global voice mail with all of my phones (work mobile - blackberry, personal mobile - eris). Also free SMS...

Now that you can use your existing number, maybe I can sway my wifey to put it on her eris... and free up a few bucks Verizon was getting for her SMS addiction.

Google vs. Google

I just tried it and ended up at the "ask us for an invite" page, so somebody didn't get the memo.

TANSAAFL

So what does Google get out of this?

Great idea, not so great service

I've used Google Voice for a long time now. Love the service. However, I don't love the transcription ability. It stinks. I never get a message properly transcribed. They all come through with errors and even illegible at times.

Please please give us a UK date

Please bring this service to the UK, no more paying for 0845 forwarding when I'm out of town !

The emailed voice mail is also very useful.

Listen in on your phone calls and sell them to the Government

... to save the Governent the trouble of having to do it themselves.

Genunie Question Please Help

I have a yac number that I signed up for in the late 90's/early part of the decade and it does this one number thing with voice mail.

IS Google voice better or just the same?

Don't get it?

Ok, maybe I'm looking at this from a UK perspective, but I don't get it. This would have been a great service 20 years ago, before cross-network SMS was available and when landlines were still the primary contact number. But today?

Looking at that picture:

Voicemail transcription? WTF, everyone I know with voicemail never listens to it. Who uses it? Just send a text - it's what everyone expects and works (and will probably get a reply) even if I'm in a meeting.

One number rings all your phones. Again. WTF. Most people have multiple phones to keep the functions seperate. We've had personal numbers like this since the mid 90's and they've pretty much become useless or irrelivant now everyone has multiple mobiles. The last thing I want is a work call on my personal phone - or personal call on the work phone etc. If someone wants me, they call me. My friends/family have my work number for emergencys. If someone only has a landline number then I probably don't want them to be able call me - not that I ever bother to answer my home phone anyway!

Block callers with one click - what, like the blacklist or reject features many mobiles have had for over 15 years?

Insanely cheap international calls - Not sure what "insanely cheap" means but I hope it's a LOT better than Skype which costs loads more than even a Vodafone prepay phone (5p/min to most of the world). Funny, I thought it was international SMS and roaming that was the main rip off at present.

Forward SMS to your email. Again, FFS, why? It appears on my phone. What could be quicker or simpler?

Persinalised greetings: For what? The voicemail nobody's used in 10 years?

Conference calls: Again, like the GSM feature build in to pretty much every phone I've owned since 1994? What could be easier than setting up a 6 way conference call on a modern iPhone?

Mobile phones are now going "HD"... and much better call quality is loads more interesting to me than a rehash of services from two decades ago.

Don't. get. it. What am I missing?