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Google Launches Google Voice

Following a 21-month delay, Google is now ready to launch Google Voice, a service that provides users with a universal phone number for all their phones. The idea is that even though phone numbers change throughout the course of a lifetime, your Google Voice number will remain the same. The mostly free service (users only pay for international calls, much like Skype) was constructed using the platform for GrandCentral, which Google acquired in 2007 for $50 million-plus, and it has a number of new features, notes TechCrunch's Leena Rao.

Among them: text messaging, voice mail transcription, friend settings, a new user interface, and conference and international calls. Google Voice will both accept and send out text messages and forward them onto your mobile phone. It will also transcribe and save and make searchable all of your voicemails. New friend settings allow users to route calls from specific people straight to voice mail or to a specific phone number.

The primary interface is through your phone via an audio menu that looks a lot like Gmail, but users can also log in to the Web site to administer the account and view activity. All SMS and transcribed voicemails are searchable and taggable, which Rao says is "very useful and will change the way people interact with these messages." Google also says that integration with Gmail is on the way. "Personally, having all my email, SMS and transcribed voicemails in a single inbox could be life-changing," Rao says. Finally, Google Voice also allows conference calls of up to six participants with recording capabilities. Calls overseas can be made at rates similar to eBay's Skype.

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