SINGLE NUMBER NIRVANA
Well, it's official. Google is buying GrandCentral, as the Official Google Blog notes:
"We're pleased to announce that we have acquired GrandCentral Communications, a company that provides services for managing your voice communications. GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web.
We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users."
Om Malik posits on what this could mean for Google users:
"Google plans to integrate GrandCentral with its existing communications offering Google Talk. Some believe that this could be start of Google’s attempt to marry one e-mail box with one voice mailbox.
Of course, when viewed from the context of their small and medium sized business offerings, it could be a PBX replacement offering."
I've been intrigued by the GrandCentral service since it was first announced. It potentially solves the problem of too many phone numbers to manage.
But at first glance, it does so only in one direction, i.e., people calling a single number to reach you on any of your phones.
As someone who has about a dozen numbers (land-lines, cell phones, and internet telephone numbers), I confuse people all the time when I call them from my various lines.
The reason?
They have my primary cell phone as the main number they "recognize" as me, and is generally listed in their contact directories.
But they get frustrated when they see a "strange" number on their called ID, and can't tell it's me.
It also increases stress levels on their end, in terms of having to store "yet another number" for me in their address books.
As far as I can tell, GrandCentral does not solve this problem...yet.
Maybe with Google's help, they can.
Comments