Google makes headlines if it sneezes, so it isn’t surprising that the company’s latest announcement, a revision of a Web app called GrandCentral now renamed Google Voice, has caught the attention of the Webverse.
What is it? Google Voice, which is currently available only to former GrandCentral customers, is a free Web-based application that lets you control all your various phone numbers — work, home, mobile, you name it — from a single, central phone number. And it adds most of the features of a PBX — call forwarding, voice mail, call recording — for free.
How does it work? The first thing you’ll need to do is set up your own phone number. You can use any area code; I made mine a local number in an area code where I have a lot of friends and family.
That’s pretty much it for the basic setup. With that number, you can access the kind of advanced features that would normally require either paying fees to your local phone company or setting up your own office PBX. For example, you can forward calls to up to six other phones, make free text messages and U.S. phone calls, take voice mail messages and set up four-person conference calls.
