Google’s at it again, buying up all kinds of things. Today they announced the purchase of GrandCentral (read the GrandCentral blog announcement), a web phone company. GrandCentral isn’t even out of Beta yet and they’ve already won the Google Golden Ticket. Never heard of them? From Wikipedia: “GrandCentral is an internet service that uses VoIP to link a customer’s phone numbers together. Customers can create an account on the service’s website, give their existing phone numbers, and choose a central phone number; whenever that number is called, all of the customer’s numbers ring at once, and the customer can pick up any of the phones to talk to the caller.”

Freelance writers will probably appreciate this service. It can automatically record calls from a specific number or begin recording at the touch of a button. The recorded calls are stored as MP3s and saved in your GrandCentral account. Voicemail can be saved until you delete it from the system. This is handy for those who have limited voicemail features with their cell phone plans. There is no price listed except for a mention in GrandCentral’s blog — it says current beta testers get to keep using the service for free throughout the Google changeover/expansion/scaling.
Sounds like a good buy for Google if all the features are as good as they’re described. I predict the obvious, Google Talk users will get this service as an add on or new free feature in the near future. Read the entire list of Google Acquisitions.

Reserve an area code and invitation to GrandCentral

Categories: Google
Tags: Google Acquisitions, GrandCentral Communications