Google has acquired GrandCentral, the ‘one number for life’ service that we have featured here before.
GrandCentral (in beta but aren’t they all?) is an innovative web-based voice communications service that promises one single number for life and gives you the ability to manage all your phones from one single web interface. I have gotten a number from GrandCentral and have used this service for a while and I like it a lot. Features like one place to check all your voicemail is priceless.
Google announced this in their blog last night with an apt title ‘All Aboard’. In their words,
We think GrandCentral’s technology fits well into Google’s efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users.
I think with Google’s resources GrandCentral is poised to go to the next level and I wouldn’t mind to have my GrandCentral Inbox appear as a part of my GMail.
GrandCentral is giving out a few betas and are in process of moving stuff over to Google, so you might have to wait to get an account to try it out. Hop over to my earlier post about GrandCentral, if you’d like learn more about it.
Google made their foray into voice communications with their experimental Free 411 service they offer to everyone and the acquisition of GrandCentral in fact has been rumored in the past few weeks. Garry Conn has a nice post about the free 411 service if you haven’t heard about it.
Free 411 Service tip: Now after you dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411), if you are calling from your cell phone, if you say map it, you’ll get a text message with the details of you search and a link to a map of your results!! Sweet.
