As I mentioned back in March, I loved the idea of having a single universal phone number that then makes all other registered phones ring (home, office, cell phone) making us accessible all the time thanks to GrandCentral.
Well, it seems the idea of consolidated phone numbers and voice mails that are accessible from the web was too good to pass on, and the rumors of Google thinking about acquiring them turned out to be true.
Wesley Chan’s Google blog entry announced the acquisition while highlighting the fact that the purchase made sense considering “the technology fits well into Google’s efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users.”
Of course the interesting part is not only to think about where Google might take the service now (think availability, scalability and support), but how will the service integrate with other existing services such as Google Talk, Google Maps, Google 411 or even Gmail. Russell Shaw brings up a really good point that the integration will take at least a few months, and will require more than API and UI work, and I would also add that VUI work will be needed too.
Here’s more coverage from Techmeme.
Entries (RSS)
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 pm
[...] right. Google is revamping their GrandCentral system (which we’ve talked about before) and changing it’s name to Google [...]