Google Purchases GrandCentral Web Phone Service 78
Nrbelex writes "Bloomberg News via the New York Times is reporting that Google has purchased GrandCentral. 'Google said yesterday that it had bought GrandCentral Communications, acquiring a service that lets people use a single number for all their phones ... GrandCentral users can create a single mailbox, accessible over the Internet, for all their phone messages, Google said on its Web site ... GrandCentral, based in Fremont, Calif., was founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, two executives who worked for Dialpad Communications, a Web phone company that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.'"
AT&T (Score:1)
Re:AT&T (Score:5, Interesting)
Long ago, my mother always chose AT&T when getting a phone turned on. They were our first wireless carrier, and we were happy.
Then they apparently quit caring. We had numerous problems with both long distance and cellular phone service. Some issues carried on for months before being resolved. My mother eventually swore she'd never use them again for anything. Ever.
It wasn't the issues, it was the way they resolved them. Everyone expects occasional issues with service. (Except overbilling, which was a few of the issues.) But if the company makes fixing the issue into an issue itself, it's obvious that they don't care about the customer at all.
They managed to turn one of their best customers into a dedicated non-customer.
T-Mobile has been a good provider, but if it had been anyone other than AT&T prodiving service for the iPhone, I'd own one right now, despite the contract my mother got us into. They were my sole reason not to get one.
Anyhow, the point is that the old movies would have been correct, if AT&T hadn't gotten stupid. Can Google take that position? They are pretty amazing on the web, but we'll see how it goes with a telco. I was reading their FAQ and apparently it used to be possible to assign your own ringer on GC, but now you can only choose from a set of approved ones. I can't prove this was a Google change, but it sounds like it. If they get crazy with the changes, they could destroy this service before they even really get started with it.
(I have not used GC yet, as I had not heard of it until now, and there appears to be no more numbers available for the moment.)
Re:AT&T (Score:4, Funny)
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Sorry for the meme mash-up.
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(Was that Meme Mashups for $500?)
AT&T still thinks they are a monopoly (Score:4, Interesting)
Disclosure: My father worked for AT&T->Ameritech->SBC->AT&T for 30 years and my grandfather for 20 years before that. I got to hear about them for most of my childhood. Hence my opinions of the company are significantly colored by his experiences but I think I understand the company fairly well.
To understand AT&T (note I didn't say accept or like) you have to understand that their corporate culture is that of a government sanctioned utility. For years AT&T was the only game in town until the early 1980s when the company was broken up. But there still was no competition, simply smaller regional versions of the same company and the company culture didn't change one bit. The company still thinks like a monopoly utility and behaves like one. Hence, their customer service tends to be crap because they are under the (often correct) opinion that you have little/no alternatives.
There are dedicated individuals working at AT&T to be sure but there are far too many stereotypical union paycheck collectors who don't give a damn. I've met more than a few personally and professionally. Your chances of interacting with one of these slackers is relatively high unfortunately.
I had the opportunity to sit in a meeting recently with Ed Whitacre, the outgoing CEO of AT&T. He was talking about strategy and some opinions about issues of the day including net neutrality, video services, bundled services, and a few others. Basically I came away thinking he was disingenuous and arrogant wrapped in an "aw shucks" good old boy routine. His opinions on the topics mentioned would set off a flame war here on slashdot. He spun weaknesses of their services (such as the smaller bandwidth for their video services versus cable) as if they were somehow what people wanted. He acted as if Google and every other web service were getting a better deal than they deserved. He didn't give a crap about the customer, he simply cares about the bottom line for AT&T. Not shocking to be sure but I expected the CEO to be at least a little less obvious about their contempt for their customers.
Interesting social dynamics. (Score:2)
Not new at all? (Score:3, Informative)
We can make all your phones ring, or just one, or in a certain order. We can selectively block calls, or block anonymous calls, etc. This can be configured through the web, or through 'star codes' on your phone. Any number, or hop, can be redirected to your own voice mail, or certain numbers can go to their own voice mail. The voice mail system emails you
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Yes.
"cross index with my address book or contact software? Does your Telco offer APIs to developers who want to tie in your service with other apps and services?"
No.
What I'm saying is that most of the technology already exists for this type of system, for far less than buying a company. Everything I listed in my previous post cost less than $400k in total, and that's including the switch to a who
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They don't have to. They're the Phone Company [jt.org].
Just wait (Score:1, Flamebait)
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Pundit patrol (Score:4, Funny)
Google as a carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Google as a carrier (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh gods I hope so.
Right now I have two options: Crappy Verizon DSL that blocks ports and Comcast that charges an arm and a leg for mediocre service, bad tech support and even worse on-site support. (Search my blog for Comcast to read my horror stories.)
If Google (or, really, any other company) offered service in my area that was cheaper and/or better, I'd switch in a heartbeat. And I wouldn't doubt for a second that they could offer it, except that my state government is in the pocket of both Verizon and Comcast.
Phone Numbers? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.grandcentral.com/home/one_addressbook [grandcentral.com]
Cheers!
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faked. (Score:2)
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Hahahaa
I assume the OP meant to be modded funny... only on slashdot....
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The sadist in me probably also wanted people to call Jeff Bezos and get a fax line
All in all, I think the moderator wanted to be metamoderated funny
Cheers!
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This page sorta gives out phonenumbers to some important people... Wonder if/when they'll take it down... Or have the numbers been faked?
http://www.grandcentral.com/home/one_addressbook [grandcentral.com]
They are not the phone numbers of the individuals listed. The number attributed to Jeff Bezos is 206-266-1000 is Amazon.com's local phone number in Seattle. The number attributed to Sergey Brinn 650-253-0000 is Google's local phone number in Mountain View. The next two with 555 are fake numbers.
I am not sure why we all want these web phones (Score:4, Funny)
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Nobody even calls me on my regular phone. :_(
I sent Google a recommendation through their online web recommendation form. They don't reply (didn't need them to), but they said they do read all the messages, and I figured they would. Anyhow, my idea was to let me leave voicemail for myself in my Gmail account as a todo list; for all the times I'm walking to class or in the car (well, on the bus) and don't have anything to write with/on and don't want to lug around a PDA.
I bet they might be thinking of something similar for their purchase.
Grand Central used some FreeDigits.com numbers (Score:2, Interesting)
Figures... (Score:1, Interesting)
Woohoo! (Score:3, Insightful)
Buzz Factory Gone Awry? (Score:2)
I'm not sure why Google gets to be the bad guy here. Telecommunications is way, way overdue for some amazing advances and Google is big enough to put a dent in the telcos armor. Anyone who has implemented an sip server and the asterisk alternatives would probably agree. That's not a dig on asterisk, it's
Better jump on it now (Score:4, Informative)
Stanford System (Score:2)
Mixed Feelings (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't yet done that, but I have been using the GrandCentral number for more of my business use. I think it works well and I haven't been using the verous special features, such as "ListenIn".
I think what held me back from making the final switch-over to the new number was concern about the viability of Grand Central long term. Well, I think the Google acquisition solves that problem. Google isn't going away anytime soon.
So, I guess, in the end I'm please they were acquired. The funny thing was I was on the site earlier yesterday to get a number set up for my wife, but didn't do it. Now, I'll have to send myself an invite to set up that other number. Oh well...
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I think what held me back from making the final switch-over to the new number was concern about the viability of Grand Central long term. Well, I think the Google acquisition solves that problem. Google isn't going away anytime soon.
I have had my GC number for a while, and besides viability there are a number of other technical issues that I have had. Namely:
1 - Reliability - the week I signed up and started using the service, most of the calls did not in fact go through - calls would go to silence or ring forever
2 - Capability - While the idea of rules based call routing is nice, implementation is very rudamentary - I really wish it was a lot more capable.- Of course this is fixable, esp with Google's backing.
3 - Security - Using cal
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Portability (Score:2)
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And while you can do it, is generally a P.I.T.A.
Thusly, I'd rather avoid that annoyance.
Now, what would be better, is if I could port my existing number to Grand Central...then I'd only have to do it ONCE. (I've already suggested this idea to them.)
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1. Buy a Net10 Phone. Put the SIM in.
2. Go to the Net10 website. Go to "Port Number" Enter in my number, my provider, my IMEI/SIM number from my new phone
3. Sumbit web form
4. Wait 30 minutes.
5. Use new phone.
Just that simple. Even I was surprised.
And if you're looking at prepaid plans: I had Verizon, Cingular, and now Net10. Net10 is the cheapest for me. It'll probably be the cheapest fo
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As far as prepaid plans, I think T-Mobile has the best for what I want.
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I filled out the web form at 5:30P after work. I grabbed my Cingular phone and left the house. Twenty Five minutes later I go to make a call - "SIM Not Registered" (or some such message). I was unable to stop back home and get my new phone--which was still charging anyway--and was without service the whole night.
T-Mobile does offer an attractive prepay plan. If you haven't looked at it, check out Alltel's plan as well. It's unique the way they do it.
I like Net10 because it uses th
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Plenty of Google's recent purchases have been left to die (most notably Dodgeball [dodgeball.com]) .
Just because we currently have a mostly positive view of Google and what they have done, doesn't mean that it's a rose garden for everything they buy.
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I suspect a lot more 3rd party Info can be gained from phone numbers rather than emails. I think every CC, etc I ever signed up for has my telephone, but not my email.
I use Gmail happily, although some of the ads are still laughable, and TBH pretty fricking annoying.
Winton
Money for Nothin' (Score:2)
Recursion pays... (Score:2, Funny)
2) Set up call forwarding to the GC phone number from your phone
3) ???
4) Profit (If you have stocks in Google / your carrier)
Seriously, what would happen if you self referenced your phone?
Cheers!
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How soon would it fill up both accounts?
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Of course they bought beta software (Score:2, Interesting)
GrandCentral Communications' new moto? (Score:4, Funny)
...and no more custom ringbacks (Score:3, Interesting)
Right up until the Google purchase, GrandCentral would allow people to customize their "RingShare" ringback tones in a way that was, I think, unique and unprecedented: You could upload your own MP3s and have GrandCentral play them to callers while your number was ringing.
This was a lot of fun. At a website called Telephone World [dmine.com], I found a great recording of a phone call made through an old Western Electric switch [dmine.com] and edited it down to an "old school" ringback signal to use on GrandCentral.
It lasted less than a week for me. Apparently, part of the Google deal was removing the custom MP3 feature. Now there is just a lame "library" of pre-selected ringback tones. Google, RIAA, thanks for nothing.
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Anybody else think this is a bad idea?
So let it begin (Score:2)
Speech recognition and voicemail? (Score:2)
free t-shirt for invite (Score:1)