You are assuming the worst. Grand Central encourages you to register your Grand Central number on the Do-Not-Call list. Stop being such a conspiracy theorist.

Google does not believe in doing evil, it’s one of their core values. I think it’s one of Grand Central’s core values too.

Ned (I just love the product too much)

GOOG assigns and controls your “pseudo phone number” they give the pseudo number to the advertiser as a lead for click to call - without revealing your actual phone number

Tthis way GOOG can control the entire communication between buyer and seller - combine this with a gmail email address then the buyer is completely isolated from the seller during the shopping process, no actual email or phone number is given only gmail and grand central phone number - which can be filtered to voicemail or turned off at the customer’s whim.

This creates an environment where shoppers are less afraid to give out a phone number to vendors ALSO my guess is that you cannot add a grand central number to the Do Not Call lists so this would protect the vendors from calling shoppers that are on a federal and/or state DNC list.

Very smart and this will be a strong componet of GOOG’s click to call for local advertising - too bad GC rolled so early

Also they inform the other party when a recording is started. Oh well, that’s what happens when Google buys in. A lot of legal issues have to be taken care of.
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Baz L
Day In The Life of Baz

Voicemail IS a feature. When your company is based on only one feature, namely voicemail, frankly you are in trouble. Voicemail is only one of many features that Grand Central offers.

What kind of social networking features are you talking about? Youmail’s greetings? I really don’t think that is much social networking there, it’s probably better that I record my own, which Grand Central already offers. I think Grand Central’s social networking aimed features are tons better than YouMail, namely call me buttons that you can place on web pages or even the voicemail posting feature.

As for as Grand Central’s rumored acquisition, I really do not think it will make a dent for the other players in this space because there really aren’t any players in their space. All the other players are either Voicemail focused companies, i.e. YouMail, GotVoice, or cheap calling companies, i.e. Jajah, Rebtel, etc. I do think this will make companies realize they have to do more than what they are doing now.

i’m so with you! also, what does GTalk have to do with Google’s business model? not to mention Apps, Labs, or 99% of the 20% time. they should stick to search before they lose their edge, those silly googlers.

It just doesn’t make sense. GrandCentral has some nice features and all but it’s not a category dominator, more a toy 20% app googlers might build in their spare time.

Billy,
I guess you just don’t get the concept, but that’s okay.

YouMail = new telco features but still the old way of using phones. Web interface still needs a lot of work. With YouMail you’re still tied to multiple numbers, and everytime you replace a phone, i.e. move elsewhere or change jobs, you end up telling all your contacts new numbers.

GrandCentral = innovative telco features, new way to use your phones. Slick web interface, contact management features, and calling rules. With GrandCentral you treat all your physical/device bound phone numbers as “dumb connections”. GrandCentral ties it all together like a “Slingbox”; regardless of the devices it still communticates to them. So, now whenever you move or change jobs your number will still be your GrandCentral number and not some ever changing device bound phone number! You tell your contacts your number only one-time, which basically is the last time you will ever have to do that.

So my advice to all of you is, you better get a number now. Get it NOW!

I have YouMail and i get to keep my *same* cell number and i can check voicemails online and other cool stuff.
The best part is having a message for my girlfriend and another for my boss.

I looked into GC but when i realized they give you another number and all that stuff, i decided to get YouMail instead.