By now you may have heard that Google indexed quite a few user’s Google Voice voicemail messages, and these were showing up in search results. Despite earlier speculation, this actually wasn’t an error, Google was doing this on purpose for users who had chosen to share their voicemails somewhere on the web.
Following the hubbub over this, the company has decided to change its policy and not index them, but some of the damage is already done. Here are some of our favorite indexed Google Voice messages. Warning, some of these are not safe for work, and an odd number are seem to be from Christian evangelists.
Message 1: Hey, Michael Collins, go fuck yourself.
I assume this is not about the former IRA intelligence director that Liam Neeson played in a movie of the same name, but you never know.
Message 2: The screaming/laughing girl.
Stacia is either someone on a rollercoaster or someone being chased by a serial killer.
Message 3: Shane FAIL
No, Shane, this probably wouldn’t be good as a private invoice system.
Message 4: Lauren, the drunken male robot mine worker
This sounds like a bad Radiohead song.
Message 5: To the point.
“Shut the hell up, dumbass.”
Message 6: Who wants to call Nick?
This message is a perfect example of why it was bad for Google to index these. Nick’s phone number is available to the entire web!
Message 7: Conversion rates
A Christian man gives a report about his attempts to convert locals in some place to his religion. It seems “the Jesus film” went over really well. (At least 5 of the messages seem to be from this same trip).
Message 8: This is great.
A man speaks fast gibberish to see how Google Voice will translate it. Naturally, if fails, horribly.
Message 9: Tease
With a name like “Kim Sexy,” I would have expected more than a hang-up call.
lmao wow.
google sucks so much. wave and voice will end up like orkut and picasa, noone will use them. ZOMG WAVE LETS YOU EMBED VIDEOS!! REVOLUTIONARY!!!
I don’t think it will, i use google voice and know alot of people who use the service too. Maybe you’re just pissed off you haven’t gotten an invite to use Google Voice yet.
If only calling worked reliably enough that you could use it all of the time. If I can make a cell phone call I have to be able to call via google-voice or its useless. My outgoing CID *must* be consistent so people don’t screw up and call my ‘direct’ number after I call them from the ‘wrong’ number.
Use the G3-09 sim dialer for google voice: http://www.your...M%20Phones%203G
See detailed instructions below:
The G3-09 allows me to use GV far more easily than any other solution to date. I’m very pleased.
Step 1:
Despite the thinness of the G3-09, the nature of the iPhone’s sim tray required some modification in order to fit. One could possibly remove the section of the tray where the Sim Dialer’s chip sits. I opted to cut the sim card itself. I used a single hole paper punch to cut a notch large enough for the chip, so that it wouldn’t be squeezed between the sim card and the tray bottom.
The Sim Dialer is actually so thin (think mylar,) that I also used a bit of scotch tape at the bottom (front that goes inside the phone first) of the sim card and the dialer to hold them together. The dialer was catching on something as I attempted to insert it; trying to crinkle up. The small bit of tape solved that.
Step 2:
In the SIM Applications settings, go to the ADVANCED tab (pw 1234, ’send’) and select SET NUMBER, and Service 1. Enter your Google Voice # without parentheses or dashes, a ‘*’ character, and the number 2. If this phone is NOT listed on your GV account as a forwarding phone, then you will need to add your pin code before the 2. So, if your GV number is (xyz) xxx-yyyy and your pin code is 1234 then you will enter either:
xyzxxxyyyy*2, or
xyzxxxyyyy*1234*2
The first being the same numbers you dial to manually make an outgoing GV call from a phone on your account, and the second using any other telephone.
After entering this number, hit ’send’ and then ‘back’.
Step 3:
Go back into the ADVANCED tab, and select MODE. Set to mode 4 ICC2#, and ‘back’.
Step 4:
Return to the ADVANCED tab and select DIAL SET, then select NOT USE DIALER (numbers to be bypassed) enter 911 so that 911 calls will not go through the dialer.
Optional:
My service works great with the SPEED set to the default of 1.
Step 5:
From the front menu, select NUMBER and select Service 1, and ‘back’.
Make sure ON has an asterisk next to it. The ON, OFF switches operate properly, but you’ll have to exit to the Springboard (iPhone desktop) and go back into the settings to see the change.
Usage:
Now, you can simply dial anyone’s regular phone number, and they will see your Google Voice number as the CallerID. If you make international calls, you will be using Google Voice rates for the overseas call.
You will not hear the numbers being dialed. Because the G3-09 Sim Dialer has a set 3-second pause for the asterisk, you will hear your GV # pick up and start to announce your voicemails, then it will switch to “enter the number to call.” After a bit of silence you will hear something like, “This is a free call” (for North American calls,) and then your call will be ringing.
You can now use the iPhone’s built in phone app to make and receive calls through your GV#, including returning recent calls, etc. You will have to continue checking voice mail either through Safari, or the GV Mobile app that’s available on Cydia. Outgoing SMS will also have to go through Safari or GV Mobile, although you can reply to received SMS with the iPhone’s Text app and they will be forwarded with your GV CallerID (this is due to Google’s 406 number mapping system.)
f*$king converters.
The voice in message # 5 sounds like Mike Arrington’s, LOL
Can someone clarify? Was Google indexing all voicemails or just ones that had been embedded on a public page?
Just messages embedded on a public page. We actually came across this a few weeks ago and asked Google about it. They confirmed that it was only voice messages that had been posted publicly. This wasn’t a security issue and the folks reporting that it is didn’t do their homework.
lol, so they wana cancel this? shame!
this will sooooo fly in the corporate world that google would love to get into. I wonder if text messages and emails on android will be available to. so lame, so bad, this is why the world has microsoft.
Guh. What I find outrageous is someone who embeds or links to a voice mail message on a public web page and expects it not to be found.
Dude you would rather link Techmeme than BGR who actually wrote the story?
dude, i very clearly link to both.
“Warning, some of these are not safe for work, and an odd number are seem to be from Christian evangelists.”
are seem to be from?
It’s either “are from” or “an odd number seem to be from”
Sorry, I’m bored =/
It’s a brilliant move on Google’s part.. not only can they index news and compare this with what people are blogging about, but with this, they could index what people are talking about. I wouldn’t want my own messages indexed, but it does make you think twice now before leaving an irate voice mail!
We should make a meme out of the 2nd last.
The guy says ‘ana mahna phia’? And Google Voice Translates it to ‘I’m out of the.’
Awesome.
We should make a meme out of your post.
“The guy says ‘boring’? And Google Voice Translates it to ‘meaningless and boring’.
Awesome.”
That’s a meme right there.
While google made mistake in indexing those voicemails … i think techcrunch crossed the line by posting them publicly and making fun of them
the people that made those messages agreed to have them on a public page. read again.
Don’t know why call 6 is the bad example of a number available on the internet. More than half of these voicemails have caller id attached to them, and Nick didn’t specify his area code.
Awesome. #6 (”Nick”) is from here in Albuquerque.
Come on TechCrunch, let’s mind the quality. Message 3, Shane, wants to have a voice blogging system that is (obviously) public. Not a private invoice system.
Hmm… #8 (Google Voice fails horribly) was taken down. Guess the message with their product failing must have had a “bug”.
Or the person who received the message removed it from their own web site. That’s what I’d do if it were my message accidentally shared with the world.
Go-”ogle” says that voice mails are public in nature and meant to be shared? Since when?
Just to shore my own belief up that no one willingly consented to having voice mails crawled, indexed, and made public to the entire world, I “googled” the names and phone numbers on the first page or so of voice mail results and the only exact matches pointed right back to Google’s index of voice mails!
Just one guy out of all the messages I played back had listed his name and phone number on his web site – for every other search I did, only Google’s voice mail results matched what I was seeing.
That tells me these people are actually quite private and don’t wish to see their personal information like names, phone numbers and voice mails indexed and played back all over the world.
Like the guy who spent half an hour in tele-therapy with someone over his monkey that rules the world? Does anyone think that voice mail was meant to be public?
Do people routinely publish their voice mails on the web? I’m not talking about texts, since I know there are sites devoted to publishing those, just their everyday, private voice mail?
Oh, and what a professional way to “resolve” the issue- in a reply to a thread on a forum – how well thought-out.
Google seriously disgusts me most the time.
it disgusts me too.. you ahve the internet power doesn’t mean you will ruin anyone’s life!
Did Richard Heene have anything to do with this publicity stunt?
Google: all your data R belong to us! We will adjust the horizontal. We will adjust the vertical. We will choose when and where to publicly disclose.
Maybe it’s the Michael Collins who likes to ride hippos!?
http://www.yout...h?v=H8C7ZTbsF-E
<a href="https://www.google.com/voice/fm/01378123501115757126/AHwOX_BJaKITc6iGtnHhh0V0qDIx-aPoZAkouimtuOT4DRO-V_ruUd401JWD-tRnTEGknYb4eKHR6XQl0s0Wi0kgM5RLCYHG3GDN4DQcKfjkdJe_QWge9eblxwD5O3Ql6hYhGWEOindN5DFNJqtVl9WyAdQ-K_Apkw"Check this funny one out. I posted my number on the google voice forum to test the voicemail transcriptions.
Check this funny one out. I posted my number on the google voice forum to test the voicemail transcriptions.
Okay, so I’m a few days behind on TechCrunch news. I usually forget to check at home.
Anyway, I noticed that Message 4 and Message 7 are actually the same person from the same village (two of the five messages that were noted in the post). The best part (for me) about listening to Message 4 is that I also had the MaemoProject page open (from an article from yesterday), which is a Flash video with some crazy background noise. It just so happens that the background noise from the Flash video going on with Message 4 at the same time makes it seem even *more* like a bad Radiohead (maybe more like Moby) song!
Forgot to add the link: http://www.maemoproject.com/
Listen to them both and you’ll see what I mean.
“Following the hubbub over this, the company has decided to change its policy and not index them, but some of the damage is already done.”
Removing the results from the Google index doesn’t prevent anything. After all, Google has numerous competitors, and they also index such links.
See for examle Yahoo Site Explorer search results :
http://siteexpl...+URL&fr=sfp
Read the funniest Google Voice Transcriptions that we can find–and post your own for best results! http://gvscrewu...s.blogspot.com/