One Ring to Rule Them All

Google knows your search history. They've got your email. They know what sites you read, what's on your calendar for next week and where you're taking a vacation next month. They're trying to get your word processing documents and are lobbying hard for your medical records. Have I mentioned the satellite imagery they've got of your house?

Yeah, that's not scary. Google is, after all, cuddly, with a colorful logo. And their motto is "Don't be evil." There is nothing suspicious about that.

But seeing as how we've already consumed industrial drums of Google-flavored Kool-Aid, what's the harm in giving them a little more information? How about your telephone?

Google Voice is the latest offering from the California-based company. Part Skype and part iPhone Visual Voicemail, it is a new way of thinking about telephone service, adding features decades overdue, and removing headaches that have long plagued the telecom industry.

Upon sign-up, users are asked to choose a new phone number. This is your One True Number Evermore, and the heart of Google Voice. (Integrated into the selection page is a widget that converts your chosen number to words. If your goal is something akin to 337-AWESOME, you are in luck.)

After settling on digits, users are asked to enter all of their current phone numbers, to include mobile phones, and home and work landlines. By tying these contacts to the Voice account, the old numbers become meaningless. Whether or not one changes jobs or mobile phones or houses or area codes, friends and family will never know; the Google Voice number always stays the same.

Voice allows users to toggle the default destination. If a user is at the office, he or she needs only to select "Work," and all calls will forward to the desk line. On the road? Send all calls to the cell. The utility of this is self-evident; "daytime minutes" and long-distance become a thing of the past.

A cornerstone of Voice is its voicemail management. In addition to centralizing voicemail—no longer are there separate work, home, and mobile boxes—it also transcribes all messages, and allows for their archival in text and voice form.

The upshot of this is the ability to search voicemail messages the same way one searches the Internet. (Notably, incoming calls can be recorded, with similar transcription and search features on the way.) Similarly, Google Voice allows voicemails to be forwarded by email and text message.

Text messaging is critical to the Voice experience. Again, messages can be permanently archived and searched, but more impressively, unlimited texts can be sent and received. For free. No longer are customers extorted into paying an extra, criminally inflated twenty bucks a month for messaging that costs the telecoms a fraction of a cent. (The bell tolls for thee, AT&T.)

None of this is to say Voice is perfect. Because all data passes though Google's servers, there is sometimes a wavering lag in conversation akin to trans-Atlantic phone calls, often leading to crosstalk. This will improve as the compression algorithms governing Google Voice are optimized, but might be a deal breaker for now.

Also, not many users are keen to update business cards and change phone numbers yet again. According to the rumor mill, however, number porting is a top priority at Google. That is to say, just as one can port numbers from AT&T to Sprint, he or she will soon be able to move from AT&T to Google.

Picture messaging, also known as MMS, is not yet supported either, which may or may not be heartbreaking seeing as how AT&T has yet to roll out the promised feature for iPhones. (The technology is only five years old; I can see how it might be a challenge for them.)

Lastly, taking your telephone experience to Google completes the company's quest to have access to every facet of your personal data. In exchange for "one ring to rule them all," you fall under the watchful eye of Sauron—er, Google.

But they've already promised us they won't be evil. What could possibly go wrong?