Google Voice

[rod]

Do anyone in the group have a Google Voice account?  What are your
thoughts/experiences?
How long have you had it and have you had any invitation become
available?  How long did you have the account before the became
available?


I just got one last Sat.  and my have made the mistake of tiying it to
my personal gmail account instead of a more general email account the
the rest of the family can have access to.   I had requested an
invitation 12 weeks ago or so in anticipation of my daughter getting a
cell phone.  At the time I was not sure exactly what the service would
do.

Now I know and it is rather nice.  I'm able to do some rather
sophisticated routing and screening of inbound phone calls.  Inbound
voice mails are transcribed and emailed to my gmail account.  I can
now receive inbound SMS messages that are forwarded to email.   As for
outbound calls I can go to to the web site type in a US or Canada
number and specify which of my phones I'd like to make the call from,
once I hit enter my phone rings, I pick up,  and I can hear the other
end start to ring.  These are free as in beer, but likely not so much
in privacy and personal data terms.

Oh and I choose the opption where I now have a new Google number for
the inbound, I was able to match my area code and last 4 of my home
number.

Rod