Google Voice — why you should get in queue

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My husband is a lucky man, and it’s not just because he married me. He’s got a Google Voice number.

An engineer and lover of all things technology-related, he was ahead of the curve once again, and quietly got in the virtual queue for Google Voice about six weeks ago. His patience was rewarded in about a month.

Now I’m in the queue.

With Google Voice, you get one phone number, for business, home and mobile. You decide which phone will ring, or all of them, depending on who’s calling. You can listen to voicemail from any phone, online or via e-mail transcription. When you move, change jobs or get a new cell number, all you do is update those individual numbers with Google; your contacts continue to use the same Google number. The idea is to make you easier to reach, by the people you want to have ready access, while for a few others it will mean they go straight to voicemail. And of course, the most appealing part of it all is, it’s free.

There are many other cool features, described via video snippets at www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html#. The ones that appeal to me are the ability to block calls, record calls and the ability to personalize my greeting for friends and family, versus business calls. Thinking of the attorney’s needs, I imagine that on top of what I’ve mentioned, you’d use its conference calling.

On the topic of security and privacy, I know that some lawyers are leery of anything “in the clouds.” If you’re one of them, you still might like Google Voice just for personal use. For those who plan on using it for business as well, remember that the service is password-protected. Change the password often; don’t give it to anyone; and don’t go with predictable passwords like your kids’ or pets’ names.

Google Voice is the newest iteration of GrandCentral Communications, and if you were a GrandCentral user before Google acquired it in March, you can sign up today. For the rest of us, it’s just a matter of waiting; Google is rolling the service out gradually. If you look on the “Popular Discussions” tab, you’ll see lots of buzz about how to get an invite, and I’ve heard talk of people selling their invites on eBay, but I wouldn’t try it if I were you. I don’t think there are any shortcuts in this queue. For some unknown reason, my husband received two Google Voice invites. He sent one to me, I tried to follow the link and was immediately denied; the invite was tied to his e-mail address only.

So, I’ll just have to wait to start saving $10 per month off the phone bill for my landline. I pay my long-distance carrier that ten-spot each month for 800 number service for people I interview. I set that up close to a decade ago now (of course it cost only $5 per month when I got started). But, with long distance available at much cheaper rates these days — Skyping out costs 2 cents per minute — and with the proliferation of cell phones, I’ve come to believe that an 800 number is going the way of the fax machine. Once I get my Google invite, I can request a phone number within the 414 area code, where Wisconsin Law Journal is based.

If you have an 800 number, have you checked the bill lately to see just how many paying clients are using it? As opposed to the ultra-cheap, out-of-area friends and relatives of you and your staff, who are calling on your dime during work hours, are just keeping everybody from being productive, and who thought no one would be looking at that bill.

On that note, I’m a firm believer in reviewing and re-evaluating statements from institutions like banks and telecommunications behemoths, every month if I can stomach it. Seems I always find a new and meaningless service charge, where no actual benefit is being conferred, and don’t even get me started on the $2 paper billing fees. In the case of phone bills, technology is changing so rapidly and the competition is so fierce, that a failure to look at it with a critical eye, to see if you’re paying too much or for services you don’t need, will undoubtedly result in wasted dollars.