Google Purchases GrandCentral Web Phone Service

Nrbelex writes "Bloomberg News via the New York Times is reporting that Google has purchased GrandCentral. 'Google said yesterday that it had bought GrandCentral Communications, acquiring a service that lets people use a single number for all their phones ... GrandCentral users can create a single mailbox, accessible over the Internet, for all their phone messages, Google said on its Web site ... GrandCentral, based in Fremont, Calif., was founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, two executives who worked for Dialpad Communications, a Web phone company that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.'"

AT&T

Remember back in the early 90's them future movies, how it always showed AT&T as the main communications Company, i think Google might replace them :)

Re:AT&T

AT&T could have done well, if they'd just cared about the customer.

Long ago, my mother always chose AT&T when getting a phone turned on. They were our first wireless carrier, and we were happy.

Then they apparently quit caring. We had numerous problems with both long distance and cellular phone service. Some issues carried on for months before being resolved. My mother eventually swore she'd never use them again for anything. Ever.

It wasn't the issues, it was the way they resolved them. Everyone expects occasional issues with service. (Except overbilling, which was a few of the issues.) But if the company makes fixing the issue into an issue itself, it's obvious that they don't care about the customer at all.

They managed to turn one of their best customers into a dedicated non-customer.

T-Mobile has been a good provider, but if it had been anyone other than AT&T prodiving service for the iPhone, I'd own one right now, despite the contract my mother got us into. They were my sole reason not to get one.

Anyhow, the point is that the old movies would have been correct, if AT&T hadn't gotten stupid. Can Google take that position? They are pretty amazing on the web, but we'll see how it goes with a telco. I was reading their FAQ and apparently it used to be possible to assign your own ringer on GC, but now you can only choose from a set of approved ones. I can't prove this was a Google change, but it sounds like it. If they get crazy with the changes, they could destroy this service before they even really get started with it.

(I have not used GC yet, as I had not heard of it until now, and there appears to be no more numbers available for the moment.)

Re:AT&T

I thought this story was leading to how your mother was slain by AT&T and you vowed to avenge her. I can see how this affects you though, as you probably couldn't have a different phone service in the basement.

AT&T still thinks they are a monopoly

AT&T could have done well, if they'd just cared about the customer.

Disclosure: My father worked for AT&T->Ameritech->SBC->AT&T for 30 years and my grandfather for 20 years before that. I got to hear about them for most of my childhood. Hence my opinions of the company are significantly colored by his experiences but I think I understand the company fairly well.

To understand AT&T (note I didn't say accept or like) you have to understand that their corporate culture is that of a government sanctioned utility. For years AT&T was the only game in town until the early 1980s when the company was broken up. But there still was no competition, simply smaller regional versions of the same company and the company culture didn't change one bit. The company still thinks like a monopoly utility and behaves like one. Hence, their customer service tends to be crap because they are under the (often correct) opinion that you have little/no alternatives.

There are dedicated individuals working at AT&T to be sure but there are far too many stereotypical union paycheck collectors who don't give a damn. I've met more than a few personally and professionally. Your chances of interacting with one of these slackers is relatively high unfortunately.

I had the opportunity to sit in a meeting recently with Ed Whitacre, the outgoing CEO of AT&T. He was talking about strategy and some opinions about issues of the day including net neutrality, video services, bundled services, and a few others. Basically I came away thinking he was disingenuous and arrogant wrapped in an "aw shucks" good old boy routine. His opinions on the topics mentioned would set off a flame war here on slashdot. He spun weaknesses of their services (such as the smaller bandwidth for their video services versus cable) as if they were somehow what people wanted. He acted as if Google and every other web service were getting a better deal than they deserved. He didn't give a crap about the customer, he simply cares about the bottom line for AT&T. Not shocking to be sure but I expected the CEO to be at least a little less obvious about their contempt for their customers.

Just wait

In a few years we'll all be driving google cars and taking the google train or plane to work

Pundit patrol

Well, now I know what one of Cringely's next few columns will be about...

Google as a carrier

Working in the VoIP industry, I can see Google hurting a lot of the upcoming and established companies (Sunbelt, Packet8 watch out). I'm one for the corporation doing what's necessary to make money but this is certainly monumental and I have a feeling that networking will be next on the ISP/Broadband/FiOS like level for Google. They are (if you ask me) becoming their own worst enemy and it will be a peculiar show to see how regulation plays out in the next few months/years (remember the Ma Bell monopoly). I wonder in these days if say a company was facing regulatory pressure if they could just pack up shop and jump across the border. Imagine that Google based of its Tijuana headquarters. Then again, what the hell am I talking about... Google already greased pockets up [searchenginewatch.com]... We at least they're not making cars yet.

Re:Google as a carrier

I have a feeling that networking will be next on the ISP/Broadband/FiOS like level for Google.

Oh gods I hope so.

Right now I have two options: Crappy Verizon DSL that blocks ports and Comcast that charges an arm and a leg for mediocre service, bad tech support and even worse on-site support. (Search my blog for Comcast to read my horror stories.)

If Google (or, really, any other company) offered service in my area that was cheaper and/or better, I'd switch in a heartbeat. And I wouldn't doubt for a second that they could offer it, except that my state government is in the pocket of both Verizon and Comcast.

Phone Numbers?

This page sorta gives out phonenumbers to some important people... Wonder if/when they'll take it down... Or have the numbers been faked?

http://www.grandcentral.com/home/one_addressbook [grandcentral.com]

Cheers!

I am not sure why we all want these web phones

Nobody even calls me on my regular phone. :_(

Grand Central used some FreeDigits.com numbers

Hello, Well it looks like Grand Central built a bit of its service on FreeDigits.com phone numbers. Did the due diligence at Google know this? Hmmm... Our virtual business world opens a pandoras box of unusual possibilities.

Figures...

They just pulled custom MP3 files for "ring tones". I guess it was just a Google-Prep...

Woohoo!

I have an account with Grand Central -- and as I see it, this move means I don't need to worry about that going away as they try to find a working business model. Woot! (Integration with Google Talk or such would be nifty, too -- though I really want to be able to forward my number to any arbitrary SIP address; supposedly, that was on the roadmap).

Buzz Factory Gone Awry?

First of all, shame on me for not selling my asterisk/sip server/postgresql/LDAP skillz to Google for a wad of cash. I'd need some buzz-worthy management overhead and a couple of lawyers and bankers too.

I'm not sure why Google gets to be the bad guy here. Telecommunications is way, way overdue for some amazing advances and Google is big enough to put a dent in the telcos armor. Anyone who has implemented an sip server and the asterisk alternatives would probably agree. That's not a dig on asterisk, it's just not the best tool for SIP services.

Better jump on it now

If anyone is interested in this service I would recommend you get over to www.grandcentral.com and apply for an invitation now since registrations for the service will be limited while they move over to the Google network.

Mixed Feelings

I've had a GrandC entral number for a while now. I set it up with the plan that, I could finally get rid of my AT&T cellur phone and go pre-paid, but not be tied to any one company.

I haven't yet done that, but I have been using the GrandCentral number for more of my business use. I think it works well and I haven't been using the verous special features, such as "ListenIn".

I think what held me back from making the final switch-over to the new number was concern about the viability of Grand Central long term. Well, I think the Google acquisition solves that problem. Google isn't going away anytime soon.

So, I guess, in the end I'm please they were acquired. The funny thing was I was on the site earlier yesterday to get a number set up for my wife, but didn't do it. Now, I'll have to send myself an invite to set up that other number. Oh well...

Money for Nothin'

Excellent...now I can reap the profits from selling Grand Central invites on eBay!!!

Recursion pays...

1) Set up a Grand Central account and link to your phone
2) Set up call forwarding to the GC phone number from your phone
3) ???
4) Profit (If you have stocks in Google / your carrier)

Seriously, what would happen if you self referenced your phone?
Cheers!

Of course they bought beta software

I have been using Grand Central for a while and I have been dreaming about this. Google and Grand Central seem like a good match...as long as they stop taking away functionality and start adding more (like gmail voice mail integration). It didn't bother me to much when they started announcing to my callers that I was recording their call (I was expecting it) but taking away my custom mp3 rings. For shame. Seriously though, I enjoy the features in Grand Central so much I was actually considering paying for them when they went out of beta. Now that Google bought them though..Beta Forever Baby!!

GrandCentral Communications' new moto?

Do not dial EVIL?

...and no more custom ringbacks

Right up until the Google purchase, GrandCentral would allow people to customize their "RingShare" ringback tones in a way that was, I think, unique and unprecedented: You could upload your own MP3s and have GrandCentral play them to callers while your number was ringing.

This was a lot of fun. At a website called Telephone World [dmine.com], I found a great recording of a phone call made through an old Western Electric switch [dmine.com] and edited it down to an "old school" ringback signal to use on GrandCentral.

It lasted less than a week for me. Apparently, part of the Google deal was removing the custom MP3 feature. Now there is just a lame "library" of pre-selected ringback tones. Google, RIAA, thanks for nothing.

So let it begin

It is only a matter of time until google officially went into this space, I have been saying for about 2 years that this was going to happen. With gmail activation requiring cellphone sms, and the Dodgeball purchase a year or 2 back. IMHO Google soon will be making a huge push into voip and telephony and the investment is just going to get bigger and bigger. I think this is the first big push.

Speech recognition and voicemail?

This makes me wonder if Google will try coupling any of their speech recognition tech with GrandCentral's voicemail inbox. It'd be quite awesome to get text summaries of your voicemails, and then click on them to hear the full thing.

free t-shirt for invite

The first GC user to invite me into the service gets a free "database security" t-shirt ("save the database... save the world").

Re:Lets get it over with

Women will by law have a laser installed in their vagina to implement this.

Anybody else think this is a bad idea?