Posts tagged GrandCentral
Will Google kill GrandCentral?
Jan 15th
Back in October, I posted about GrandCentral, a VoIP company that Google had bought. Since Google acquired the company, I noted that there had been no noticeable changes and even sadder, no blog updates since April 2008.
It seems as if CNET may be lumping GrandCentral in with the next batch of projects that are going to get the axe. I personally hope not!
It’s odd to me that the article is linked to by another article saying that Google is growing up and that the tweaks show an end of adolescence. I think that it’s more a case that the economy is causing companies to do what they don’t want to. Google can not continue the growth and keep their dominance if they start acting like a so-called “grown up” company. It’s the innovation and willingness to try new things that may not necessarily work or find their place in the mainstream. If they give that up, I’ll be waiting on the next new thing that will be what Google was/is to Yahoo.
Did Google kill GrandCentral?
Oct 7th
If you haven’t heard of GrandCentral, I’m not surprised. It’s a service that lets you connect all of your phones into one number. How does it do it?
“…GrandCentral provides an innovative web-based voice communications platform that helps you manage all your phones and phone numbers through one simple interface. You get a single phone number that forwards to all of your phones, giving you one number for life.”
It’s a service that I signed up for primarily to enable me to keep my cell phone number after I moved but still have a phone number in the local area code. I also give it out to select customers when I am traveling away from the office without giving them my actual mobile number.
One of the really cool features is that it allows you to screen your calls. You can have GrandCentral screen your calls by requesting the caller speak their name and then allows you to answer, send the call to voicemail or screen the voicemail and have the ability to jump into the call. They offer quite a bit more as well and you can read more about them.
Google acquired GrandCentral and we haven’t heard much about it since. They stopped updating their Blog in April 2008 and the website hasn’t seen any noticeable changes (at least not by me).
At any rate, I hope Google still invests in GrandCentral as a service as I have found it extremely valuable.