I am very excited about Google Voice. Really I am, even tho I have stated on several occasions that Google Voice it not very innovative. For all practical purposes it is just Grand Central re-packaged. Grand Central was closed down for a very long time and reborn as Google Voice, it is a bit disturbing to see how few innovative services Google has put into Grand Central, Version 2.0.

This behaviour is really nothing new from Google (or any other big companies buying smaller fish). A lot of times we see when Google acquire a small company, the crowd goes wild, and more often than not, the services simply disappear and is never seen again.

Can we really trust Google (Voice) for our business use?

As with Skype, Google Voice is not really a telecommunication company (as far as I know). This means that the strict regulation of telecommunication does not apply to Google Voice services. The result could be that Google can re-design the service as they please - removing features that are not in use by a lot of users - without informing the users. Some would of course argue that incumbent telecoms do the same all the time. Yes they do, but they are still regulated harder than companies providing telephone related services.

Any business relying on free services should be extremely careful to base their core infrastructure on these free services. Everyone loves a freebe. Everyone loves to spend less. Everyone get upset when their "free" cost a lot of extra money when removed.

Unfortunately when something is free, the owner of the service can do as they please to larger extent than if a service cost money.

You get what you pay for. The best example business people can relate to is web hosting. You can do it your self (a.k.a. own and operate your own PBX), you can pay good money to a managed hosting provider (a.k.a. have someone operate your rented PBX) - or you can go the cheap way and get free web hosting. As anyone who needed to do serious business on the web quickly realize - free web hosting is not the way to go. Too may constraints, too many faults, expensive debugging. The same goes for telephone services.

Now back to Google Voice. In a BBC interview someone from Google stated that voice search will become very important to Google. Google is venturing into the realm of voice related services (Google Talk). Google Voice is just another, easy, way of getting a call platform going without doing things from the bottom up. Google Voice is also a product people (users) can more or less easily understand and use. The factor of success should be there. Google Voice is probably not as strategic as Google Talk - but Google Voice will be a entry for most people into paying customers in the future.

If you want decent telecommunication services - pay up.

Until Google comes up with a paid Google Voice service - do not rely on the service for serious business use. You never know when Google decide to pull the plug.

Just for the record, Irv Shapiro's blog entry Google Voice - Not Ready For Busiess was the inspiration for this entry. Both Irv and I are in the business of providing added value services for businesses and service providers.