I just got my invite to Google Voice that I had registered for previously. This is a great service that I have been eagerly waiting for. Google has gotten it precisely right on this one, and it represents the future of VOIP as I see it.

Right now they have great integration in the offering. In short, Google Voice fits nicely with most users who have a limited need for a home phone, with their predominant needs met through a mobile phone. It allows for your calls to be simultaneously rung to any number of mobiles, and transcription of unanswered calls into text messages. Think "visual voicemail"-like messages you would see on the iPhone, except with the voice transcribed into text, with the option to download the audio. Plus, its got a neat feature that allows you to listen-in while a message is being left, and you can choose to pick up if you want. (Reminds me of old-school answering machines - remember those?)

I will spare the complete run down here, and instead direct you to www.google.com/voice where you can explore all the features.

You should all register, and hopefully you will get an invite soon. Best of all, it is free!

I have no doubt that this is merely the start of things to come, with Google commanding enough clout to finally drive adoption of open standard XMPP phones (a competing protocol to SIP/SIMPLE) - the details of this are not important, but suffice it to say that it will take the place of a traditional land line phones and will nicely augment Google's Android mobile phones. (Re: Android mobile phones, this is not sufficiently compelling to persuade any of you to buy an Android phone, you are still far better off with an iPhone!)

The only potential draw-back: now Google knows who you are talking to and, to some extent, the content of the voicemails that are transcribed or conversations that you choose to record. But, anyhow let's be honest - isn't it easier to cease resistance to Google as overlord and master, and just grin and bear it?