GOOGLE VOICE/ GOOGLE WAVE

GOOGLE VOICE

Previously known as “Grand Central”, Google Voice is a phone answering service provided by Google launched in March 2009 where the user account gets a US phone number from selected area codes, mimicking a regular phone number. With simple change in settings, the calls can then be forwarded to any other 6 phones. To summarize, unified communication to manage all of the communication channels of an individual. Google Voice is to voice mail like Gmail is to email.
The inbound and outbound calls within US (incl. Alaska and Hawaii, though the quality of service here is criticized) and Canada are free of charge and international calls are rated according to Google Voice website schedule at highly competitive rates.

The add-on beauty is that the user can forward to a one group of phones in the day and another group in the night. The account holder is also at total liberty to block the spam callers or play around sending directly to voice mails. Choose to have specific numbers forward differently than the others.
So you want to be notified wherever/whenever you receive a voice mail? Simply set for SMS or email on receipt of a voicemail. So now you have absolute access anytime to your voicemails. How the question arises how do we read these voicemails from email? Interestingly, Google Voice transcribes the voice messages into text messages, thereby enabling readability in an email.
How does the service work?
GV is not a mobile phone service; it's not linked to a specific handset. It’s not a VoIP line, it's not matched with an IP address. It’s not a landline service, a Google Voice number isn't tied to a geographical location. It’s tied to you, your account. So moving? No hassles, you still control your mobile, home and work numbers through the same GV number.
Google Voice is, IMHO, a refined GUI within a fairly standard VoIP version of unified messaging with number portability thrown in.

Set along the style of Gmail, Google Voice is configured as a web-based application. Having a local established U.S. telephone service is a must to activate and use the service. Once configured appropriately by the user, additional phone numbers can be made to ring.

Internet calls work differently on Google Voice than on Skype. Rather than starting a call from a computer, a specialized phone or an application on a mobile device, Google Voice users call into their voice mail service from any phone. Once there, they can push a button to get a dial tone and call a different number. As such, the service is not set up to handle video calls, though Google offers simple video-chatting capabilities through Google Talk, its instant-messaging service.

In essence,

• A single Google forwarding number to all of the user's phones

• Free calls and SMS in the US and Canada

• Calling international phone numbers for as low as US$0.02 per minute

• Call screening. Announcement of callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers

• Listening in on someone's recording of a voice message before taking a call

• Blocking calls from specified numbers

• Send, receive, and store SMS online

• Answering incoming calls on any configured phone

• Call routing. Selection of phones that should ring based on calling number

• Voicemail transcripts. Reading of voicemail messages online

• Listening to voicemail online or from a phone

• Notification of voicemail messages via email or SMS

• Personalized greetings based on calling number

• Forward or downloading of voicemails

• Conference calling

• Call recording and online archiving

• Switching of phones during a call

• Viewing the web inbox from a mobile device/phone

• Customize preferences for contacts by group

• Ability to change your number for a fee

• Specifying an existing phone number instead of the Google Voice number on initial setup for use with limited functionality, such as some voicemail functions and using the voice mail system for the user's phone number (mobile devices only)

Cons:

• There is always the interference of accent, pronunciation and intonation, ambiguity of linguistics that influences these transcribed messages.

• One of the main disadvantages of Google Voice appears to be the fact that users won't be able to use their Google number as their outgoing caller ID when dialing directly from a cell phone, which means that the contacts that are in the habit of calling back based on the last caller ID will have a harder time adjusting.

• spotty SMS reception and overall reliability is a concern hence not a choice as a main line

• Privacy concerns with the ability to record cell phone conversations without the caller first being told that the call may be recorded

• The service starts the user on a brand new number, and lack of portability of the existing phone number is a major inconvenience

• The ability to transfer a call feature not available. For ex: When the user is on the phone and need to switch from home to cell phone, being able to "put the caller on hold" and then pick up the call on the or to be able to transfer to "another extension" to another cell phone or so is not available.

• An easier tool/process for recording calls

What does the technical world think about Google Voice?

Google’s take on the telecommunications industry with a free service called Google Voice that, if successful, could chip away at the revenue of companies big and small, like eBay, which owns Skype, telephone companies and a string of technology start-up firms

As regards the technical aspects of it, GV has rave reviews on routing power, screening, SMS, Voice Mail and mid-call capabilities. However has also raised quite a concern amongst the privacy obsessed population. The common concerns raised are privacy, advertisements, reliability, caller id confusion, number changing hassles.

If you have multiple phones, having a single number to reach them all can make you and your callers' lives a bit easier, and it can save space on your business card by not having to list separate numbers. The concept is simple: people are trying to reach you--not one of your phones--and Google Voice lets you decide how to route the calls.

The cost is interesting. Outgoing calls to US numbers are free. The choice to listen or read, tweak out the calls you want to receive and personalized messages makes it a great tool to use.

GOOGLE WAVE
What is wave?
Google has a very strong hold on the online ad market, but it’s facing new types of pressures from technology, as well as new business models.
Launched on 30th September’09 to about 100000 users, Google Wave is creating waves with its real-time communication platform combining aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to be built in one elegant, in-browser communication client. The service seems to combine G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.
How does it work?
Google Wave is designed as a new Internet communications platform. It is written in Java using Open JDK and its web interface uses the Google Web Toolkit. Waves are hosted XML documents that permits low latency concurrent modifications. Edits and replies are called blips and each blip can be replied to by individuals. Any participant can respond anywhere within the message, edit, add participants at any point in the process. Recipients get notifications on changes and can review in chronological order when they open wave again. Wave can function as emails and threaded conversations as well while also being an instant messenger service when many participants are online at the same. The shifting between email and IM is purely based on number of users using concurrently. Wave can be used at any location and this makes creating/editing collaborative documents easy and possible. In simple terms, it can be termed as very advanced forums.
• A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Any of the participants can respond and reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and can also add participants at any point during the process. Wave also enables playback and any of the participant can rewind the wave to see who said what and when in the conversation.

• The best part of all is that it enables faster conversations, edits and enables interact with extensions, all in real-time with live transmission
The service combines G-mail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.

Group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming sessions, interactive games are some best examples of appropriate use of Google wave.
To put the crux of features in a nutshell:

- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

- Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.

- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.

- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access

Wave can run any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget. This makes it very versatile and thousands on existing applications will work with it. On the other hand, the advantage is of live interaction with multiple users if it’s a gadget built within. A live online game with active participation from all the users would be a good example. So now it sounds similar to Facebook/MySpace which takes advantage of your friend network to make games, quizzes, and applications more meaningful and useful. However the difference is that gadgets are specific to individual waves, rather than to specific users and thus its not like having a Facebook app on your profile and the gadget belongs to everyone within the wave. They also do not have titles, to better integrate with the actual conversation. Some of such gadgets already built include a Sudoku gadget, Bidder (which turns your wave into an auction), and Maps (which allows for collaboration on a Google Map).
What does the tech world think about Google Wave?
Tech world generally raves about Wave offering a very sleek and easy way to navigate and participate in communication on the web that makes both email and instant messaging look stale.
The reviews can’t get over the magic of wave on the ability to watch your co-waver type in real-time. One can reply to an entire wave like an IM or an email by clicking the reply button on a wave's toolbar. The ability to reply to bits of a message inline which lets the user and other collaborators annotate the wave as they go is seen as the coolest thing.

Possibility of spamming is looked as a big negativity. For example, one can waltz up to someone else’s wave/blip and added his own line to it and could easily add a link or files as well. Wave’s API freely available to use makes it a big opportunity for spammers and hacked accounts could tune Wave into the biggest spam-fest since Twitter.

For more information on ACS Services, please visit:

http://www.acs.com/

Contact: Brian Kingsley


Director of Technical Services

Sources used for the content for Google voice are as follows:

http://google.about.com/od/g/g/GoogleVoice_def.htm

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=113166

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Voice

http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm
Sources use for Google Voice Reviews:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167424/google_voice_5_reasons_to_use_it_5_reasons_to_think_twice.html

http://news.cnet.com/google-voice-flawed-but-still-awesome/

http://voip.about.com/od/unifiedcommunications/fr/GoogleVoiceRvw.htm

http://www.maketherightturn.com/blog/reviews/google-voice-pros-and-cons.htm

Sources used for Google Wave Reviews:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/

http://lifehacker.com/5370738/google-wave-first-look

http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/11/03/google-wave-review/