This week’s vein of Online Ore can be found at http://google.com/voice

Google Voice is a free online service that allows you to use a single telephone number to connect with every one of your phones (or any portion of them that you choose).  It also has voicemail functions that allow you to create custom messages for known callers and will automatically transcribe incoming voice mail so that it can send a copy to your in-box.

There are, however, limits to what Google Voice can do.  Google Voice will not automatically disconnect from a phone when you discontinue it’s service - you will need to go through the online interface to do that yourself.  You also cannot connect multiple Google Voice numbers to the same telephone, which means you cannot use an overlapping phone strategy if someone on your team wears multiple hats.  That said, direct numbers still work perfectly well.

Because the service is still new, Google is controlling how many people can sign up for Google Voice.  Just as you needed an invitation to join Gmail when it first began, you will need to ask either Google or a current Google Voice user for an invitation in order to create your own Google Voice account.

Elizabeth Ellis of Pinpoet.com tells us,

Google Voice is great, mostly because it makes sure that I don’t miss a call even if I don’t hear the phone.  It will bring the message to my attention whether I’m on my cell, at my computer or interacting with someone else.

Tell us what you think of Google Voice!

Online Ore is an ongoing feature at The Gold Mine featuring tools and resources from around the web and wider world. If you know a site we should prospect please e-mail Aaron Rubman at Marissa Berger Interactive.