The Organ Grinder’s Monkey

Google’s Grand Central gives you a new phone number that you can set to call any phone, anywhere (or different phones depending on who’s calling, gives you an unlimited web-accessible voice mail box, let’s you listen in on callers to see what they want before picking up, offers one-touch recording, SMS message alerts and so much more.

I think this would be an incredible tool for someone who’s always on the go (you could direct calls to go through your cell, hotel phone, your office phone or even someone else’s office phone, depending on the need). Also great for someone who wants or needs to out their phone number to a lot of people (like at a trade show or online), but who doesn’t want to give all and sundry access to their personal or business numbers.

Since different phones can ring depending on who’s on the other end of the line - home phone for family and friends, cell phone for vendors or colleagues, biz line for customers, etc - and you can listen in to see who’s calling and why, it’s great for selective answering, as well.

And don’t even get me started on the pure joy of the “one phone number for life” concept. As someone who’s made more than their fair share of moves in their life, this feature alone carries a +5 bonus for awesomeness.

Also, for those who do recorded teleconferences, the one-button recording feature eliminates that annoying pin# dial in or, as I’ve had to do before, the “dial into the recording company, enter a bunch of pins and account numbers, mess up, curse, start over, cross fingers, finally get through, then enter the phone number of the conference call and hope your finger doesn’t slip” extended version. Recordings go directly to your inbox, where they can be downloaded or emailed, as needed.

I just discovered this service, so I haven’t tried it yet. But it looks crazy good from the description. Anyone out there using it? I’ll talk it over with hubby, but I think I’m going to have to try this. It’s too damned convenient not to.

Tags: Resources and Tools //