Internet surfers already use Google to map out their next family vacation, send email to friends and search for that perfect cherry pie recipe. Now the search engine giant is offering to transcribe their voicemail messages, too.
Google Voice is a new free application that converts voice messages to printed messages on PCs and mobile phones via email, Google said Thursday.
"It's one voicemail box for all of your phones, and you receive automated transcripts of your voice messages so you can search through them," said Google Canada spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk.
Other companies already offer a similar service, but for a fee. They include Rogers (TSX:RCI.B), Telus (TSX:T) and J2 Global Communications.
Google Voice will also give users a single number that can be called to ring their home, work or mobile phone, and the central voicemail box can be accessed on the Internet or through the phones, Google said. A user will also have the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave voicemails, which can be received as MP3 files.
"Sometimes you may not be by your phone and you're at your computer and you have Internet access," Rozeluk said. "This just kind of always keep you connected."
Google Voice will not be available immediately in Canada, the company said. It is initially being offered in the U.S. to existing users of Google's GrandCentral service, a company it bought two years ago.
"Google wants to be the hub through which everybody's communications and information passes," said PC Magazine analyst Sascha Segan.
"Your phone is one way you get information. So they want to be able to capture and index and monetize your phone calls and your voicemail messages as much as they do currently your email and the entire web," Segan said from New York.
Google Voice can be used to make international long-distance calls for a fee, but all other features of the service are free.
Segan said Google will be able to use the service to place ads related to the content of a user's message or interests.
"Google is absolutely following everything you do so that they can sell you ads," he said.
The time may be right for voicemail-to-text services to become mainstream, Segan added.
"I think that listening to voicemail is annoying," he said. "That said, these products have been percolating around for a while and for some reason they haven't grabbed the marketplace. I think it should sweep North American. I am just not quite sure why it hasn't."
