Califonia based GrandCentral's services let users personalize phone usage with Web-based features like the ability to assign a single phone number that rings various phones at once, records calls and accesses visual voicemail. Customers can hear voicemail online or from a phone and forward voicemails to others or post them to a blog.Users can log into their online address book and then click on an entry to make a call. Once the user clicks on the number, GrandCentral calls the user's designated phone and then connects it to the number from the address book. On its web site, Grandcentral was pleased about the acquisition because it would assure users that their Grandcentral numbers will be around for the long term, no matter how many times users move or change jobs or phone providers.
Google will continue to support existing users without interruption but will issue only a limited number of invitations for new beta customers while it transitions the service over to Google. Interested users can ask for an invitation on the GrandCentral web site.
Internet-based phone services are a major growth area right now. eBay-owned Skype, a pioneer in the internet phone market, has signed up more than 200 million users for its free or low-cost phone services globally. Newer names in the field include venture-backed firms Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr and Rebtel, which together have signed up millions of users in the past year.
These new developments lead to a speculation of Google entering the Web calling service..