10 Reasons Why I Recommend Google Grand Central 10 Reasons Why I Recommend Google Grand Central. The perfect solution for call forwarding, voicemail messaging, and contact management.	Visited: 1273 4.8/5.0 (4 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Ant Onaf February 25, 2008

Have you heard of Google Grand Central? Are you using Grand Central? If not then you are cheating yourself. As of current Grand Central is by invite only, but you can easily sign up at the Grand Central website (http://www.grandcentral.com) and grab an invite from the Google team themselves. Google acquired Grand Central last year, July 2007. This in my opinion was a great acquisition. I learned about Grand Central while searching for an affordable voicemail messaging service, I then came across Grand Central which made me feel like I struck goal when I found out it was owned by Google, because the fact is Google normally do not associate any incurring fees with their services nor is it going to be a fly-by-night product, in fact it will be enhanced upon in the coming years, trust me!

Okay, so let's go inside Grand Central and my reasons for recommending it.

#1 - It's FREE. It is 100% FREE. Grand Central is currently in BETA mode and Google has not discussed the future plans of Grand Central, but it is highly unlikely that Google will ever begin charging for this service. They may begin charging for upgrade services, but I do not forsee Google forcing you to upgrade, instead they will continue to provide a free service for the life of the product.

#2 - It's Google. Google is not going to give you a product and taketh away. Google is a well established Internet property with a strong history of trust and good business. It's a name you can trust! Let's see I have a GMail account, iGoogle account, GoogleBase account, Google Docs account, Google Analytics account, Google Adwords account, Google Adsense account, Froogle account, Google Checkout account, Blogger account, YouTube account, Google Local account, etc. I am sure I am missing a few, but you get the point...why not have a Google Grand Central account!

#3 - One Phone Number for Life. Have you ever changed phone numbers and had to give your new phone number to everyone you knew. Somehow you always miss someone and you lose contact. Well, Grand Central gives you one phone number which you will have for life. Whether you change phones, switch jobs, or move all your phone calls can be routed through this one phone number that never changes. How awesome is that?

#4 - Use as Public Phone Number. You have one phone number to use for all your purposes. No more giving out your business card and months later its outdated because you changed your phone number, the number on the business card will always be active and alive. Use your Grand Central phone number for online contact forms.

#5 - Use for Personal Purposes. Give your Grand Central phone number to old and new friends, family members, co-workers, and acquaintances. They will never have to remember another phone number of yours. Give your Grand Central number to your day care provider, landlord, or use locally. Make sure people always have a way to get in contact with you.

#6 - Use for Business Purposes. Use your Grand Central phone number on business documents so you know the phone number is always correct and up to date. Use your Grand Central phone number on loan applications and credit applications. Use your Grand Central phone number on legal documents. Never again miss out on opportunity or important information because your contact information was out of date.

#7 - Electronic Receptionist. Are you self-employed, a small business, or in need of a catch-all voicemail system? Then Grand Central can be your solution. It can easily be used to send calls straight to voicemail acting as your business electronic receptionist.

#8 - Family & Friends Save Money. You can help your family and friends save money. If you have family or friends who are distant and incur long distant charges then you can setup a phone number local to their physical address, give them the phone number, and forward calls from that phone number to your home phone while making this call completely free for your distant hometown family and friends. Of course, this will only save money for those family and friends who have not jumped on the VoIP services, like Vonage.

#9 - Current Features. Ability to forward multiple phone numbers to one phone number. Voicemail messaging service. Contact management system. You have the ability to create groups which you can have ring different phones based on the group. You can also personalize your greeting based on call groups. You have the ability to screen callers and block callers. You can setup email configuration so you can receive voicemail message via email. Caller ID and missed call recording. Tell me those aren't some great features.

#10 - Future Features. Being that its Google I would hope to see improvements and developments on Grand Central. For one it would be cool to see Grand Central handle the receiving of faxes and send you a downloadable attachment of the sent document. I would also like to see Google create edit options for callers leaving a voicemail option, as of current I do not see anyway for the caller to replay message, erase message, or rerecord message, instead after leaving your message your call is simply disconnected. Another thing I would like to see is Google incorporate Google accounts so it support the single sign-on functionality. I'm sure there can be a whole slew of features which can be included in Google Grand Central but these are the features I'd like to see in the near future

Google Grand Central is currently in BETA mode which means you currently can only contain an account by invitation only. The only true advantage of getting an early account is being the first to grab your account name and being one of the bandwagon pioneers. If you are a person who frequently change for numbers, own a business, have distant loved ones, in need of a call forwarding solution, in need of a voicemail messaging service, or in need of a simple contact management system then I'd recommend using Grand Central for your needs, I think you'll be more than pleased. Need an invite, then send me a note.