Credit where credit is due, the Google Voice team gave us a first-rate web application when they released an all-new version today, available on the iPhone via the Safari web browser. It's not the installable App Store version that we've spent months hoping for (and, given what we've seen of the intensifying Apple-Google rivalry, will probably not see for quite a while), but it's otherwise pretty good. Check it out on your iPhone at m.google.com/voice.I love Google Voice. I loved it before today, and I love it even more now. It's a real winner for Google, finally bringing voice -- the missing piece of much of what we do online -- to the computer in a way that nobody has mastered until now. Even some of my favorite tech-averse curmudgeons seem to be hooked. If you aren't familiar with Google Voice, or have not used it, I'll leave you to the video at the bottom of this post rather than explain it myself. Suffice it to say, this thing is cool.
In any case, the new web app for the iPhone really pushes the bounds of anything I have previously seen done with a browser. Aside from it's aesthetic appeal, it manages to tie together the browser, your contacts from Google's cloud, the iPhone's native dialer, web based voicemail and texting, and several of Google's other products including Gmail and Talk. What makes the app genius on the phone is the same thing that made it genius on my desktop: it serves as the missing link of sorts, bringing together previously separate Google products with a very familiar function -- the phone call. Will it replace the standard phone on the iPhone in my every day use? Absolutely not. That said, I am likely to find it pretty handy when I make my next business call, international call, or any call where Google Voice's winning combination of low rates and ability to keep the average Joe from not knowing my actual cell phone number might be a good idea.
I'll let you watch their video, released today with the new app, for yourself.
Or give the Google Voice overview a try...
