It has been a few weeks since Google Voice began generating some buzz on the Web. So The VAR Guy dialed back to Google to see if or when the free service could potentially help VARs and managed service providers. Here is some perspective from a Google representative.
According to a Google spokeswoman:
“Google Voice is a free service that helps you manage your phones and voicemail by unifying all of your telephones with a single number, giving you more control over all of your phone and voice-based communications, and making it easy for you to access this information from anywhere — by phone, email, or the Web. Regarding future features, we’re always working to improve the service, but we don’t have anything new to share at this time.”
Hmmm. Some clear information coupled with some vague information. Classic Google. The VAR Guy rather enjoys that.
So will Google Voice ever integrate with Google Apps and/or the Google Apps reseller program? The Google spokeswoman says:
“Google Voice is not yet integrated with the Google Apps suite for enterprises. We are always evaluating opportunities to serve our users, but right now we are focused on building the most compelling service we can for our current users.”
Okay, final question from The VAR Guy: Will Google and/or VARs find a way to monetize Google Voice? The spokeswoman’s reply:
“We don’t have specific plans to share at this time regarding monetization.”
Hmmm. The responses certainly answered a few questions. But the overall Google Voice strategy remains fuzzy at best to The VAR Guy. Surely, Google Voice will need to generate money for Google at some point. Or will it? Our resident blogger will speed dial Google from time to time to keep updating this story.
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Won’t Google make money off GVoice with ads like they do with Gmail? When they announced that voicemail transcription (converting voicemail to text) would be free with GVoice I thought they were crazy. Then it hit me that by converting voice mail into text, it will be easier for them to use the content of the voice message to generate ads. Crazy like a fox.
Sean: The VAR Guy hears you. That voice-to-text conversion could certainly pave the way for new ad revenue. Watch what you say in VoiceMail. You could wind up triggering an ad for the competition