Google Calling

Internet giant launches Google Voice phone service.

Google has your Web searches. Now it wants your phone number.

The Internet search giant on Thursday is announcing a service called Google Voice that assigns users a phone number that consolidates voice mails and text messages from their various phone numbers and stores them a single location that can be accessed remotely. Google Voice also lets users make phone calls over the Internet.

The service is an outgrowth of a company called Grand Central, which Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) bought in June of 2007 for an undisclosed sum. Google has kept the company's original user base but has not signed up any new users as it transitioned the software to its own computers and developed some new features.

These include a function that transcribes voice mail to machine-written messages, which can be sent to an e-mail account or a phone. Google Voice will also have be able to send a message to the Google Voice number and have it transferred to other devices. That message, along with any replies, will be saved at the central number in Google's servers. There's also a conference-calling function, which will allow up to six people to join a single call from different numbers.

In addition to free domestic calls, the service will also offer international calls, which will be charged to credits that the user must purchase from Google Checkout, the company's online payment system. Google connects the two parties in the call in conjunction with international carriers, which are charging Google wholesale rates for use of their lines. A Google spokeswoman said the retail calling rates would be published soon, and that they would be "competitive."

Google says there is no advertising associated with domestic calls; the international calls appear to be the service's sole revenue source.

Google Voice will initially be available to current Grand Central users; it will be available to others in the next few weeks. The company had no projections of how many people it expects to use the service.