Google Voice Buggy but Brilliant

Google's new VoIP service could be more of a "life-changing experience" than a mere Skype substitute, Larry Magid writes in CNET. Google Voice—currently only available to former GrandCentral users but expected to soon cause sleepless nights for the whole telecom industry—offers users a single number to which they can forward landline or mobile calls, and it can send voicemail messages as emails or text messages.

Google Voice has got its rough edges, Magid writes, including glitches deleting voicemails and a potentially irksome inability to send the Google number as caller ID, but the bugs are unlikely to stop it from becoming one of Google's most-loved services. "Being able to read your voicemail and having one number that rings all your phones is terrific," he concludes, "especially at the amazingly low price of free." (More Google Voice stories.)