We recently held an Innovation Workshop for the 2011 Google Science Communication Fellows, a group of early to mid-career PhD scientists chosen for their leadership in climate change research and communication. The Fellows spent three days together al…
Our Transparency Report discloses the information that governments have asked for over the past six months. For our latest batch of data, covering July through December 2010, we wanted to improve the way we give you the information, so we’ve updated …
This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.There’s no slowing down as we head into summer. In the last couple weeks, we …
In the coming months, we’re going to retire two products that didn’t catch on the way we would have hoped, but did serve as influential models: Google Health (retiring January 1, 2012; data available for download through January 1, 2013) and Google…
At Google, we’ve always focused on putting the user first. We aim to provide relevant answers as quickly as possible—and our product innovation and engineering talent have delivered results that users seem to like, in a world where the competition …
(Cross-posted on the Google News Blog and the Google Public Policy Blog)Over the past few months, we’ve announced $5 million in grants to be distributed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the International Press Institut…
(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and on the Research Blog) Beginning today, you can explore the linguistic diversity of the Indian sub-continent with Google Translate, which now supports five new experimental alpha languages: Benga…
(Cross posted from the Gmail blog)
Today is Father’s Day in many countries around the world, so whether your dad lives across the street, across the country or across the ocean, it’s a good day to let him know you’re thinking about him. Of course, email is a simple, quick way to check in with your old man, but it’s just as easy—and maybe even more meaningful—to call him right from Gmail.
If you’re in the U.S., you can use Gmail to make free domestic calls and calls to Canada. If your dad lives abroad, we have some of the best rates around, like two cents per minute to Australia, Argentina, France and many other parts of the world. (Unfortunately, those of you outside the U.S. will have to phone Dad the old-fashioned way.)
And in case you don’t read this post in time, we’ve added a small note in the Gmail chat roster, right under the “Call phone” link, to remind you to give him a ring.
Happy Father’s Day from Gmail!
Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager
Until now, if you changed your Google Voice number, ported your number to Google Voice, or opted in for the Sprint Option 1 integration (where your Sprint number becomes your Google Voice number), your previous Google Voice number remained on your account for 90 days before it was returned to Google.
Since many Google Voice users grow attached and become closely associated with their Google Voice numbers, we’re making it possible for users in any of the scenarios above to permanently keep the previous Google Voice number on their account.
This means that calls made and text messages sent to your previous number will still reach you, however, your new primary Google Voice number will display on caller ID when you make calls or send text messages.
To keep a previous number on your account, log in to Google Voice, visit the Settings tab, and click “make permanent” next to the number that you want to hang on to. There’s a one-time $20 administration charge to make it permanent, and the process is instantaneous.
Visit the Google Voice Help Center to learn more.
Posted by Eugene Goldfarb, Software Engineer
Posted by Leslie Yeh Johnson, University Relations ManagerFor the past two years, we’ve looked forward to honoring the best and the brightest graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees around the globe through Google’s fellowship program. We’re …
It’s official, the Google Voice integration with Sprint is now live!
As we mentioned when we first announced the integration, there are two ways to bring Google Voice to your Sprint mobile phone:
Option 1: Keep your Sprint number: Your Sprint number becomes your Google Voice number so that when people call your Sprint mobile number, it rings all the phones you want.
Option 2: Replace your Sprint number with your Google Voice number: All calls made and texts sent from your Sprint phone will display your Google Voice number.
In both cases, Google Voice replaces Sprint voicemail and international calls made from the Sprint phone will be connected by Google Voice.
For detailed instructions on how to get started with either option, visit google.com/voice/sprint.
This integration is currently only available to Sprint customers in the United States.
Posted by Patrick Moor, Software Engineer
For the third installment of Google Voice user stories, we heard from Grant Barrett, the co-host of A Way with Words, a radio show about words and language.
Tell us about your organization
A Way with Words is run by a nonprofit with an educational mission: to further understanding of language, to encourage life-long learning, and to promote human understanding through better communication. It airs in 73 different cities and at a lot of different times, so, our toll-free number is a necessity. We can’t be there at all hours to answer.
How are you using Google Voice?
Calls go from the toll-free number to a local number to voicemail — Google Voice — where we archive them and use them to plan future shows. Five of us look at the transcripts and listen to the calls. We use the notes field to indicate which are feedback for follow-ups, which are new questions that we might want to turn into segments, and which are stories from listeners who want to be heard but maybe don’t want to be on the air. We mix those with what we get via email and social media, and in that way put together a show.
Now that we have more than 2800 calls saved on Google Voice we can use it like we already use our email: as a repository of questions and comments from listeners. So if one person asks about, say, why bell peppers are called mangoes in part of the country, we can search through the voicemail transcripts (which, while imperfect, are good enough), and our email, and begin to get an idea of what a lot of people want to know about that topic. It helps tailor each segment of the show.
There is an insatiable need — a hunger, even — to have questions about language answered. People ask us more questions in a given week than we could possibly ever answer in a weekly, hour-long show. But we’re doing more than we were before, and Google Voice is a part of that.
If you or someone you know is using Google Voice in a unique way, we’d love to hear about it! Fill out this short form and your story may get featured on the Google Voice blog.
Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager
Ever wake up after a long night and see you called a bunch of exes but don’t remember what you said? We’re sure you haven’t, but, well, we’ve heard it happens. Quite a bit.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that today we’re launching the Voice-alyzer setting to hopefully prevent this from ever happening again.
The next time you know an eventful night is in store, head to the Calls tab in Google Voice Settings. Check the “Enable Voice-alyzer” box, and set the hour that you want the feature to go into effect.
With Voice-alyzer enabled, our IVR will prompt you to spell everyday words with your keypad, like “embarrassed”, ”dizzy” or ”Czechoslovakia”, before we connect your call.
If the Voice-alyzer determines that you are not in a fit state to be having a conversation, it will prevent the call from connecting and send you a text message with contact info for 3 local cab companies instead.
Concerned about sending poorly thought out texts? Don’t be, we’ve got you covered there as well. All text messages sent while Voice-alyzer is enabled are scanned for accuracy and held in your outbox if fat-fingered words or more than 2 exclamation points or question marks are detected.
This new feature will be rolling out gradually to all Google Voice users over the next 24 hours.
We hope that you find it to be helpful, and as always, recommend dialing responsibly.
Posted by Tina Donaldson, Anti-Embarrassment Enforcement Officer
Update (12:01 am): Happy April 1st.
Over time, we’ve worked to bring an integrated Google Voice experience to your mobile device by building mobile apps, introducing Google Voice Lite, and most recently Number Porting. But we felt that ultimately, the most simple solution would be to par…
Since our first birthday, we’ve been working hard to bring new features to Google Voice and make it available to as many users in as many places and on as many devices as possible.As we mark this milestone, we want to thank all of our users in the Go…