Archive for the ‘VoiceMail’ Category

This Is How Google Voice Will Ruin Your Relationships [Google]

Long ago, someone wrote about how Google is out to control your dog and marry your wife. I don’t know how right he was about all that, but I certainly know that Google Voice is out to ruin relationships.

You see, reader Pascal wrote us about a recent experience he had with Google Voice’s transcription feature:

I recently set up Google Voice on my wife’s new Nexus One, and today I was leaving work late and left her a voice mail whilst there was some background noise in the rain admittedly.

My message was supposed to be something like ” Hey babe, I’ve just left work, its about 7:15. I’ll see you at home. Bye. “

Pictured above is what his wife saw as a result of a voice transcription mangling. It reads like a dirty confession about Pascal’s upbringing, drinking habits, and age.

Of course I’m exaggerating about something like this ruining a relationship, but it could certainly create some temporary confusion. Especially if you call your girl to tell her about the “trucking stunt” you saw earlier in the day. [Thanks, Pascal!]

Google Voice can now manage your cellphone’s voicemail (video)

You read that headline correctly, Google Voice now works with your existing mobile phone number — no need to choose a new Google number that must be communicated to friends, family, and co-workers. This “lighter” version of Google Voice then lets you hand-over voicemail responsibility (and your data) to Google’s authority where you can listen to (or read via automatic voice to text conversion) your voicemail on a computer (in any order you like), read them as text messages on your phone, and choose personalized greetings by caller. A side-by-side feature table that compares Google Voice when choosing a Google number versus your existing cellphone number can be found after the break. We’ve also dropped in a cutsie video overview of the change — surely a company that produced it can’t be evil, can it?

Continue reading Google Voice can now manage your cellphone’s voicemail (video)

Filed under: Cellphones

Google Voice can now manage your cellphone’s voicemail (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Google Voice voicemails appearing in public search results

We’re not exactly sure what’s going on here, but it certainly seems like at least some Google Voice voicemails are being indexed and made publicly available somehow. If you punch in “site:https://www.google.com/voice/fm/*” as a search string you get a few pages of what appear to be test messages, with a couple eye-opening obvious non-tests scattered in there as well. Dates on these messages range from a couple months ago all the way until yesterday, so this is clearly an ongoing issue — hopefully Google patches this up awful fast.

P.S. – Google Voice transcription accuracy really falls off a cliff when it’s listening to muffled audio, doesn’t it?

Update: Google says it’s changed how shared messages are indexed and made available to public searches, so we’re hoping this was just a one-time thing.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Google Voice voicemails appearing in public search results originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments