[residentEvil]

anyone got an invite they can send me?

thanks in advance!

[shifuimam]

GrandCentral/Google Voice hasn't been giving out invites to existing users for more than a year.

[turtle777]

If I had one, I would.

I had GrandCentral for quite a while now, but haven't really found any good use for it yet.
There were some limitations (back then at least) that killed it for me. I'd have to take a look at what changed now that it's Google Voice.

-t

[shifuimam]

I've used it for giving my number to people I don't really want to call me.

That's about it. But since it's free, I'll keep it around. Plus I got a really easy-to-remember number.

[Big Mac]

So I just got my first two Google Voice invites, which I took advantage of. I got one for personal use and one for one of my businesses. I think it has the making of being a pretty useful service.

Here's what has me wondering, though. I'm not a very greedy person by nature, but Google giving away free Google phone numbers away for the life (of the service at least) had me thinking of taking more than a few numbers for myself. Free Google Voice numbers are different from free gmail addresses because there's a much more finite universe of phone numbers; you don't have the full alphanumeric range and a potentially long string of characters to work with (as with email addresses) when you're getting a ten digit phone number that is also limited in numerical variety. We're also not accustomed at this point to getting a phone number for free, as we've been accustomed to free email. I know that there are people who see anything being given away for free and run to snap us as much of the free product as they can get their hands on. Now I read that Google reserved only 1 million numbers, which people have previously commented sounds like a low amount of numbers. There's a pretty healthy supply of numbers right now while the system is still limited to invites, but I'm wondering what happens when numbers for most major area codes and their suburbs get taken up by people as greedy and far greedier than I am for Google Voice. Some have mentioned number portability will help, but I'm dubious on that claim.

It seems to me that either Google will have to start charging some amount for a number, or Google will have to stop handing out real numbers at some point and make new registrants take virtual numbers in conjunction with a 1-800-GOOGLE-1 toll free number. Is there anything I'm missing here?

[shifuimam]

I don't even really buy that Google Voice numbers will be free forever. How the hell can they afford that? I mean, unlike gmail, the majority of users aren't going to be seeing or hearing ads that often, so how is the service financially sustainable?