Invited to Google Voice

I opened Gmail yesterday to find a Google Voice invite. Prior to the invite I hadn't given the service much thought. I figured it was probably handy for someone with several different numbers to juggle or someone who wanted to keep an old number as well as get a new one? In any case, the reality of the interface is much more familiar than I'd originally thought.

Think Gmail for your voicemail (cause that's basically what it is). It takes no more than five minutes to setup and get acclimated. You can have the Google Voice number forward to any other phone number that you have access to. I've yet to fully explore the integration with Google Talk due to PC troubles, but I'd expect that Google's aiming for a Skype-like app.

One cool feature is the transcription of your voicemail into an inbox message. I can't it's all that accurate though. It transcribed this, "Hey Mike, eh, the cubs just struck out in the bottom of the third and the score's tied three to three so starting the fourth inning. Bye bye," to "hey mike either have a comes just truck out in the bottom of the 3rd tennis course tag 323 so starting before thing bye bye." A cool feature, but totally impractical if this is representative of the quality of transcription. All in all it's cool, but not that amazing.