Google Voice - One Girl's Journey ...

So I have a thing for Google. Always have.

Of course, there are things I would change about my Google products ... multiple signatures in Gmail (help a busy girl out Google), allowing me to add my Gmail address to my Google Profile, easier photo alignment in Blogger ... that sort of thing. And while I can entertain myself and others for hours at my Google Voice translations ... well, I really wish the voice recognition was better in the translation.

Let's back up ... what is Google Voice? Google Voice is a super cool, FREE tool that allows me to do all sorts of neato things with my existing phone. Things like:

- maintaining one number for all of my phones
- using different voicemail messages for different contact groups
- having all unknown callers announce themselves before I choose to answer the call
- getting all of my voicemails converted into text

Sounds fabulous right? It is for the most part. First of all, I should mention that Google Voice is only currently available by invitation. Request an invitation here.

Here is my experience with Google Voice so far ...

Maintaining one phone number for multiple phones is mighty convenient.

I only have two different voicemail messages that I use - one for work and one for everyone else. The only time this gets confusing is for the handful of work people that I have in a "friends" group in my contacts. For them, Google Voice gives them my work voicemail.

Sidebar >>> The groups I am speaking of are my contact groups that I have set-up in my Gmail address book. Completely necessary if you are anal like me.

Any callers that I do not have stored in my contacts are required to announce themselves when they call me. So that annoying paper salesman can go straight to voicemail and I can pick up if my boss calls me from a number that I don't have stored (and might normally ignore from an unknown number). This feature is useful, although some people get confused when Google asks them to announce themselves and instead they just start talking as if I answered the phone.

Finally, the main reason I wanted Google Voice was get my voicemail in text format. If you have ever left me a voicemail, you know that I am terrible with returning calls. The quiet time that I have to listen to voicemail and return calls is in my car while commuting ... as you can imagine, this makes taking messages down a bit difficult. Now, when you leave me a voicemail, Google Voice will record that message online and convert your words to text for me. Super cool in theory ... here are a few snippets of my transcriptions for your amusement:

6/2/10 8:58 AM 6 days ago
Hey scratch. I think we need some help in the world. Now give me a call. Talk to you soon.

5/22/10 1:23 PM 2 weeks ago
Hey, it's me. It's X and just what I can't do anything. It is almost 1:30, 1:15 and i was gonna bust out or not, this is the burgeoning so I'm watching climber on the monkey bars in the right time. So I'm here as long as he here. Give me a call if you wanna bluetooth, but just been creeping the burning parking lot so many will children's alright.

5/17/10 7:58 PM 3 weeks ago Hi Hannah, I don't know, see if hello. Bye, so you can. Hey Ainge it's mom, if you could you this is Bruce Hi. Anyway, we're sorry we missed you were out playing in the yard. I'm sorry. Mister stinking. But anyway, have a school seniors. Thank you for coming over at and I hope all is well with you come and I'll talk to you later, okay.

So ... not perfect. But still pretty cool. I picked some of the more obscure ones to be honest. Right now, I can get the gist from 75% of the text conversions, but others are only good for a laugh. It's important to note that I can still listen to the voicemail on my phone or online at my Google Voice inbox. I can submit my transcriptions (with the online recording) to Google for further analysis and I assume make the transcriptions better over time. The journey continues ...

RE BarCamp Philadelphia Review

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that I was involved with RE BarCamp in Philadelphia (also affectionately known by the hashtag #rebcphl) last week. Like most of my little adventures, I coerced Chris Beadling into getting on the committee too. We both attended last year's event and felt geeky enough to team up with the classic BarCamper's. If you have no idea what an RE BarCamp is > see my post from last year or get the official answer here.

We had some amazing sessions - everything from Raising the Bar to Foursquare Open House Events, Taking it Offline to Wordpress Blogging and Plug-Ins ... Google, Flickr and so much more! All in all it was a great day at World Cafe Live.

I have to say, this event brings in some of the smartest, tech-savvy, real estate folks I have ever had the privilege of meeting in person (usually after stalking them online). I learn more in an RE BarCamp session than I do in 7 hours of CE sometimes. And yes, I get that you are busy. But this is a FREE event, with some major real estate technology trainers - some of which you can pay a lot of money to see elsewhere!

It's time to get off the sidelines - I will keep alerting you to upcoming RE BarCamps in our area!

Check out the RE BarCamp Philadelphia site or our facebook page for more information!