As usual with rumors take this one with a grain of salt. GrandCentral has gone dark since early 2008 after they were bought out by Google. Many users are still using the service free of charge but they are not allowing new members. This all points to a new version 2.0 launching soon since Google did not axe the project with the rest of their recent cutbacks. They even mentioned back in April of 2008 that a new version is coming soon.
You can read more about the latest rumor to go around hinting towards a revamped GrandCentral 2.0. I get a request for an invite about once a day for GrandCentral so there is definitely some interest.
Personally I think this definitely has some potential for Google…Imagine:
- Your voicemail and email mixed in Gmail with access between them
- Call a Gmail address 🙂
- Contacts sync between the two systems
- Google Talk presence connection for GrandCentral
- A BlackBerry (Or more likely Android) application for GrandCentral
As you can see there is definitely some synergy with other Google products. I am just glad that rumors are no longer pointing to GrandCentral being cut due to the current economy. If you really need a GrandCentral like service and cant wait but are willing to pay check out www.ribbit.com.
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: January 28, 2009 at 10:01 AM EST
My only big wish is to keep what features I currently use Free. This is bad time to start charging for features people have used for free for months. I love GrandCentral and am very glad Google didn’t axe it. I really wanna know when there will be more invites so I can get friends and family on it.
haephaestus Not Registered
Posted: January 28, 2009 at 1:03 PM EST
Oh, if they could allow texting and/or picture messaging to a GrandCentral phone number, it would exceed my expectations!
Josh Fialkoff Not Registered
Posted: March 1, 2009 at 9:37 PM EST
This is one of the few GC posts I have seen where people actually talk about the features that should be added to version 2.
I just wrote a blog post on what features should be in the next version of Google GrandCentral. And I posted a survey, so that you can voice your opinion too.
Maybe we can influence what Google does…. maybe. 😉
http://www.nooozeguy.com/grandcentral-2-0-features/