Walter Reade .net

Exciting news: Google Voice is now available to everyone. I was a Grand Central user since 2007 – before Google bought the company and turned the service into Google Voice. While I never switched to using Google Voice as my primary phone number, I still use the service extensively as my voicemail service.

Google Voice is fantastic for voicemail, since it transcribes your voicemails, allows you to forward those messages via email, allows you to set up different greetings for different people. If you want to learn more (and I suggest you do!) check out the Google Voice feature page, or watch the introduction video below.

Gmail has added new functionality that inserts an interactive map into any email you receive that includes an address.

You need to enable this feature from the “Labs” page of Gmail (the green beaker in the upper right of the page).

Once you have it enabled, you’ll get a expandable link at the bottom of your email that includes maps for each address contained in the email.

You can expand the map within your email or open into a new window as a full-fledged google map.

Note: I picked up this tip from my all-time favorite podcast, “This Week In Google.”

Links:

• Gmail Labs Settings
• This Week in Google

I love Google Wave. No doubt, it will take some time to catch on. If you grew up with the e-mail paradigm, chances are you’ll struggle with Wave. It’s a whole different way to think about communication.

I often use Wave to create documents I know will build over time. An example would be a reference document for SEO best practices I come across. Certainly, Wave would be more effective if I were using it collaboratively to build these types of documents. Unfortunately, it’s currently a lonely world for Wave users.

While researching ways to embed a Wave into a WordPress blog (which I won’t  be doing in the near future), I stumbled across MicroWave. It is a tiny, mobile-friendly Google Wave client. It allows you to quickly and easily access your Wave information on your smartphone, which can really come in handy.

If you Wave, you’ll surely find it useful.

Links:

• Google Wave
• MicroWave
• The Complete Guide to Google Wave