From Om on Google acquisition of Grand Central:
"Google plans to integrate GrandCentral with its existing communications offering Google Talk. Some believe that this could be start of Google’s attempt to marry one e-mail box with one voice mailbox. Of course, when viewed from the context of their small and medium sized business offerings, it could be a PBX replacement offering."
From Doug Mohney of VON:
Google’s acquisition of GrandCentral Communications this week has obvious fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) implications. Is the company proceeding beyond a simple VoIP replacement and moving straight to a more sophisticated end-game?
Based in Fremont, California, GrandCentral was founded in late 2005 by ex-Dialpad employees Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet (Dialpad was snapped up by Yahoo in June 2005). GrandCentral provides a centralized website for management of existing phones and voice mailboxes, with a single number assigned that forwards to call phones. The service has been in public beta for the past few months.
Like other FMC services, GrandCentral provides a single “universal” phone number with the ability to ring to all, some, or none of a person’s other phone numbers – work, mobile, home. The service provides a centralized voice mailbox, on-line address book with click-to-call, personalized ringback tones and greetings, a one-button “call switch” to move a call from a cell phone to a landline and vice versa, and visual voice mail for a (non-iPhone) mobile phone.
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