GrandCentral
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My sister posted an ad on Craigslist to sell something. Only fault was she posted her cell phone number for the contact. I was first shocked that someone selling anything on the Internet would use something other than an email address for contact. Then I remembered that my sister doesn’t even have a email account outside of her work. After learning more about the reasons I suggested using a service like GrandCentral. GrandCenteral will let you select a phone number and allow you to route it to any other number or numbers you want. You can also add rules. Forward unknown calls to this number from 8-5 Mon-Fri then to voicemail any other time.
For those of you that don’t know about GrandCentral here is a quick rundown of features from the website.
- Check your messages by phone, email, or online
- Keep all your messages online for eternity
- Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
- Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
- Click-to-dial from your address book
- Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
- Forward, download, and add notes to your messages
I signed up for my free account end of last year. I give my home number out as my contact number to businesses like my work, utilities (electricity, water, etc), and other businesses that I wouldn’t want calling me while on vacation. I give my cell to friends and family, people that I would like to hear from when I am on vacation. Anyone who isn’t a business I do regular business with, friend or family gets my GrandCentral number. The two reasons I signed up for GrandCentral was a way to manage the flow of unknown and possibly unwelcome calls. You can block calls and route others to custom voicemail. These are useful if you do freelance and want to post a contact number in the newspaper, phonebook or online. If your other numbers change you can forward. One of the “advantages” of GrandCentral is “one number for like.”
I could write more about GrandCentral and all the cool things you can do with it but I’m sure you have the idea. When I signed up it was invitation only. I received my invitation a day or two later. This company has been purchased by Google so if your the type concerned about privacy and big brother this might not be for you. Also I should point out like all other “cool” web applications this is also in permanent “beta.” I can’t say how long they will be in business or if it will always work the way you want.
So next time you feel the need or are required to give a phone number to someone you would rather not…give them your GrandCentral phone number.
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I also have a GrandCentral number, and it has been great. I especially like being able to personalize the voicemail message by caller.
However, it is near impossible nowdays to get signed up with GrandCentral. As far as I know, they have stopped giving out invites or letting existing members share invites.
My guess is that GrandCentral is not doing well financially. Where is their revenue coming from? If they are having a hard time making money, that would explain why they aren’t allowing new users. Why allow new users if that would only make you loose more money.
@Jacob I agree with you. I’m not sure how long any of these “free”, “beta”, and “web 2.0″ services will ever last. When I use these services I don’t expect them to last forever. Even the pay ones like Flickr, I wonder how long they will last. Thanks for the comment.
I am waiting…waiting…waiting for an invite…
I don’t guess any of you grandcentral users have any invites left that could be “sent” my way?
Anyway, thanks for the notice about the service. I don’t know of any similar service offered elsewhere, and was curious, since I have been waiting a long time for an invite, whether there was another “provider” out there…