Google Voice

If you've ever wanted to wrestle your phone number away from the carriers, now's your chance.

Google Voice users may soon be able to turn their cellphone numbers into their central Google Voice number for $20. The search giant recently started testing a number porting service for Google Voice with a small group of users. The feature requires you to cancel your mobile contract and move your phone number from your carrier to Google. Engadget was the first blog to report the new feature after a heads up from Twitter user QQforU.

First, the Beatles arrived on iTunes; now, with Google's official Google Voice app showing up on the App Store, you might be tempted to think that the end times are upon us. But sure enough, the controversial application is finally available.

Google Voice has been offering plenty of new services lately, including adding a new missed call feature that will send out missed call notifications to your inbox or e-mail account.

After just over a year as a coveted, invitation-only beta, Google has officially launched Google Voice as a free service for all. Google Voice adds another component to the suite of tools available from Google providing small and medium businesses with cost-effective tools enabling them to conduct business like their much larger enterprise counterparts.

Now that Google Voice is open to everybody in the U.S., small business owners, particularly those with less than 25 employees, should take a close look at Google's free phone management service. Here are ten good reasons why:

Google's recent purchase of codec innovator Global IP Solutions (GIPS) has observers in a froth over a possible showdown between Google Voice service and Skype, the most popular and largely free VoIP service that includes video and conferencing. But Skype shouldn't worry in the short term.

Having already conquered a large portion of online communication, Google decided to branch out and try its magic on good old-fashioned telephone calls. Google Voice is a free service that acts as a convenient hub for all of your existing phone numbers, giving you typically Googlesque control over your incoming calls, voicemails, and text messages. (Still confused? See “What is Google Voice?”)

A year ago, I chose ten sites and services to watch in 2009. Of those ten--TV.com, Qik, Boxee, Loopt, Blip.fm, Power.com, Tweetag, Hi5, Tripit, and BlackBerry AppWorld--only Boxee and (to a lesser extent) Blip.fm became well-known names in the past 12 months. So I'll give myself a score of 20 percent for last year. But this year will be different--I've gone for some safer bets this time.

PC World looked at many outstanding hardware, software, sites, and services this year, evaluating each one on its design, functionality, performance, and impact. Here is the cream of the crop, the 100 best of 2009. (Note that we chose not to rate products specifically on their price or value, focusing instead on their overall quality.)

Until yesterday, signing up for a Google Voice account required you to pick a new phone number -- not a pleasant option for those who have kept the same digits for years. Now Google has enabled users to keep their existing phone numbers and get (most of) the features Google Voice offers, including Google's excellent voicemail service.