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New Google program turns voicemail into email

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Internet search giant Google has expanded its push into the telephone market, offering a service that provides a single number for home, work and cell phones and turns voicemail into email.

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Google Voice automatically transcribes voicemail messages into email or SMS text messages and provides a transcript in a user’s email inbox on their mobile phone or computer.

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“When you receive a voicemail Google Voice will automatically transcribe it into text so you can read what the voicemail is about,” Google said in an instructional video on the company blog.

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It warned, however, that since the transcripts are “fully automated” through voice recognition technology, they “may include mistakes.”

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The service is currently available only to existing users of a Google-owned telephone service known as GrandCentral, which the Mountain View, California, Internet company purchased in July 2007.

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But Google said it is to be offered for free to new subscribers to Google Voice in the next few weeks.

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GrandCentral provides a single telephone number for home, work, and mobile phones and a central voicemail inbox that can be accessed through the web.

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It also allows for low-priced international calls over the Internet.

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Like GrandCentral, Google Voice will also allow users to consolidate their home, work and cell phones in a single telephone number.

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Google during the past year has been actively exploring ways to expand its revenue, almost all of which currently comes from Internet search advertising.

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Recent moves include adding advertisements to Google properties such as Google News, Google Maps and Google Finance and to videos on YouTube, which Google purchased for $1.6 billion in 2006.

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Last Wednesday, Google launched a test version of a new “interest-based” advertising system that shows ads targeted to web surfers based on their previous online activities.

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