Google Voice throws open its doors… to the US

If you’re one of those people that picks up on stuff early, you might have used Google Voice way back when it was GrandCentral, before Google bought it up and closed it for two years.

But today is the day that everyone and their brother gets to play with the service, as Google has opened Google Voice to the general public after re-opening as an invite only beta in March of last year. The new for-everyone service is open to US residents only, and it offers one phone number to manage all your other phone numbers. Google Voice also does voicemail transcription, which is hopefully another step on the road to eliminate voicemail altogether.

Google sums up the changes since the beta opened up last year in a post today on their blog:

Over the past year, we’ve introduced a mobile web app, an integrated voicemail player in Gmail, the ability to use Google Voice with your existing number and more. Over a million of you are now actively using Google Voice, and many of the features released over the past year (like SMS to email and our Chrome extension) came as a result of your suggestions, so thanks!

Not everyone is pleased about the advances Google has made in reducing telecommunications-related bills- Frontier Communications is suing the company for patent infringement:

“Google’s deliberate infringement of the patent has greatly and irreparably damaged Frontier,” the plaintiff’s lawyers said in court papers seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to stop the use of the technology.

Although I got an invite sometime last year, I have to admit to not using the service at all yet. Have you integrated Google Voice into your phone call management? Has it changed your life? What are noobs without invites missing?