Gee, that was a long trip into the bowels of an active volcano and then into the jungles of Africa where I came face to face with a brain-eating beast. Oh wait, that wasn’t me; that was the season premiere of Destination Truth. I’ve just been busy.
Of all the marginally effective but terrifically fun inventions of the last few years, I would rank Google Voice right there at the top, even above Sham Wow! Google Voice is a service by Google (duh) wherein you can receive a totally valid phone number that can forward to any number of other phone numbers. The gist of it is that when you need to give out your phone number, you can just give the one instead of saying, “Well, on Wednesday mornings you can call my cell between the hours of 9:15 and 10:45, and then on Tuesdays call my work phone but not after 4:00, and you can also reach me at home sometimes except when General Hospital is on.” Google Voice provides the phone number which will then ring any one of those phones at the same time, or whatever else you tell it to do.
In addition, you can also make and receive calls directly from your computer, through your Gmail account. It’s handy if your cell phone is waaaay on the other side of the room, or if some spirited child hid your home phone in a couch cushion.
But that’s not what makes Google Voice fun. Nope, voicemail transcription is what makes it fun. Someone calls you and leaves a message, and Google automatically transcribes the voicemail into text so you don’t even have to listen to it. But here’s the thing – the transcripts are usually wrong, and the results are often hilarious.
For example, the superintendent of my kids’ school district is named Dr. Joel DiBartolomeo. It’s a mouthful, so you can’t really blame Google for transcribing the name as follows when the district has sent out automated messages:
Hello, this is Doctor golden parts woman Superintendent of the OJ Robert school district..
Good Morning. This is Joe will be part of my nose Superintendent of the on, J. Robert School District…
Good Morning, this is Jody, Bartolo, the superintendent of the OJ Robert School District…
This is John about on my own Superintendent of the OJ Roberts school district…
Good Evening, this is joe will be part of my nose Superintendent of the O N, J. Robert School District…
Good Evening, this is Jody park and I was just going to run into the oven, J. Robert school district…
Good Evening, this is John at the park and i was Superintendent of the OJ Robert school district…
Good Morning, this is Doctor, Catherine 3rd or the assistant superintendent of the OJ property school district…
As you can probably well imagine, there was quite a bit of amusement mined from the seemingly endless spat of blizzards last winter. It got to the point where I was looking forward to school being canceled just so I could hear Joe will be part of my nose’s messages.
Anyway, Google Voice also comes in handy if you have a smartphone. First of all, you can use the Google Voice app for free visual voicemail instead of paying your carrier $3 a month. Also, you can use it for free texting. I don’t even have a text plan, just use the texting feature whenever I need it, although if you do this you have to inform people to text your GV number and not your cell phone number.
Learn more about Google Voice here, and read some funny transcriptions here.