Google Voice Poised For Growth, New Features After Gizmo5 Aquistion
Just like TechCrunch claimed would happen, Google has officially announced their purchase of Gizmo5:
Today we’re pleased to announce we’ve acquired Gizmo5, a company that provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers. While we don’t have any specific features to announce right now, Gizmo5’s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience. Current Gizmo5 users will still be able to use the service, though we will be suspending new signups for the time being, and existing users will no longer be able to sign up for a call-in number.
This is great news for Android enthusiasts as you can expect the integration between your Android Phone and Google Voice to grow with time, especially considering the implications of this purchase. I’ve graciously dismissed suggestions that Google will launch it’s own gPhone, but if they ever do, I’m betting it’ll be a solution that utilizes Google Voice as the core calling functionality with a dramatically smaller need for a traditional calling plan.
The dots are far from connected… but each purchase is carefully plotted point on the map and I’m sure Google engineers are working hard to wind all these seemingly separate solutions into one ultra-integrated and seamless experience. And that my friends… that is extremely exciting.