Google Voice debuts in previews for GrandCentral users

A trio of Google product developers on Wednesday night blogged the arrival of Google Voice, a new service for phone and voicemail management. The application, which includes such features as SMS text searches and voicemail transcripts, will preview first to GrandCentral subscribers.

Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet, and Wesley Chan posted the notice, advising GrandCentral users to expect changeover instructions via e-mail. (The rest of us can sign up to get on the invite list.) A full list of Google Voice features, including more mundane phone-service capabilities such as conference calling and voicemail forwards, is available on the site and demonstrated by a collection of short videos showing the service's integration with Gmail's contact list and an ordinary handset.