If you haven’t heard of GrandCentral, it might not matter because it is now changing names and getting some great upgrades. The service is now called Google Voice (Google bought GrandCentral a few years ago, but just now decided to rebrand it). This service is great for people who don’t already have VOIP service. Google Voice is free, as GrandCentral was, but they’ve added several new features including voicemail transcription (YES!), SMS support, conference calling, GOOG411, SPAM protection and low-priced international calling.

What I have used GrandCentral for in the past is to consolidate all of my various phone numbers into one. They give you a free phone number of your choosing and allow that number to be redistributed to any number of phones and cell phones. If someone calls my GrandCentral number, GrandCentral will recognize who they are, see if they are part of groups that I have pre-defined and distribute the call to any number of phones based upon the group they are in. When I pick up the call, I am given the option of talking to the person, listening in on their voicemail, or just ignoring it. This is a great service and has really helped reduce the amount of SPAM calls that I end up taking.