Years ago, there existed a website called Grand Central. Grand Central promised to change the way people use their phones. You can see an archive of Grand Central in the Wayback Machine here.

They came up with lots of cool ideas to indeed change the way people use phones. So along comes Google. Then the Grand Central webpage looked like this. I'll save you the trouble of clicking...Googe bought the fledgling company.

Google changed the name of the site to Google Voice and closed it to new users. Now, a year later, Google has purchased 2 million new phone numbers and opened the site back up (by invitation only, of course).

So what is so great about Google Voice? Here are just a few of the many cool features:

Have a new phone number that rings ALL of your phones at the same time--so you can decide which phone to take the call on.

Once you are on a call, transfer that call to a different phone without interrupting it...the person on the other end won't even know you have changed phones.

Screen calls.

Send a call to voicemail, but listen in as they leave a message and pick up the call if you want.

Have a different voice mail greeting for everyone on your contact list if you want.

Record calls.

Get a transcript of all your voice mails by email. Also get transcripts of all your text messages that you can save.

Call widgets.

There is a lot more. Check out Google Voice for the details and sign up to be on the waiting list for an invitation. Phones can be cool again!