Remember back in the day when Gmail first arrived?

Everybody was scrambling for Gmail beta invite; people were even selling them on ebay. This was all due to Google bringing an all new and near revolutionary perspective to how people use email. The simple change from deleting to archiving and the no-brainer threading of email conversations changed the emailing landscape in the most significant way since "You've got mail" decades earlier. At the time, it was even difficult to explain to somebody who had yet to use Gmail how it was better since the change seemed so simple, but once they did, they couldn't imagine ever going back.

It looks like Google may have done it again with Google Voice. Google Voice may change the way people make phone calls, text, and get voicemail. I'll try to explain why, but like Gmail, until you experience it, you don't really get the full impact.

In short, imagine if YOU rather than YOUR PHONE had a phone number; like how you rather than your computer have an email address. Imagine if all calls, texts, and voice mails were receivable, accessible, and manageable by you using the same phone number regardless of access point: work phone, cell phone, home phone, and even internet browser. Imagine copying, deleting, or emailing off your voicemails in a visual interface similar to email. Imagine if you could manage which of your phones rang at which times of day or according to identity of caller. Imagine if those calls and messages were digital data streams on your cellular that used a data plan and zero minutes.

Porting your existing phone number to GV and integration of GV into Gmail are coming soon. The service is still in beta and requires an invite code.