Folks,
I just found a Google Voice invite and since I already have an account, what a better way to celebrate technology then to raffle off this account?
Make sure to follow @freshworkshops on Twitter!
Update July 18th, 2009 1:01am
Keaton Andrew has generously donated a Google Voice invite he received in his email. Wow! Talk about karma! I will be awarding this 2nd invite to the runner up in the contest.
Christine, you’ve just won yourself a Google Voice invite!
Now students, teachers and parents can leave you voicemails that you can access from anywhere!
Update July 17th, 2009 6:37pm
The winner is Keaton Andrew!
Keaton, you will receive an email to verify your address and then the Google Voice invite is on it’s way!
Selection was based on how well the story captured the essence of what Google Voice provides to people. If you have an invite you would like to give, feel free to contact me and I’ll get it out to folks who entered below.
Update on Google Voice Invitation Give Away!
Ok, contest format has been decided!
What is being given away?
We will award 1 person the Google Voice invitation
When
Next Friday July 17th, 2009 at 6pm CST
How
Leave a comment how this Google Voice account will help you grow as a person, boots your business or help you love Google products better! The best entry, as determined by me (Adria Richards) will win!
Rules
- You must leave a valid email address with your comment
- The more detailed your answer, the better chance you have a winning
- Please do not insert links into your comment contest entry
- No duplicate entries please
- Inappropriate comments will not be published
I will use it to reserve my name as a phone line, since a friend of mine who actually has google voice checked and it’s available in san francisco.
I believe I would be a great candidate for the Google Voice Invite. This would really boost my business.
Hopefully, I can follow my passion of becoming an on-air DJ for a radio station. I have experimented many times creating Internet Radio Stations, and I have learned the tricks of the trade. What people want, and what they don’t.
Google Voice is a product I have been dying to have. This product would help enhance the realism of my new Internet Radio Station. This would allow features for LIVE listener call-ins. Plus, with Google Voice I can get a new number, that would “resemble my station”. For example, if my radio station were Called HOT 97 in New York City, I would make the number (212) HOT-9797. This way I can make a number showing the station, and not just some regular old cell phone number. This way I can use the feature of letters to resemble numbers. This would make my station more realistic.
Also, this would just add to my love of Google brand products. Personally I use Gmail for my radio station email, as it is a great email client. I would recommend it to ANYONE. It has more memory than other competitors, and it has just an easy to use interface. I really like the search feature in Gmail. I also use Google Spreadsheets for forms, for listener feedback, as well as DJ Job Applications. I also use Chrome for my Internet browser. I also really love Product Search when look for in studio equipment. As you can see I love Google products very much, and Voice would be the BEST addition to it!
Thanks
Austin
Hey Adria!
First off, I’d like to thank you for putting this up.
I’d actually like to use this to keep in touch with my customers as well as family. Also, being a google share holder and long time google fanatic, it’d be my pleasure to try out ANY of google’s new services.
I’ve been with them through all their betas (aka Google Labs) and have provided tons of feedback. This is just icing to the cake. Google has become the next Microsoft, and I hope that Google’s Chrome OS takes over as the primary OS for the world.
Well done Google! Keep it up!
Oh, and best of luck to everyone else as well.
Thanks Adria
Dear Adria,
Google Voice will help me improve as a person by allowing me to manage my telephone numbers with the same level of organization and discipline as I do my e-mail, giving me the ability to respond promptly to important items and let less important items fall by the wayside. As a user of G-mail, Google Calendar and Picassa, Google Voice will round out my Google experience.
The main reason I want Google Voice is that my wife and I have three young children(including twin boys)and my wife and I both work full time. It is not uncommon for one of the kids to knock an extension off the hook, causing us to miss calls or for our precious family dinner time to be interrupted by unwanted phone calls. Google Voice will improve our family time and also allow us to remain in contact should something arise during the day with the kids or other family. In the future, I will need to get cell phones for my twins–one number should allow me to reach either one of the kids should a need arise.
Finally, I see Google Voice as being a path to cutting the land line and an interface between our cell phones and a low cost VoIP service. By cutting the landline and having a more robust and cost effective solution, we can leverage the savings into more family activities and a better quality of life.
Thank you in advance for your consideration!
I’ve always prided myself as being on the forefront of new technology, as well as being the guy to educate my network of personal friends and acquaintences of new and emerging technologies. Unfortunately, I did not receive an invite to Google Talk. If I won the invite, I would explore every nook and cranny of the service in hopes that I can educate those around me about what seems to be a game changing technology.
I recently started a software consulting business. I haven’t purchased a separate phone number for it. I think a separate (Google voice) number would help out significantly with appearing to be a “real business” instead of a one person shop. So far, I have only attracted one steady customer.
I am currently using Google Apps to work with customers on documents and spreadsheets.
Thanks for offering this raffle.
Wow, thanks for this opportunity! At a time where users are selling GV invites on ebay for $50+ it’s great to see someone decent enough to offer theirs up for free in a contest.
I’ve got my email signed up for an invite already, so if I win this contest, I’ll offer my invite (when I receive it) to you for a round 2 of the competition.
I live in 2 locations throughout the year. From April to August I work in Sarasota for my father’s business as an IT consultant. Then from September to March I live in Orlando taking classes at the University of Central Florida. Go Knights!. This poses a problem for me, because my business is in one place and most of my friends are in another. I have my area code listed where I work, because I’m constantly on the phone with employees helping them log into their email accounts half the time and helping them find the Start menu the other half. Since my girlfriend lives in Orlando, phone bills can get expensive 5 months out of the year. Not only that, but my limited text messages disappear quick when my drunk friends decide to send me 80 messages at 2AM every Friday and Saturday night telling me to stop working and move back to Orlando. You can see my problem here. The problem is I can’t afford to have 2 phone lines, let alone unlimited minutes and sms. With GV, I’ll have the capability to cancel sms from my phone, but still see them later when I log in, and as for minutes, well it won’t be long distance anymore if I get a 407 number to accompany my current 941 number.
The best part is… no more weekend calls from employees trying to access their accounts, because with GV I’ll be able to screen the calls and have them sent straight to voicemail. I love technology!
So anyways, thanks again for this opportunity!
Sincerely,
Andrew
I would love to be able to organization my skype and cell number. Personal branding is very important to me. I do have a google site, philena.biz but I haven’t done much with it yet. I figured I’d wait til Google expands with more flexibility in customization.
I always give Google the nickname, “The Umbrella Corporation” because of how quickly they are expanding in all areas of technology. Does anyone have a Google Health account yet?
Well, for me, it’s been a race against time for this google voice number. Perhaps that makes it sound more dire than what it is, but it’s killing me that I can’t have access to this yet.
I am a photographer who is making a move from a rural area in Ohio (yay, right?) to Atlanta. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is how important an area code is – people recognize most of the major ones or ones in their area. Mine is currently 330. No one knows where that’s from. I want the 404 area code so that people from around Atlanta or that know of it will automatically know I’m based in Atlanta.
I don’t want to just straight up change my number, because I’ve had this cell number for the past four years and a lot of people have it. I could mass text and email most people, however I know I’ll miss some people. This would include old friends I only am in touch with every now and then. It’d make it that much harder for them to get in touch with me if I change the number.
A google number lets me keep my old number, start giving out the 404 google number, and everyone’s happy!
I’m moving later this month, I’ve been waiting patiently for my invite to arrive to no avail. If I ever do get mine and I win this, I agree with the person somewhere up above, I’ll give it away as well.
Pick me , pick me, pick me. I could give you a hundred silly reasons why I would love to have it but the best one is that I would love you forever!…………….. and ever!
Okay, for some of the silly reason, I would love to centralize all my telephone numbers. I love all the features Google Voice comes with especially the one that would allows me to put my 10 year old’s little friend who calls our house 100 times a day directly into voice mail. Say hello to my little friend called voicemail…!!!
I’m tired of giving out my cell phone number to everyone. The listen in feature, kind of freaks me out because I always erase my messages and rerecord them before hanging up. But I would love to listen in to see who else does that… so hilarious!
Oh and the Share Voicemail option… OMG! Embedding a recorded message on my blog. Now that’s wild. This is really going to make me think before I speak. You know what they say… what comes around, goes around.
Pick me, pick me, pick me… because I will love you forever!………… and ever!
~ Dawn
Ps: if not me, i like Keaton Andrews post!
We believe this account would help us develop a XML Binding and PHP Based web app and a paging network that would allow 2$/mo international paging service to the masses using an already in place wireless network !
This would point us in the right direction to help test out the paging network and help others get this service.
Great for low income or homeless users keep in touch for a very low monthly price.
Kind Regards
XAVIER T PNolan
Hi Adria!
I am a high school teacher who works in a district where technology isn’t quite the priority. As a recent college graduate, I understand the importance of technology and the influence it has on our generation. As much as possible, I try to expose my students to the type of technology that they will encounter once they step out of the high school hallways. All the technology I use, I have to provide on my own.
As many people may (or may not) know, the job of a teacher does not end after leaving the classroom. I spend countless hours updating my class’ googlesites, providing class docs, creating homework calendars (all via google!), and keeping an accurate online gradebook. The only then missing is telecommunication. The only means of teacher-communication that the school provides is a voice mail box that is only accessible within the school. This makes it difficult for students and parents to get hold of me as there is no number in which I can be directly reached. With a Google Voice account, students, parents, and staff can efficiently contact me. When students (especially those without internet at their homes) have questions while doing homework, they can call or text my Google Voice number. When parents have questions about their students’ progress in class, they can call my Google Voice number. When a staff member needs to get hold of me for whatever reason, they can call my Google Voice number. In return, I will be able to listen to or read any messages from anywhere at any time on my laptop or G1.
Google Voice allows me to give the average public school student the individual attention that he/she may need to fully realize his/her potential. It provides a means of communication that is not limited to a phone shared by 30 other teachers. It will allow the students, parents, and staff to contact me in whichever manner they are most comfortable.
Actually, I already got a Google Voice account. It’s pretty cool, even thought a dialer don’t exist for my type of phone yet (Windows Mobile). I actually want to give my brother an account. He’s got an Android phone.
My brother don’t really get a lot of gifts from me, but he always ask me for an invite to Google Voice. He’s got a G1 and before then, I set him up with Gmail while it was in “invite only” mode. He’s always like that I do things for him as far as tech stuff, and this would be one more cool thing to give him.
So, if anything, I would give my invite to him as a house warming present… which I have to attend next week!
Keaton Andrew, you can get a local number from magicjack for 3$ per month. Then go to the online account page, and set it up to forward to your real number when your computer is off. Then, never use the magicjack. Can anyone verify that there’s no hidden fees for it?
@Justin,
MagicJack is OK but it won’t ever match the power of Google’s development team. Google Voice is about more than just forwarding calls.
It’s also about
long term voicemail management
Call logic regarding forwarding
Multiple greetings
Caller ID
Voicemail transcription
and so much more to come!
Call Screening