IVR

The battle between Apple and Google (News - Alert) continues.

 

Google Inc. reportedly has come out with a new version of its Google Voice that can be accessed via a smartphone Web browser. The release is apparently the search giant’s latest attempt to penetrate the Apple iPhone (News - Alert) walled garden, given this Google Voice release doesn’t require users to download the application through Apple’s tightly controlled App Store.

 

This comes after this summer’s high-profile tussle between the two companies during which Google claimed that Apple’s (News - Alert) App Store rejected Google Voice, but Apple said the application was still being vetted.

 

Meanwhile, more recently, Google has come out with its own branded Nexus One mobile phone, which along with the other Android (News - Alert)-based devices on the market, is going head-to-head with the Apple iPhone. Apple also is reportedly considering a move to drop Google as the default search engine on its iPhone.

 

As for Google Voice, it is a service, currently in beta mode, that provides a user with a single number for any or all his or her wireless and wireline phones (up to six per user), as well as tools for easier communications management.

 

As Craig Walker, group product manager for real time communications at Google and a keynote speaker at last week’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) East event in Miami, recently explained to TMCnet: “The benefit [of Google Voice] is, one, people no longer have to track you down, and you don’t have to worry about missing important calls or having to update people as to where you happen to be a particular day. Two, the number never changes so you can move, get a new job, whatever, and just tell us your new number.”

 

There also are a variety of voicemail features that come with Google Voice, which initially is being offered as a free service. For example, voicemail is stored in the cloud and saved for as long as the customer likes. It is also converted to text, so users can read and more easily search their voicemail, and can have that text emailed to them. Additionally, customers can opt to receive an SMS to their cellphones about incoming voicemail.

 

Another nice feature of Google Voice, Walker points out, is that it allows users to customize how different callers are treated. For example, a customer might opt to send calls from people who aren’t in her address book directly to voicemail, he says. Or, a husband might customize a voicemail greeting especially for his wife, adds Walker.