I've been road-testing the new features in the upcoming public release of Google Voice (GV) and have a some first impressions to share with you.

I've used GV's precursor -- GrandCentral -- for almost three years now and am addicted to its powerful phone/voicemail features. Google bought GrandCentral in 2007, made the service a by-invitation-only private beta, and then went totally silent on any future plans. After 18 months of deafening silence, many observers thought GC was going to quietly fade away, but then last week GrandCentral was re-branded as Google Voice. The Google announcement said that GV would soon be open to the general public, for free.

Just what is Google Voice? Read this recent New York Times article -- it does a great job of answering that question. Here, I'll confine myself to briefly sharing a few favorite features, both new and old...

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At last -- a short (three-minute) video explanation of what LinkedIn is and does...

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