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Google snaps up fledgling Internet firm GrandCentral

Google has bought GrandCentral Communications, a fledgling Internet firm that gives people telephone numbers that essentially follow them wherever they go.

Google did not disclose how much it paid for the Silicon Valley startup but said the technology would give users of the popular Internet firm's services another way to communicate.

"We think GrandCentral's technology fits well into Google's efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users," product manager Wesley Chan said in a posting on Google's Web site.

GrandCentral users get "one number for life" that they can route to home telephones, office lines or mobile devices as they wish by using the Internet.

"You get one phone number that you can set to ring all, some, or none of your phones, based on who's calling," Chan wrote.

"This way, your phone number is tied to you, and not your location or job," he said.

Telephone messages can be listened to from any phone or online and forwarded to any number, GrandCentral said.

GrandCentral was founded in late 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, who worked together running Internet telephony firm Dialpad Communications, which was bought by Google rival Yahoo in June of that year.

Walker says the idea of funneling calls to a single number came to him while he "muddled his way" through his work, mobile and BlackBerry voice mail boxes at San Francisco International Airport.

GrandCentral software is still in beta test phase.
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