Of all the free services Google Voice provides, it's likely that transcription of voicemails is the most expensive for Google. Users tell me that transcription is very accurate, which probably means humans are doing it. My guess is that short, easy messages are machine-transcribed, but that longer messages are off-shored to human transcribers.

If Google is really paying so much for quality transcription, that gives us a clue about why Google is giving it away. The give-away makes sense only if you are clear on who Google's customers are -- and what Google's product is.

The common assumption that Google's customers are its users is false. As a Google user, when is the last time you paid Google for services rendered?

Google users are the "product" -- users are not Google's customers. By this I mean that Google is selling information about its users to advertisers, which are the company's real customers.

New services offered by Google are how Google improves its 'product.' They're making a better you -- or, at least, they're making you a more transparent consumer.