Google Voice enables you to , just like an answering machine does. You can record a for groups, or even for individuals. Google Voice lets you check voicemail from any of the phones you've authorized. You can also check via " ," which looks like e-mail. Voicemails are , so you can read them rather than listen to them if you like. You can choose to , and can even reply via SMS.

During a call, just push a button to . Push another to actually record incoming calls (it notifies the caller that the recording feature is on). Google Voice lets you e-mail the recording to yourself, download it as an MP3 file or even embed it into a Web page. Google Voice will probably grow virally as bloggers embed recorded telephone interviews into their blogs.

Google Voice is cool, but it's not perfect. Users report issues with the SMS feature. (In my experience, SMS on the Web never works right.) Other features are less than perfectly reliable also. Users have reported a wide range of small problems doing things like deleting voicemail and the slow delivery of transcriptions. Google

Another problem is with the phone numbers. Most people don't want to give up their existing number. Google hopes to allow users to port their current numbers in the future. Caller ID and SMS identification from Google Voice users can be problematic. If someone , for example, sends you an SMS or calls one of your numbers, the return SMS or call shows your Google virtual number. People have been struggling with this.