Effort: MinimalCost: Free (at press time)

Remember the simple days when landlines reigned supreme, and anyone who wanted to get ahold of you had just one number to dial? Today you likely have a personal cell phone, your work cell, and an additional landline at each location. Suddenly, getting in touch has become much more complicated. With Google's latest offering, , that's about to change. The service eliminates the multiple-phone problem by creating one central number that rings all of your phones--and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Google Voice also supports advanced call-routing rules, transcribes your voicemail, and even forwards a copy of it to your e-mail inbox.

We've been using Google Voice for more than a year (since it was known as Grand Central), but it's currently in closed beta. If you don't want to wait for the Google Voice beta to open, you can significantly boost your voicemail prowess in the meantime with .

Effort: MinimalCost: Free