Next stop…. Grand Central Station

Alright, I admit it, I am a transit lover. In fact, many of my friends know that Grand Central Station is my favorite place in the entire world. I love transit enough that I have just launched a new community site around transit, InsideTransit. So when I found out that someone has launched a web app by the same name (sans Station), I immediately thought it would be the best web app ever.

UPDATE:

Interview with Craig, GrandCentral Founder and CEO posted »

GrandCentral is a service that allows you to get one phone number to give out to everyone. Here is a brief feature list from GrandCentral:

• Check your messages by phone, email, or online
• Keep all your messages online for eternity
• Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
• Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
• Click-to-dial from your address book
• Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
• Turn your Mp3s into the ring tones your callers hear
• Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

The service really has some great potential and could be a killer app. There is only one major issue that I have with the service…. what happens to this number if the company goes out of business? When I buy a number on a local carrier or a cell number, today that number is mine. I own it so to speak. There are reports that you cannot port a number from GrandCentral. That really makes me hesitant in using this service for business and for important contacts. Especially since they are in a beta period.

There is a free 100 minute plan forever and there are other paid plans including a $25/1000 minutes option.

I have enjoyed playing with the beta and look forward to completing a full review in the coming weeks.

I have requested an interview with the founders and will try to get further information about my concern above. Edit: Interview scheduled for Friday, will try to have it posted over the weekend. Grab the RSS feed to be instantly notified!

Technorati Tags: grandcentral | voip