One of the problems with Google Voice (and really any unified communications platform) is helping would-be users figure out why they need it. Is there really something so fundamentally wrong with today’s paradigm of a phone line, caller ID, voice mail/answering machine? The answer is: probably yes. But helping a customer understand exactly what is wrong, and how it can be done better, is no small challenge.
With that conundrum in mind, Google today launched twelve (twelve!) videos on YouTube explaining not just how to use Google Voice, but why you’d want to use it in the first place. The fact that it took that many videos to accomplish this task again defines the challenge — how do you get a customer to realize they might need this thing?
Even tech blog TechCrunch, a big supporter of Google Voice, gets the problem:
Google Voice is a great service, one of the best things Google has released in a long time. Unfortunately, most casual web users have no idea what it is. Or more specifically, what it’s purpose is.
These videos have a second purpose, I think. Giving service providers yet another vehicle to understand (beyond hearing it from “the magician” himself) exactly what Google is after in the voice world.
Check out the first video in the series below, or visit the Google Voice channel on YouTube for the whole story.
I thought the video was great!
And then there is the reverse problem: people like me who understand perfectly well why they need Google Voice and are stuck waiting for an invite! I want my money back Google! Oh, wait, it free…
Voice recognition is definitely the future of how we interact with a computer and google seems set to dominate the arena
I like to use the tool for voice recognition, let\’s see how it is useful for us.