Google buys GrandCentral

Mountain View (CA) - Google has announced that it has bought GrandCentral Communications, a service that lets users forward phone numbers into a single or many different phones. The service also allows people to consolidate several voice mailboxes into a single web accessible page.

The announcement was posted on the Goolge official blog by product manager Wesley Chan. "We think GrandCentral’s technology fits well into Google’s efforts to provide services that enhance the collaborative exchange of information between our users," said Chan.

GrandCentral has been up and running since September 2006 and provides a web-based control of phones and voice mails. Users buy phone numbers which can then be forwarded to another or several other phones. GrandCentral has proven useful for detectives and investigative journalists who often have to provide a contact phone number, but don’t want publicize their private phone numbers.

GrandCentral is currently in private beta, but Google says public beta invitations will go out shortly. You can go to GrandCentral’s website and sign up to be notified.

Google did not specify how much it paid for Grand Central.