To celebrate Father’s Day, Google inserted a line underneath the Google Voice calling feature in Gmail’s Chat feature: “Reminder: Call dad.” Sounds innocuous, huh?

Well, no. Some people who don’t have dads were understandably upset by the note. Eventually, most of us won’t have a dad to call; I’m surprised that nobody at Google figured out that the message would be at best irrelevant and at worst an unhappy little moment for a meaningful percentage of Gmail users.

Companies like Hallmark and 1-800-Flowers presumably don’t worry much about Father’s Day and Mother’s Day advertising hurting anyone’s feelings. But Google’s “reminder,” while promotional in nature, was presented as a task-like item within a piece of Web-based productivity software. That made it feel more personal. It also involved Google futzing around with an application used by millions of people. Microsoft wouldn’t insert a Father’s Day requirement reminder into Outlook–and even though Outlook is a paid product and Gmail isn’t, Google crossed a boundary which it apparently didn’t realize existed.

It’s a safe bet that Google won’t commemorate Father’s Day or Mother’s Day in this particular way again. But I hope it comes away from this with another lesson: it needs to tread gingerly when it comes to messing around with Gmail and other apps for any reason except making them better. And sometimes even then.

Google has rolled out the long-awaited option to port your existing wireless number to Google Voice. It costs $20, and while the porting itself might be straightforward, dealing with your wireless carrier–you’ll still need one, and will need a wireless number–may be complicated. And if you’re currently under contract, you may end up paying an early termination fee even if you continue service.

(I’m still figuring out whether I want to give this a try.)

Wired’s David Kravets ported his real-world Sprint phone number to Google voice–eventually, after hours of hassle. I’d like to do the same with my AT&T number (and, like Kravets, get a new wireless number in the process). But his experience leaves me gunshy…

Engadget’s Ross Miller notes that Google is testing the ability to port your existing, old-school phone number and make it a Google Voice number. Which I’d like to do. But it’s a little confusing, since Google Voice is not a replacement for standard phone numbers but a complement to them. If you’re under contract to a wireless carrier and port the number in question to Google Voice, you’d terminate the contract and pay ugly fees–and wouldn’t have a real-world phone number anymore.

What I want to do is make my current AT&T number into a Google Voice number–but then I’d need a new AT&T number which people who called my Google Voice number would reach me at.

I wonder if AT&T would give me a new number if I asked?

The ability to place free calls to (and receive calls from) landlines via Google Voice from within Gmail is one of Google’s least flashy but most useful offerings. (The quality is spectacular–I never bother with a headphone, and nobody’s ever asked me “Hey, am I on speaker?”). And now Google says this service will remain free through the end of next year.

I do have a request, though–one I suspect Google will eventually address: I’d like to be able to place and make calls from within Google Voice itself, not just Gmail.

Could Apple’s year-plus of pondering the fate of Google Voice for the iPhone be nearing a happy conclusion?

The saints be praised. After loosening and clarifying its App Store policies last week, Apple is proving that things–some of them, at least–have changed. A third-party Google Voice app called GV Connect is in the App Store, almost fourteen months after Apple removed all third-party Google Voice apps and refused to approve Google’s own one. Sean Kovacs, developer of GV Mobile, one of the programs bounced last year, says that Apple has told him his app will return tomorrow.

Continue reading this story…

TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid reports on some potential great news: Apple’s new App Store acceptance guide may help Google Voice (or at least third-party Google Voice apps) get into the store.

I’ve been using Gmail’s new free voice calling feature over the past couple of days. For a while, I thought that the Google Buzz blowup proved it was a bad idea to introduce non-e-mail features into Gmail, period. Now I now that if it’s the right feature done the right way, it can make perfect sense.

Continue reading this story…

What’s Google’s new Google-Voice-inside-Gmail feature about? It depends on who you ask.

Here’s Ryan Singel of Wired:

And here’s Peter Nowak, author of a book and a blog called Sex, Bombs & Burgers:

Continue reading this story…

I try to restrain myself from calling any new tech product or service a killer. But Google just announced that it’s integrating Google Voice into Gmail, turning its e-mail service into a fully Web-based Voice-over-IP system that lets you talk to people with landlines and cell phones all over the world. And…well, it looks like it could be an awfully compelling Skype alternative. Especially since calls to cell phones and landlines in the U.S. and Canada that you’d pay for with Skype are free.

The integration adds a cool new feature to Gmail, but as a long-time Google Voice addict, I’m even more excited about what it does for that service. Now those of us with Google Voice numbers can use it in a new way, and without burning through mobile phone minutes.

Continue reading this story…

TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid notes that it’s now been a year since Apple told the FCC that it hadn’t rejected Google’s Google Voice app–it was just concerned about Google Voice bypassing the iPhone’s own Phone interface, and “pondering” how to respond.

Twelve months later, Apple is still pondering–which is confusing, because it’s also approved Line 2, Skype, and other apps which let you make phone calls without using the iPhone’s phone features. Meanwhile, Google ended up releasing a Web-based version of Voice for iPhone users–not bad, but nowhere near as seamless as the native one for Android and BlackBerry. And most of the other interesting things that Google has done for iPhone users in the past year have come in the form of Web apps, not local ones. I don’t think Google is boycotting the iPhone, but it sure would be understandable if it preferred not to invest a lot of time in apps that Apple might decide to “ponder” indefinitely rather than approve.

If there’s any explanation for Apple’s permanent pondering of Google Voice at the same time that it approves other phone apps that doesn’t involve its rivalry with Google, I’d love to know what it is. And I’d love to know the FCC’s take on Apple’s explanation. Maybe it’s still pondering it.

Meanwhile, Kincaid notes at the end of his story that he, like TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, is one of the few folks who have been permitted to port their existing phone number to Google Voice, making it possible to make that number reach them on any phone. He says Google plans to roll out the feature to everyone “soon.”

If Google Voice is the Swiss Army knife of call management services, speech-to-text voicemail transcription is the questionable nail file. Google Voice’s transcription failures are well-documented around the Internet–entire Web sites are dedicated to these follies. They’re more amusing than frustrating, provided you’ve got a sense of humor. Fascinated with Google Voice’s brand of surreal humor, I set out to find the best (worst) Google Voice transcription errors. I found them around the Web, and collected more from the Technologizer comunity, including our founder. Read on for some examples of why Google Voice transcription still has a very, very long way to go.

Continue reading this story…

If you’ve ever used Google Voice to transcribe your voicemail, you’ve probably noticed that the service has good days and bad days, and at worst, the transcriptions can be mildly amusing to downright frightening.

I’m trying to put together the definitive list of awesome Google Voice transcription bloopers, and you can help. Send your best to me at newmanJB@gmail.com or drop me a line on Twitter. Mere jumbles of incongruent words are okay, but the best bloopers have a little something extra, like an awful innuendo or accidental death threat. I’ll be posting the best, along with other gems from around the web, in the next week or so. Thanks!

For the last year or so, Google Voice (formerly called Grand Central, a name I loved) was available only if someone invited you. Yeah, I know; I never did. It’s now open to everyone in the United States (stop whining) and I suggest you look at it.

I’ve hot-linked some of the features I talk about to short YouTube videos that’ll give you more details.

The basics: Google Voice gives you a local number with tons of rich features that becomes the one number you’ll use. You configure Google Voice with all your other phones — smart or dumb cell phones and landlines, at home or work – and, based on who’s calling, have Google Voice route the call directly to voicemail or any of your phones. If you don’t know where you’ll be — say, work, home, or mobile — Google Voice can ring all your numbers; you pick up the one that’s handiest.

Continue reading this story…

I kind of assume that anyone who’s reading this and wants Google Voice long ago figured out a way to wangle an invite. But just in case: You can now sign up immediately, no invitation required. It’s not perfect, but it’s among Google’s best offerings…