Google will slowly let new Google Voice users in

Remember when Google first started Gmail and you had to have an invitation to get in? It's going to be the same kind of deal with Google Voice.

Google Voice, if you haven't heard of it yet, is a free Web-based application that lets you control all your various phone numbers -- work, home, mobile, you name it--from a single, central phone number and Web page. It also includes most of the features of a PBX (Private Branch Exchange)--call forwarding, voice mail, call recording--for free.

Until recently the only way you could get Google Voice was to have been a user of its predecessor service, GrandCentral. Starting immediately, Google is finally letting more  users into the service.

Don't get too excited yet though. Sources at Google tell me that, "We are planning to start a gradual roll out of invitations to people who signed up on our Google Voice wait list. This won't be open, general availability."

You can still get on the Google Voice list. Were I you, I'd head over there as soon as you're done here to get in line. They're not going to be handing these accounts quickly.

They tell me that "We don't have specific numbers to share, but we're working to send out invites as quickly as possible, while still providing the best possible user experience."

And, what does that mean? My educated guess is we'll see a slow roll-out of tens of thousands of users per month. I don't see it going much faster than that, or any real acceleration in the process as time goes on.

Why would you want to bother? Well, I've been using Google Voice since day one, and, for me, it's the answer to almost all my phone needs.

I hate talking to people on the phone. IM and e-mail are my speed. Google Voice lets me control who I talk to with an automatic voice attendant that lets me know online who's calling. If I can't take the call, it goes to voicemail and I get an e-mail with a transcribed copy of the message.

Now, if I could only somehow transfer all my pre-existing phone numbers to my Google Voice number I'd be a happy man. As it is, Google Voice can handle such tricks as automatically transferring calls to my mobile when I'm out of the office and sending calls from people I don't know into voicemail without every bothering me.

As far as I'm concerned, Google Voice is the killer app for telephony. And now, slowly, the rest of you can see why I'm so excited about it.