TechCrunch reported earlier today about confirmed rumours that Google has bought GrandCentral, a startup which lets you use a single phone number for all your phones.
Having raised about $5 million in capital to date from Minor Ventures, Grand Central launched last September and solves a really common problem in everyday life. A regular person has on average three phone numbers they’ll use — home, mobile, and work — and surely not being around all of them at once is a disadvantage (and with nearly 11,000 testimonials, GrandCenteral provides…a viable solution).
For Google, which has very little involvement in the phone industry (exception: 1-800-GOOG-411), this will be give them access to their users’ daily lives in another way. While there don’t seem to be any direct opportunities in so-called ‘Google branding,’ undoubtedly Google is going to make use of some of the technology built by GrandCenteral.
Opinion
Unlike most of Google’s prior acquisitions, this one sticks out as being the vertical type — for example, the last five or so have either been existing or upcoming products, where as this brings Google to a whole new category. While there’s no sign of confirmation yet — on the rumour or the price — I think this is one that Google has under their belt. Look out for an announcement very soon.
