After Google first acquired Skype competitor Gizmo5 in November 2009, it wasn't hard to guess that a soft phone application for Google Voice would be coming soon. A few months after the acquisition that Google was working hard on Google Voice Desktop internally. More recently we learned that Google was delaying the launch of the product and possibly even scrapping it entirely because Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin don't want Google to be in the business of creating software outside of the browser.
The workers over at TechCrunch asked their sources to give them screen shots of what Google Voice Desktop looks like and in exchange ended up getting the actual application. They took a video that shows what the application looks like for both inbound and outbound calls. The software is still branded Gizmo5 but the sign up screen does say "Gizmo5 by Google," and it is fully integrated with the Google Voice service, address book and all. The desktop application was automatically added as one of the phones in the Google voice browser as well and there was no news whether this was an internal release or something a bit older.
Our opinion of the software is that it is very intriguing and that Google should continue to finalize it and eventually release it for everyone to use. It seems to work great and will probably become a very viable alternative to current software for many to use. Particularly for those who travel overseas and don't want to pay a ridiculous price for a Skype-in number. The video can be found below:
What are your thoughts of the software thus far? Keep in mind that it is an unreleased version so probably a beta version (or maybe even an alpha). Share your thoughts and comments below.
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