[Google] Why The Philippines Still Doesn't Have Google Voice

Image via CrunchBase

I'm a big Google fan - that much is clear. The fact that I host this blog via Blogger instead of another service like WordPress, how I remain active on Google+ and how so much of my online life involves one Google product or another, things just get crazy that way, I suppose. And can you blame me, beyond being one of the most admired companies in the world, they do come up with a lot of cool products that are highly useful.

One major point of annoyance for me is how Google users in the Philippines (obviously including myself) still do not have access to the full host of features of Google Voice. It's a pretty amazing service once you read about it and it provides a lot of different cool features and other bonuses that make it a no-brainer to want to have. But the basic requirement to have the service is to have a US phone number. Ouchies.

In fact the world outside of the United States still does not have access to the service as a whole, unless you decide to go out of your way to acquire a US phone number via some online service or VOIP device. And that seems like going a bit too much out of the way just to play with a service that works best when you have multiple phones that you want to manage.

So let's take a quick look at the main reasons why we Filipinos can't "officially" have access to Google Voice yet.

[Google] Santa Claus Is Tech-Savvy

Every year Google has various gimmicks for the holiday season such as being able to track Santa Claus on Google Earth or the option to leave Santa Claus messages on a special hotline. But man, this year's gimmick is a heck of a lot of fun!

Initially Google made it possible to send your friends and relatives voice messages from Santa, for as long as they live in the US or Canada and you also have a US or Canadian phone number. I managed to test this out with a friend, and it worked out rather well. However the geographic limitation was a bit of a bummer.

But today they announced that you can now send video messages from Santa as well, and these YouTube hosted messages can either be posted on your Google+ page or send directly to the recipient via email.

I totally geeked out on this today and send a few close family members and friends some rather zany messages from Santa. Totally awesome way of celebrating the holidays - go try it out for yourself at SendACallFromSanta.com!

Happy Holidays, fellow Google Geeks!