WWGS?

WWGS? Before you will understand the phrase, I must explain. I have been using Google Voice (previously GrandCentral) for a while now and I absolutely love it. It has made my life so much easier. Since I am still stuck with AT&T Wireless at the time of this writing (not for much longer, though), Google Voice is priceless. I have my Google Voice number set to ring my office phone and cellphone during the day, and the home number and cellphone in the evenings. During the day, my cellphone is basically a PDA since I can't get any AT&T reception at all in my office. As long as people call my Google Voice number, though, they will still reach me because I can answer the call on my office phone. Brilliant.

One of the features I like about Google Voice is that it will transcribe every voice mail to text and send it to me by email and SMS. Often, I can glance at this to see what the message was about and avoid having to dial in and listen. I love this.

However, sometimes (perhaps that should be most of the time) the transcription is so far off that it can only be considered comic relief in a busy day. I'm cool with that; I can use a good laugh every now and then in my line of work. Seriously, these transcriptions are often just ridiculous.

This isn't Google's fault, though. Think of what they are stuck working with... a recording that is made through a cheap cellphone mic (most of which are terrible), then sent over pathetic cell signals that often drop bits and pieces of the audio to fit the weak bandwidth, and even with background noise and interference in the mix. Given the poor quality of most voice mail recordings, it is probably a small miracle that Google's transcription engine gets as close as it does. Perhaps as networks improve, this will become more reliable.

Until then, though, we have this section of my site, labeled WWGS for What Would Google Say, where I will post the ones that make me laugh out loud so that you can enjoy the hilarity. I've been saving the good ones to give myself a buffer so I could have enough to keep a consistent schedule of posting at least a few a week. So, if you like these, you'll probably want to subscribe to site changes to get alerts when I post new ones. Enjoy!

Peace,
Todd