“Google Voice is a telecommunications service by Google[1] launched on March 11, 2009. The service provides a U.S. phone number, chosen by the user from available numbers in selected area codes, free of charge to each user account. Inbound calls to this number are forwarded to other phone numbers of the subscriber. Outbound calls may be placed to domestic and international destinations by dialing the Google Voice number or from a web-based application.[2] Inbound and outbound calls to U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canada are free of charge.[3] International calls are billed according to a schedule posted on the Google Voice website.”
So what does Google get out of this? There’s not much opportunity for ads.
An ever expanding user base;
[ul]
[li]that will now (hopefully) use Google for more and more of their online services[/li][li]thus spending more and more time on “Google” (meaning all of Google services)[/li][li]making Google advertising that much more far reaching and ubiquitous[/li][li]therefore making advertising on Google more important to advertisers[/li][/ul]
In other words - do anything to keep them in your store.