After Gmail, Google wants to search your voice mail too

Google has begun testing a service that will make transcripts of voice mail messages and make them searchable. For now, Google will only offer voice mail transcription to existing customers of GrandCentral Communications, a telecommunications service provider that it bought in July 2007, it said in a posting on the Official Google Blog.

GrandCentral offers customers a single number through which they can forward calls to their work, home, or mobile phone; filter calls before answering them; record conversations; and access an archive of recordings and voice mail via the Web. Just like Google’s promise that with its Gmail e-mail service, you’ll never need to delete another message, GrandCentral promises to archive voice mail “for life.”

Amazon, Microsoft improve their cloud computing game

Amazon has introduced EC2 Reserved Instances, which allow you to obtain a reduced hourly fee for an upfront payment that varies according to which level of EC2 server you use. So, for example, with an upfront payment of $325, the hourly fee of 10 cents is reduced to 3 cents for a year. With a payment of $500, the fee is reduced for three years. Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogel, explained that the initiative was launched to address applications that are available for long durations, rather than being used for short periods of time and then taken down.In essence, this is aimed at organizations that want to use AWS as an external data center for standard applications that are used 24X7.