Google Voice Dialer

Edit (1/26/2010): The official Google Voice Extension strikes back. It is lighter than the Google Voice Dialer 3rd-party extension and includes an option to make phone numbers clickable in websites for easy Google Voice calls.

An open-source Google Voice Chrome Extension beats the Google’s official one in many respects. The Google Voice Dialer not only alerts you when you have a new SMS or a Voicemail, but it also allows you to easily call or SMS via Google Voice without leaving the website you’re on. The sleek jQuery interface is functional and appealing to the eye. If you use Google Voice and Chrome (dev branch) make sure it check out the Google Voice Dialer.

Edit (1/17/2010): Bummer. Service is shutdown due to ‘concerns of Google TOS violations’.

Those of you using Google Voice for your SMS needs might find a new free service called GVXMPP (Twitter: @GVXMPP) to be quite useful.

What does this service do? Well, it allows you to have your SMS sent to your Google Voice number to be delivered as an instant message to your XMPP-capable IM client (Pidgin, Adium, Trillian, MirandaIM, etc). This also means that you can reply to an SMS via an IM.

How does GVXMPP accomplish this? The service takes advantage of the Google Voice option to forward your SMS as emails. Then, a forwarding filter is setup to forward your SMS from your email address to your new XMPP address that you get when you sign up for the service. To summarize, your SMS travels the following way: Google Voice –> Your Email –> GVXMPP service –> your IM client. One of the great things about this service is that your SMS arrive nearly instantly and you can manage them easily without being near your phone and without cramped typing on a small keyboard. Guys at GVXMPP have created a very handy guide that makes setting this up a breeze.