There seem to be dozens of stories of ways in which Christmas has been saved. The most recent, however, comes from a personal anecdote from a Google team member.
The Google Voice blog shares the story. “My boyfriend and I traveled from San Francisco to NYC to visit my family for Christmas,” it begins, happily enough. This happy tale quickly takes a turn for the worse, however, as said boyfriend realizes he forgot his passport — a mistake that can cause more than a minor migraine given airport security.
Luckily, the boyfriend’s sister had access to the apartment. Less luckily, that sister was about to leave on a trip of her own. To get in touch with her before time ran out, Google Voice was used. “We fired up his laptop, connected to in-flight Wi-Fi (which happened to be free), logged into his Google Voice account, and sent her a text message,” reads the post. The free wireless, of course, is an additional plug for Google’s holiday Wi-Fi promotion. Because of this text, the passport was tracked down and mailed to New York City in time for the return trip.
It’s certainly interesting to see actual product team members pitching their product or features through personal stories, and it’s certainly not the sort of promotion we normally expect from Google. Of course, considering the current success of Google Voice, there’s little need for an additional promotional push. The service, which is still offering free calls through Gmail at least until the end of 2011, saw a boom in subscribers immediately after its launch and has retained a successful rate of growth — so much so that some industry analysts have told us that Google may just become your new phone provider.
