Fun with Google Voice

I got my Google Voice invite today, a mostly free service that gives me a new phone number and allows me to route calls to a variety of places- home/work/mobile/etc. Not one to turn down a beta invite, I signed up. First step, pick a new phone number. No pressure, right? You'll likely have this number for the rest of your life, so just pick one. Sure, I want it to be memorable. I would like it to be unique. I don't want it to spell something stupid like 'asshat'. I would like it to be in my home state so others aren't making long distance calls. Good thing Google has a way to search for the numbers that are available, right?. 30 minutes later i'm not that close to picking a number, but I found some good ones.

I started with what I thought were interesting number combinations, like searching for numbers with 6 zeros in them. Those are hard to come by, but I did find one from Delphi, In:

(765) 201-0101
I figured the area code was memorable as its sequential, as for the rest of the number, you only really have to remember its a '2' followed by lots of '01's. Cool, somewhat memorable, but I wanted to keep looking.

I then tried a bunch of random words/phrases:

(530) 426-2382
(530) IAM-BETA
Soda Springs, CA

(774) 264-8474
(774) ANG-UISH
Westport, MA

(920) 474-6635
(920) IPH-ONE5
Mapleton, WI

and then tried to get clever:

(707) 469-3277
(707) 4MY-EARS
Vacaville, CA

(530) 435-5663
(530) HEL-LOME
Gazelle, CA

and finally circling the drain:

(540) 748-8887
(540) SHU-TUUP
Louisa, VA

(775) 863-8669
(775) UNF-UNNY
Duckwater, NV

Ultimately I chose to go with the obvious. Its not my area code, I figure its a number that people will use to find me wherever I am - and hey - if they are in Verona, NJ, it will be a local call.

(973) 433-6866
(973) 4FE-NTON

Try it out - call or send me a text. Let's see how Google Voice works.