Tag: Google

How to Use Google Voice in China

按照某些朋友的话来说，最近因为忙完了考博、雅思（不知道是否需要二战）以及毕业论文（等待答辩），实在是闲得无聊。于是想找点东西来捣鼓捣鼓。作为一个把玩了电脑快二十年（把小时候用286电脑学标准指法都算上了）的人来说，一般常见的东西，比如什么QQ概念版，开心网偷菜之类的显然不会引起我的太大兴趣。在苦思冥想之后，遂想起我的Gmail邮箱里还躺着一份Google Voice的邀请函。由于Google Voice原则上只对美国开放，而我目前却在天朝呆着。于是乎，如何让我这样的天朝子民来和谐这个服务成了我这两天最有兴趣的课题。

经过昨天和今天上午的刻骨钻研，外加研读网上各类教程，我终于试着成功骚扰了位于美国夏威夷州的VIP Tran服务。现在我就简要记录下我一路走来的心路历程。不过我并不打算将其写为教程了。毕竟要教程的话，网上到处都是。随便一搜就有一大把。

  1. Google Voice服务的注册

    要搞定Google Voice，最基础的就是需要一份邀请函。与Google的很多业务所不同，Google Voice采用邀请注册制度。需要邀请的请点这里。在输入完姓名和电邮地址后Google就会发送给您一份电子邮件。由于我的邀请是大半年以前搞定的，以至于我现在都不知道Google需要多久会给邀请。

    之所以说Google Voice仅对美国服务，是因为如果您没有采取任何措施，而是直接点击了这个邀请，你会看到如下画面。想在我天朝使用此服务是等价于做梦。

    但是俗话说“道高一尺，魔高一丈”。既然不让咱们用，咱就翻墙么。翻墙以后，登录Google Account，则直接转入第一步。在这一步，你可以选择一个Google Number。要知道这个电话跟普通的美国电话号码没有区别。你可以把这个作为你在美国的电话号码而让美国朋友同你联系以减少电话费用。

    其余步骤可以按照提示操作而省略。最麻烦的一步，则是Google要求使用一个美国本地电话进行验证。网上的传统做法是注册一个Gizmo5帐号，然后通过该Gizmo5的帐号提供的SIP注册IPKall的电话号码。然后将IPKall的电话号码作为验证号码进行使用。但是由于去年Google已经收购Gizmo5，而Gizmo5现在已经停止了帐号注册。所以这条路是行不通了。目前常用的方法主要是注册VirtualPhoneLine和GroovyTel。前者提供一个免费试用24天的电话号码，后者则需要Facebook帐号（必须其中有20个好友）。显然对我们而言，前者更现实。不过好处是，我们只是需要一个电话号码来验证。

  2. Google Voice服务的相关设置

    在验证完成以后，我们就可以登录Google Voice。而这时候，我们不再需要翻墙。登录后可看到如下界面。

    在这里我们就可以免费给全世界超过200个国家的人发短信。但是如图中所显示，中文短信并不支持。目前所发的短信只能使用英文。另外，在给国内朋友发短信时候一定要他们不要随便回复。他们的回复会被作为国际短信处理（一块钱一条）。小心你朋友反应过来砍了你，哈哈。但是进一步的，我们还需要设置Google Voice的转发电话。否则我们除了发短信什么都干不了。毕竟免费拨打美国和加拿大的电话还是很有吸引力的嘛。

    如图所示，我主要是把电话转到了Gimoz5上。说起Gimoz5，还真是笑话。其实我自己都不记得我什么时候注册了这个服务了。本来以为已经享受免费电话无望了，因为Gimoz5已经停止注册了。在百无聊赖之下，我手贱了下，随便填入了我常用的用户名和密码。这时候，奇迹出现了，我居然成功登陆了。我顿时心中狂喜。以至于Bill在Twitter上回复我说：“你狠，在Google Voice出来之前你都想到注册Gimoz5了”。对此，我除了兴奋，就是无奈。毕竟这事情实在是太诡异。

    如下是Gimoz5的页面。通过页面显示的SIP号码可以很方便的去注册IPKall而得到一个美国电话号码。不过我不知道IPKall和直接的Gimoz5号码有什么区别。

    然后我唯一需要做的，就是把所有的Gizmo5的来电都转接到我的Gtalk上（据说Gtalk的转接没有时间限制，而到Skype则有3分钟限制）。其实我遇到的问题是，我转接到Skype以后就从来没有接到过任何Google Voice发起的呼叫。

  3. Google Voice服务的使用

    至此，我们完成了大概所有的设置工作。下来需要解决的就是来发短信和打电话了。在Google Voice网页的左上角，有两个按钮，分别是电话和短信服务。

      

    如果觉得打开网页不方便，则可以试试看Chrome的插件。这样使用起来更加方便。我就是通过插件的提示才看到了我哥的回复。哈哈。插件如下图：

  4. 结语

    通过这个服务，我们着实见识了Googel的强大。其实对我们而言，这个服务主要有两大好处：

    • 免费的短信收发。如果有朋友在美国的话，我们有急事需要联系，那邮件显然不行。而如果是短信，70字/1元的代价实在是高了点。通过Google Voice，我们可以方便的使用免费短信来联系。尽管不能使用中文，我想对经常联系美国的人而言，英语不是大问题吧？
    • 免费的电话。我们知道，有很多服务的客服中心在美国，比如ETS，比如Godaddy等。使用Google Voice我们可以直接使用免费电话跟他们联系。我亲自使用了Google Voice跟夏威夷州的VIP Trans公司联系（这是一家专门负责檀香山国际机场与Wakiki酒店区之间的班车的公司）。在我2M的带宽条件下，尽管偶尔有卡，但是我跟客服小姐的沟通没有问题。而且，客服的语速还是很快的。

    当然，这个服务的缺点也是显而易见的：

    • 网络电话的不确定性。毕竟这个服务是采用电话网络回拨。如果网络条件不好，或者服务载荷过大，通话质量必将下降。
    • 只能拨打美国和加拿大电话。毕竟我的朋友也有人在英国和澳洲。至于天朝？不需要了，我们有善解人意的中国电信、联通和中国移动！
    • 法律问题。严格来说，我们使用虚拟电话激活Google Voice，在美国法律看来，是一项欺诈行为。所以，大家好自为之吧。

Google.cn: Let’s Say Goodbye!

image6[1] If you are familiar with the happenings these months related to the Google in China,  you should not forget the debating several months ago that concerns the exit of Google, a world-famous search engine, from China, a country that is famous around the world for its strict censorship on both Internet and traditional medias, like TV, newspapers and magazines. In fact, in the past few months, majority of Chinese like me, are still holding the hope that the Google should maintain its service in China, with the consideration on the commercial benefit, which, in my opinion, ultimately determines the decision for most businessman.

  1. Google Eventually Leaves China

    However, the exit of Google bring me new understand of the business. Unlike the most common businessman that profit is the only thing they care, the great groups, like Google, make me understand that determination of its own culture and perspective is also essential. Till now, Google is the only company that bring the censorship in China open to the public. Though the censorship policy in China is quite strict and known to the practitioners in the field of media, it is rarely known to most common citizens in China, especially those who are not that familiar with Internet and whose English is not that good to read some articles published overseas.

    If you open Google.cn this morning, you are surprisingly to see the following website, instead of the traditional Google.cn, a special version of Google that meets the censorship requirement in Chinese government:

    On the front page of Google.com.hk, you can observe a short sentence saying “Welcome to the new house of Google Search in China”. Due to the special policy that is adapted in Hong Kong, though it is regarded as a part of territory of PRC, no censorship but only some potential controls on media exists. Following the rules in Hong Kong, Google would face less litigation risk for their oppose to this policy. But the question is that I am wondering whether this site would be forbidden for visit from China. Previous examples for this prohibition includes Yahoo! HK and many BBS in Hong Kong.

  2. Official Annoucements from Google on Its Exit

    An updated version of the announcement is also available in both English and Chinese. Due to the key words that are involved in this article, this article would soon be forbidden, according to the rules of censorship. The only question is that how long it would stay in live. Following are the two pics for this announcement. One in English from the Google Blog,and the other in China from the directly link to Google.com. You can click on the pictures for larger size.

     

  3. Availability of Other Products: Official Evidence

    The other action that Google made is that they expose the existence of GFW. Though it has been understood for most Internet users, it is unwillingly to know for majorities. As a strong evidence that argues the freedom of Internet recently claimed by Chinese officials, a site that detects the availability of some largest Web 2.0 applications around the world for most Internet users in China, without abnormal skills and trainings is now available. For interested readers, you can click here. Following is the result of detection today.

  4. Conclusion

    We are living in a country that regards censorship as a necessary step for filtering ‘unhealthy information’, though porn webs are mostly available. As a good saying goes that, you should try to be accustomed to the environment once you find you can hardly change it. In a country that regards politics as a sensitive term, any discussion on related topics can bring you unexpected consequences. What we can do is to follow the policy, do what we can do, and never try to break the rule.

Google in China: To Be or Not To Be

It would be amazed to see that a young man who works at the computer for eight hours and more that is ignored about Google. For us, the coming out of search engine has changed our lives. Their service make the seeking of specified information from the pool of Internet become easy. Among the numerous search engine, Google is undoubtedly the most famous one due to its advantage on technology and service. And in less than a decade, the Google has developed from a small workshop, settled in a garage, to a global company that integrated various services, like online photo album, Email service, Books, etc. However, it is this large firm that announced his willing of exiting China this morning.

The respect of freedom is a virtue of the Internet, and it is proposed to be a bottom line for Internet as well. In a virtual environment of Internet, people from everyone corner can share their understanding on public affairs, political events, and technical issues. It is the application of the Internet that boost the development of international trading and academic exchange among the institutions around the world. No matter if you are an expert, professor or just an ordinary citizen from a small town, the Internet is served as a public dictionary, from where you can look up historical events, statistical data, or even the pricing vegetables in a town that you are living in. Any attempt on preventing the users of Internet from obtaining certain contents can thus be regarded as a volatility to its virtue, except for some cases like threatens to the national security.

But in a mystery China, everything can happen, including the governmental control of the usage for this network. For decades, the information from the Internet is carefully filtered, which is generally introduced in a previous post. Such filtering also exists on the controlling of paper based materials. Materials and publications that are against the communism are fully controlled, especially when such materials are written in simplified and traditional Chinese, which is comprehensive for most readers hereby. That’s why for decades, the custom between Hong Kong and Mainland is caring much more on the publications within the traveler’s luggage, comparing to the custom in Shanghai, who are welcoming most travelers from US and Europe.

Google’s respect to the virtue of China is apparently conflicting with willing of the Chinese government.  For Google, they are willing to present every result that they can obtain from the Internet based on their automatic indexing service, which is regarded as both the virtue of Internet and their customers. In contrary, for Chinese government, such service may not be that pleasant. Since the result presented by Google can offer news reports and analysis from other news agencies that are inconsistent to the Xinhua News Agency, which is regarded as an authority of news in China. To prevent the readers in China of reaching such ‘invalid information’, the links to the ‘invalid information’ that is regarded by the government would be reset by a firewall, known as GFW. The service of Google would down for minutes when such volatility is detected.

The reset by the GFW greatly reduce the user experience of Google. To reconcile for this action, Google.cn, a special edition of Google in China is coming out. His result is artificially intervened and all the ‘invalid information’ would be excluded. By using Google.cn instead, the user experience is much better, but, the accuracy for the result is totally lost. Frankly, the result presented by the Google.cn is biased, which is criticized by numerous mediums overseas. 

i don’t know if it is the criticism or some other reasons promote Google for an announcement on his official blog this morning. According to the announcement, from today, the Google.cn would stop his artificial intervene and provide unbiased result consistent to the Google.com, his global site. And the Google.cn would be abandoned if the government refuse to accept this decision. It is obviously a good news for most users of Google. However, it means much more than only a piece of good news and the freedom for Internet in China.

Abandoning the Google.cn can directly be regarded as its abandon of markets in China. For Chinese users, Google.com would be their only choice, as what we did prior to the release of Google.cn. But don’t forget that the domain of Google.com can be locked by a firewall, just like what they have done for YouTube, Flicker, Face book, etc. Problems can be more serious if the IP of Google.com is located in the black list  for Email service providers in China. Such action can prevent most Gmail users to the friends in China if they are using the mailbox provided by an national ISP.  It is of some probability to happen due to the official announcement from Google, which shows evidence on the concerns of Email accounts from some persons from the Chinese government.

Besides Email, numerous services would also be unavailable once Google is locked in China. For webmasters of certain websites, including myself, the Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Google Webmasters would out of use. For academic and graduate students, they would never expect the Google Scholar for certain academic references. The life would be totally changed, and we are forced to seek for numerous alternatives for these services. The transition cost can be expected to be large.

I don’t know who would this even further go, but I do appreciate the excellent services that Google has bring us. It is hard to imagine how the life would be once Google is prohibited. Let’s just wait for the governmental response for this announcement.

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