TechCrunch is reporting that some users of the GrandCentral phone number-aggregation service, which was bought by Google back in July, are getting e-mails from Google informing them that there are quality problems with their GrandCentral phone numbers. In response, their current GrandCentral numbers will go away, and they'll be assigned new ones.
The e-mails say that this switch affects only a small number of GrandCentral users, but it flies in the face of the original idea of the service--which is that your GrandCentral number would never, ever change. (The current GrandCentral site seems to downplay the "One Number...For Life" notion, but it's still there in some places.)
I dunno about the specific technical issues involved, but this snafu is a useful reminder of one of the basic facts about Web services, especially free ones: If anybody guarantees you anything about them, the best response is healthy skepticism. Everything about 'em is subject to change; even ones with a good track record of reliability and lots of resources behind them may go dead without warning.
For the record, I have a GrandCentral number, but haven't received any word that there are problems with it.
This GrandCentral move comes on the heels of Google's recent decision to shut down Google Video's purchase and rental options. People who'd purchased videos from Google--including me--got e-mails that said "After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased
or rented videos." The money we'd paid was refunded in the form of e-coupons which can be spent only at Web stores that use Google Checkout.
Which means, of course, that we hadn't "bought" anything at all--when Google decided to shut down its Digital Rights Management system, we lost access to our "purchases." I'd call that more of a flat-fee rental system, subject to cancellation at Google's whim...
Every time this kind of stuff happens--and as Web services become more and more core to our personal and professional lives, it'll happen more and more--I'm reminded of what Pogo's friend Porkypine said about life: "Don't take [it] so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent."
UPDATE: GrandCentral co-founder Vincent Paquet e-mailed Om Malik with the number of GrandCentral users whose numbers are being switched: 434. Not completely minuscule, but the vast majority of GrandCentral users will be unaffected.
