Google Voice: Will the masses adopt it?

Google Voice is now open for business for everyone in the U.S. Now we'll get to see how Google really does as a telecom switchboard.

The search giant's Voice service is very handy. It's a central switchboard that rings all of your numbers. Those of us that have used it seem to like it. However, Google's Voice was basically a big invite-only experiment.

In a blog post, Google claims to have more than 1 million active users so far, but it has been unclear how widely adopted this application can be. Now we're about to find out.

Among the key questions we'll have as Google Voice goes public:

• How many active users will Google Voice get on a constant rate?
• Can the service grow beyond the early adopter types?
• Will the average bear use their Google number as their primary one?
• How active will these average Joes and Jills be on Google Voice?

Make no mistake: Google Voice is a great service. But the real proof will be in the adoption rates well beyond the geek set.