GrandCentral gives users single number for everything

SAN DIEGO--For anyone tired of having to keep track of home, office and cell phone numbers, as well as handling voicemail on several phones, a startup called GrandCentral thinks it has the answer.

Fremont, Calif.-based GrandCentral--which is funded by CNET Networks founder Halsey Minor's Minor Ventures--has a new service which is designed to give users a single number regardless of how many phones they have, as well as a single place for checking all voicemails.

The idea is that through a Web interface, users can link all phones to the single number. At the same time, they can link all voicemails to the Web so that they can be listened to from the Web interface. And users can also control which outgoing voicemail message any caller listens to.

That's because all callers can be categorized by whether they're co-workers, friends, family or other. Then, each category of caller can be set for which voicemail they'll hear depending on which phone number they call.

Further, based on which category of caller someone is, users can set the priority of which order their various phones ring in.

There are other services that offer single number functionality, but they seem mostly aimed at the enterprise. GrandCentral is aimed directly at consumers.

It's too early to tell if this is something that users will want en masse. But it does seem to offer organizational benefits, even if it won't keep users from carting around all those different devices.