Ever wanted to comment on a Facebook comment, but you weren’t sure that the comment would be taken the right way? This is not an unusual feeling with Facebook or any online communication media. Because it is difficult (even with the help of emoticons) to express the emotion or inflections behind the comment via text, one can often find himself or herself not saying anything rather than risking misinterpretation.

After many entries to this blog –several relating to the Google Voice service – it is likely very apparent that I am a big fan of the service. Such a big fan, in fact, that I often find myself cringing when new services attempt to compete. But, getting props from the tech blogging gurus at Tech Crunch this week is a new iPhone application that many feel has some advantages to the much beloved Google Voice.

It is no secret that a few months ago Skype and Verizon partnered to make a major landmark for VoIP and mobile communication. Since their partnership, the number of Skype calls has grown by a large margin and that number is sure to sky rocket even further in the upcoming months. This is due to two special announcements and some really ingenious advertising.

If you’ve been reading this blog, then you already know the answer. Nevertheless, let us take a look at another example of the competition Google faces with their new phone/voicemail service recently released to the public.

Quite a while ago I wrote about a company that intended to sue Google over patent infringement. The company called One Number threatened to sue Google for patent infringement as a result of their service, Google Voice. The Patents in question were numbers 7,680,256 and 7,440,565. They essentially spoke of a service that offered one number calling to a variety of phone lines. Now, months later, just as Google Voice brings it service to the American public, it faces another patent infringement accusation. This time however, the other player is not small, nor willing to easily back down.

Visual voicemail has been around for some time, so why are lots of companies making it their major selling point?