Will Google Voice be the end of voice mail as we know it?  No more waiting to be in a quiet place, or to have a pen that works to write down messages?  No more struggling to catch just the key information?

Google Voice is the planned upgrade from www.grandcentral.com – Google’s one-stop-shop for Google technology on your mobile phone.  According to the Google Voice website, the app will be available shortly.  If you want to be notified of it’s arrival, just enter your e-mail address on the Google Voice Invite Page.

In the meantime, here’s the article You Have No New Messages – Ever by Slate.com’s Farhad Manjoo, where Manjoo talks about the declining usefulness of voicemail in a world of expanding communication options, at the same time as a desperate need of simplification.

And here’s some Google Voice ammo from the NY Times, “You’ve Got Voicemail, But Do You Care?” about how voice mail has lost it’s faithful following to e-mail, text messaging, and even social media sites like Facebook.

So my question is, with the new technology, and in the interest of increasing office productivity and simplifying communication, are we ready to do away with voice mail?

The jury is still out on that one, probably.  What do you think?  Please comment!