Grand Central's Grand Oops!

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At least it happened over the weekend. Still for $50 million, Google probably doesn't expect it's new Web 2.0 media darling and online phone company to go down.

That's what happened, however. Grand Central was down for the count all morning yesterday with no calls going through.

That's a big problem when you consider, as the name would indicate, Grand Central is all about putting all your phone numbers in one basket.

That's a basket that can't afford to be dropped.

Grand Central is a great idea; consolidating all your numbers (home phone, business line, cell phones, etc.) into one place where you can check voicemail, forward calls, program all your lines to ring regardless of which number is called.

Couple of points to make in the wake of yesterday's wake-up call (that didn't go through; how many plays on words can I fit in one sentence?).

- Grand Central is still in beta.
- It did happen on a Sunday morning, rather than a Tuesday afternoon.
- Grand Central's official statement from a guy named "Craig" according to his blog, casually apologized to users explaining their was a power problem at their Colorado facility, He admits being slow on the take himself to respond since he was out of cell phone range up in the mountains with his family (overshare Craig!).
- I'm assuming Craig is in charge of Grand Central. I'm also assuming Craig is a young CEO/President who hasn't fullly realized he no longer is running a little ole startup, but a $50 million dollar Google investment. (I'm actually not just assuming on his job title. I cicked around until I confirmed that. But, I find it irritating and unprofessional that it's not apparant up front on his blog).

Memo to Craig: your "oops" days are over.

Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987.