Assuming the comment claiming to be from David Pogue is actually from Pogue, this whole blog post seems to be 100% speculation.

from what i understand from an employee-friend, the pogue comment is correct and they are preparing for the release of grandcentral 2.0, which would make this article completely false speculation.

Glad to hear it. I switched to GrandCentral as my main contact number back when Google bought them since I figured they'd be around for a while, but have been rather concerned with the downtime/SSL expirations/domain screwups. If 2.0's coming soon I think I can hold off to see what's in store - most of the time the service works as advertised.

Grand Central isn't going anywhere...everyone saw Google pruning their offerings now they are expecting full scale cuts.

Relax people Google still makes money, lots of it. They are just being a responsible company looking out for their future.

This article is mere speculation. However, It would help if someone from Google said something about Grandcentral's future considering the service has gone nowhere in a long time.

Hm, seems to be up now.

I'm thinking this is pure fud.