by alec on November 23, 2005
Here’s a Google FAQ on the new Click-to-Call feature they’re testing. (Thanks Randy). It requires some artificial behaviour on the part of the user (filling in the call back number), but this could easily be automated using the Google Desktop form fill feature. That would be a very nice experience then. Click an ad, have the phone ring beside you, and talk to the advertiser.
So, who will get there first with Click-to-Call, Skype/EBay or Google? Will the AdWords bid per click model be better than whatever Skype/EBay is planning, or worse? Will Adsense publishers participate in the revenue stream? Will EBay build a context-driven advertising business, too?
The mind reels…
Update: Good posting with some screen shots from Tom Keating. Greg Yardley has some screen shots too.
by alec on November 23, 2005
Vijay Anand is a young Indian entrepreneur who I’ve been corresponding with about Voice 2.0, recently. He’s put up a blog of his own called Technological Musings, and recently written an article in which he asks whether the current crop of VoIP entrepreneurs are barking up the wrong tree. He writes:
VoIP has no future unless it makes the leap into the next phase of voice communications, which many have termed as Voice 2.0
Maybe its time to look at this whole system in a new way. I sometimes wonder if technologists give the masses way less merit than they deserve. If the end-user was able to adapt to giving out email addresses and their IM details on their business card, and the even more current blogging address as well, it shows they are more than capable of adopting a new standard and method of being in touch. The rest will eventually catch up.
Of course scraping the whole system and designing a new one is a long process and what is happening right now will probably be the best route to take – make a transitional medium before switching completely to voice networks. But the point is the reminder that what we are getting to, is just a transitional network. I really hope the industry players, the entrepreneurs and the investors will remember that.
Here here!
