Adwords

Pudding Media would like to do for your phone calls what Google AdWords does for your inbox: make it free, by giving advertisers access to you during your call. They accomplish this magic by listening in on the call for specific keywords, and then pushing the advertising back to a PC based on what you're talking about.

Sound a little big brotherish? Yup. Will people do it? Bet on it! Today's web surfer willingly lets Google read his or her inbox, surrenders a cookied click trail to whatever site asks, and walks the downtown streets under the unblinking stare of thousands of surveillance cameras. Letting Pudding Media eavesdrop on calls just won't seem that scary.

Yeah, it's probably not going to be a compelling proposition to start. The likelihood is that it will be a little clunky, and people cautious. But sure as water flows down hill, we're going to have advertising on our telephones… relevant, contextually targeted advertising.

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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.

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