Click-to-Call: Skype 1, Google {Many}
... in a game where, as in golf, the lowest number of strokes wins! Google announced a Click-to-Call feature for Google Maps yesterday. So I go to Google Maps, select Businesses, enter "restaurants" into the Type of Business box and "Mississauga {Home Postal Code}" into the "Where" box. And I get:
Click on B for Golden View Restaurants (where we obtain our annual New Year's Eve party food) and I get the pop-up below on the left. Click on Send to Phone and I get the pop-up asking for my phone number and my carrier -- except there are only U.S. carriers listed (and all Telco 1.0)! 3 clicks plus 10 characters (to enter your phone number). Except I live in Canada ....hmmm ....
Or, since I have installed the Skype 3.0 Beta with its Click-to-Call feature, I can simply pick up my UConnect-enabled Nortel phone, dial **, (or pick up a USB-connected VoIPvoice Cyberphone) and click on the Skypified link under the restaurant's listing on the left:. I then click OK on the "Start SkypeOut" confirmation window. Call initiated; no Telco 1.0 carrier designation required! (And note that Skype 3.0's Click-to-Call recognizes that it is a Canadian phone number.) One click to place the call; one to acknowledge that there could be a charge involved.
A simple example of what Martin is talking about in his Telco 2.0 "Death of the Phone Company" post.
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I understand the technology for this is provided by VoIP, Inc. the same company who has been providing Google's Click to Call service since December 2005. This company also provided the technology behind a promotional campaign for the new season of "America's Next Top Model" on the CW Network which allowed allows fans to send and receive personalized phone messages from Trya Banks, the show's star. he company also worked lk on the successful "Snakes on a Plane" phone campaign that featured the voice of Samuel L. Jackson.
And, in October, VoIP, Inc. began powering what could be the largest Click to Call promotional campaigns ever developed, for the NFL Network.
It's all on their website, www.voipinc.com. Check out TMC's Rich Tehrani's blog about this too: link.
Posted by: TQ | November 17, 2006 09:43 AM