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Google's New Click-to-Call Service 288

Posted by samzenpus from the let-google-do-the-walking dept.
teknopagan writes "Google has debuted a new service called Click-to-Call, in which they will connect you by phone to any of their advertisers. You click a phone icon next to the ad, enter your phone number, and Google calls you and connects you for free to the advertiser."
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Google's New Click-to-Call Service More

Google's New Click-to-Call Service

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  • Are they using Asterisk? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by XorNand ( 517466 ) * on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:22PM (#14104785)
    Pure genius.

    I'd love to know the technology behind this. Given Google's commitment to FOSS, I would venture to guess that they are using Asterisk [asterisk.org] somewhere in the mix since it's one of the most flexible and mature open source telephony projects. However, Asterisk isn't known for scaling very well when you start talking about enterprise level installs. In fact, one of the biggest complaints of the Asterisk community is that VoIP providers routinely hack the source to improve scalability and stability, but then never release those changes back to the project. If indeed Google is using Asterisk, it will be interesting to see how much they support the developer community.

    • Re:Are they using Asterisk? (Score:5, Informative)

      by sr180 ( 700526 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:42PM (#14104921) Journal
      Asterisk isnt really appropriate for this. They dont want to build a call server or PBX equivalent. They need an IVR that simply makes calls and connects the two parties. Something like Telco Perl [skunkworks.net.au] is much more appropriate for this.

    • Re:Are they using Asterisk? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Justifiable_Delusion ( 759339 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:44PM (#14104933) Homepage
      I must say...Google continues to astound me. Continually they offer services which rewrite the rulebook. They are moving forward into new areas while others are simply wading and reacting, hoping to catch crumbs and turn them into silver while Google is reaping a harvest of diamonds and platinum. There is a reason google's tock just broke 400 and flew past it. And there is a reason they are hiring teh greatest minds in our country.

      I for one welcome our new search engine overlords...who knew?
    • For people like me who prefer phone communications over e-mail(*Prepares sheild for attack*), this is the best technology that I SHOULD have thought of first. And to think, I'd have made a killing if I just saved that damn dinner napkin....

    • Re:Are they using Asterisk? (Score:5, Funny)

      by poopdeville ( 841677 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:04PM (#14105036)
      Pure genius.

      Indeed. I'm going to start making google prank call my friends immediately!

      • Re:Are they using Asterisk? (Score:4, Funny)

        by FuturePastNow ( 836765 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @10:58PM (#14105587)
        Don't be evil.

    • Re:Are they using Asterisk? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I used to work for a small data switching telco (which was later bought up by a larger company, and 90% of us were fired or left within 3 months). Anyhow, we had a private fork of Asterisk for our use. I and 3 others spent a fair amount of time trying to deal with the stability/scalability issues. We tried getting our changes merged back into the official version, but there were a number of key architectural changes that need to be made, and Mark Spencer was a complete asshole. We thought of releasing ou
    • No, this is just some lame tech that's been around for a couple of years on some yellow pages-type sites. Almost nobody uses it. I'm not sure which companies offer this, but I do know it's available. Vonage's Click 2 Call is the exact same technology, although I'm not sure if it's available for this use or not (http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=click _ 2_call [vonage.com]).

      Quit heaping the praise on Google when they don't deserve it. They've done enough cool things that they don't need to get credit when they do

  • I can see someone abusing this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snarfangel ( 203258 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:22PM (#14104787) Homepage
    ..especially if they have the phone number of someone they don't like.
    • That's interesting. *click* Though I don't see *click* why anyone would be *click* so *click* mean *click* and nasty to annoy people *click* with constant *click* phone *click* ringing in real life. *click*

    • Re:I can see someone abusing this (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nmb3000 ( 741169 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:58PM (#14105005) Journal
      I can see someone abusing this

      That's a good point.

      It also raises the question: How will this interact with the Do Not Call bill that was passed a while ago? According to the bill, companies that have a past relationship with you are exempt from the blacklist. If you put your number into one of these boxes are you opening yourself up to get calls from hundreds of telemarketing companies all under one big corporate umbrella?

      This is Slashdot, yet I haven't seen anyone concerned about privacy yet. I guess that since we're talking about Google, all anyone can do is "Oooh" and "Aaah" over this. Depending on how this is implemented, it could open the door for all sorts of problems with privacy and annoying telemarketers.

      •   Mod parent up please, the question about the Do Not Call bill is an excellent one, especially considering the potential for abuse.

          Any thoughts? I can't honestly see an easy way to prevent this from being abused easily.

        SB
        • Mod parent up please, the question about the Do Not Call bill is an excellent one, especially considering the potential for abuse.

          Any thoughts? I can't honestly see an easy way to prevent this from being abused easily.

          SB

          They problably cross reference, they may not call a number more then once every 20 min and maybe no more then 3 times a day. That would be enough for ads but would not be harassment. They might also figure the local area via the area code and limit calls after hours.
          • If someone, say, sent a few hundred invitations and used my work number, I'd be more than seriously annoyed at even three times a day. In a busy work environment unsolicited calls are a real pain in the ass, and at home I've very much enjoyed being on the DNC list.

            Maybe Google should consider an "opt-out" list that gets parsed to limit calls. I imagine it could be done with a simple webform (and perhaps one could even choose a few "search terms" for opt-IN possibilities). It would have to be a seri

      • Re:I can see someone abusing this (Score:5, Informative)

        by shawb ( 16347 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:39PM (#14105219)
        Google doesn't give the phone number to the advertiser. They delete your number after a short time. At least according to their privacy statement. Doing otherwise could open them up to litigation.

        •   How does that stop someone who wants to effectively DDOS a phone number from clickety-clicking?

            Or am I missing something here, not having yet read ATC (All The Comments)? ;-)

            I want an opt-out list I can join, please.

          SB
      • It also raises the question: How will this interact with the Do Not Call bill that was passed a while ago? According to the bill, companies that have a past relationship with you are exempt from the blacklist. If you put your number into one of these boxes...

        RTFA. "We won't share your telephone number with anyone, including the advertiser. When you're connected with the advertiser, your number is blocked so the advertiser can't see it. In addition, we'll delete the number from our servers after a short pe

    • ...in which they will connect you by phone to any of their advertisers.

      RTF...blurb?

  • Phone Sex (Score:5, Funny)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:22PM (#14104789) Homepage
    Not that this is the first and only thing in my mind, but if phone sex operators are using this service......
    • Wouldn't that mean free phone sex, since you don't get charged for the call?
      I don't think that's gonna work.
      • "We will need your credit card # to continue this call." They have to make money somehow... this just means that no long distance charges are incured by the caller or the company. Although I'm sure the cost will be just wrapped up in the google advertising fee.

  • recording. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    are they recording the call as well?

  • all right! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:23PM (#14104797)
    prank calls have now reached a new frontier!

  • privacy vs authentication (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anakron ( 899671 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:24PM (#14104799)
    How do they make sure that the number entered is indeed from the person interested in the product? What stops me from entering (say) Darl McBride's number a million times?

    • Re:privacy vs authentication (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Because they will be building a phone book. Actually they will be building a huge personal profile, that just happens to include your phone number. When their database is big enough, they will realize that you're entering someone else's number, because it will be associated with someone else.

      Or even simpler, maybe they can simply offer up a "do not call this number" feature. It will be interesting to see if they do or don't do this.

      Moreover, what's to stop you from publishing Darl's phone number right no

      • Because they will be building a phone book. Actually they will be building a huge personal profile, that just happens to include your phone number.

        Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. Their FAQ doesn't allay my fears much, either:

        3. Is this just a way for Google to track me?
        No. We take your privacy very seriously.... In addition, we retain your information (including your phone number, date, time, and call length) only temporarily. It will be deleted from our servers after a period reasonably nec

    • Same thing that stops you from entering Darl McBride's email address into a million "please spam me" websites:

      (1) you have to know the (correct) contact information
      (2) you have to be a jerk
      (3) the middleman must not notice

      Basically nothing stops that from happening now. Since Google will formalize this system, it will be quite easy to write a script to enter someone's phone number repeatedly, causing that person to get an enormous flood of calls. However, since Google is acting as the middleman for the call

    • Re:privacy vs authentication (Score:5, Interesting)

      by XorNand ( 517466 ) * on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:46PM (#14104947)
      If I were designing the system, the service would call you first and when you answered, it would say "This is Google Click-to-call. Press 1 to connect to the advertiser, press 2 if you didn't make this request". If you pressed 2, it would blacklist the number for a while.

      The biggest bummer for some advertisers is that I doubt that it'll work for callers behind a phone system and without a direct number. The callback number will just go to a receptionist or to IVR (auto-attendant) greeting. There goes much of B2B market.
      • The biggest bummer for some advertisers is that I doubt that it'll work for callers behind a phone system and without a direct number. The callback number will just go to a receptionist or to IVR (auto-attendant) greeting. There goes much of B2B market.

        Great, so we need PH#v6 to get true P2P phone systems...
      • I'd replace your suggestion with one closer to the 'opt-in' end of the spectrum:

        The first time you want to make such a call to a number, Google doesn't immediately call you; instead, you must call first. Google gives you an 800 number and a PIN. User calls Google and enters the PIN. If the caller ID gives the same number as what was entered, it puts the call through to the most recently requested company, and from then on will call like as before.

  • If Google knows everything (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:24PM (#14104803)
    Don't they know the reason that I use the web is because I don't like the phone?

    • Re:If Google knows everything (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kebes ( 861706 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:33PM (#14104860) Journal
      True... often I use the web because it's much more efficient than trying to talk to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

      On the other hand, one thing I hate about calling a business is that I have to wait on hold for a very long time. Wouldn't it make more sense for me to give them my phone number, and then they can call me when they have a rep available? I'll be in my office all day... and typically I don't get as many calls as they do, so when they call I probably won't be busy. It just makes sense.

      And besides, if I'm thinking about buying a product, and then I have to wait on hold, I'll probably give up and not buy it. If, on the other hand, I can just type in my number and wait for the vendor to get hold of me, then it's much more likely to work out for everyone (me and vendor). I know in the past I've done this before with some companies. They have a web form, you enter the info, and a short while later you get a phone call from someone (who has presumably read your question/request and is ready with an answer/offer). Google is formalizing this system, making it a snap to put customers in touch with companies.

      In short, I think it's a good idea.
    • I agree. But sometimes you're forced to use the phone. Tech support, for instance. It would be really nice if I could navigate all those cursed telephone menus on the web, and THEN click to call. Are you listening, Dell?

    • Don't they know the reason that I use the web is because I don't like the phone?

      Don't you know that you don't have to use this service if you don't want to?
  • Wow, a useful and impressive innovation, although I'm certain that the "Live Chat" software providers are probably stewing in their cauldron over this one. I wonder, though: could this be abused by phreakers? With the digital age of IP Telephony, let us live in interesting times! ~d

  • Brilliant idea. (Score:5, Funny)

    by xdroop ( 4039 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:26PM (#14104813) Homepage Journal
    Here I am looking at male enhancement products... what's Taco's phone number again?
    • You make a joke out of this, but it raises a serious issue. What is stopping a malicious party from using this as a prank calling service? Just keep feeding numbers into it that you dont like.
    • Great. Give it two weeks and he'll end each story with "BTW, I'm typing this with my penis." Just let it be.

  • Your phone number (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ornil ( 33732 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:27PM (#14104821)
    According to the FAQ the advertiser can't see your phone number, so they can't add you to their list and annoy you if you decide not to order anything from them. That's pretty nice.
    • Google most likely acts as a middle man.

      They call you AND the advertiser, then connect together when both callers are ready. I also agree with above posters, Asterisk is most likely being used here. Other programs/systems like it cost INSANE amounts of money. In-house then releasing it to the community is probably alot cheaper. FOSS that really works!

  • Example? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Prometheus+Bob ( 755514 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:28PM (#14104828)
    Does anyone have an example of a link that shows this? I've tried googling IBM, business, computer...I cant find where this mythical phone icon is I should be looking for.
  • The reason is (or seems to be) that Google blocks your number from them. The advertiser can't see your number. I guess that means you won't get telemarketing calls or something?

    How long until they integrate this with Google Talk?
    • Ok, but we have this now withh caller ID blocking...

      More worrysome is that there doesn't appear to be any way of checking that the phone number you enter is yours. There are other ways of playing phone pranks on people but Google has just made it single click convenient!

      I really don't see any purpose for this whatsoever. If we need something like this, I'd rather have my browser place the call to the company directly via VOIP by clicking on an icon than have google place the call for me and "promise" not to
    • Not every company has a toll-free number. So now you can talk on the phone with them and not pay long distance charges.
       

  • just a thought (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ladyjane_calm ( 919495 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:30PM (#14104842)
    will our children mock google the way our generation mocks microsoft?
    • Yes. You know kids tomorrow. I have to walk uphill through three feet of snow to get to school. Kids tomorrow won't understand that.

      They'll probably be on my lawn, too.

    • Re:just a thought (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AndroidCat ( 229562 )
      Like the way we were mocking IBM not that long ago? Yes, but don't let that bother you. By then they'll teenagers and you'll have other things to worry about.
    • In five years, Slashdot commenters/editors will mock Google the way they mock Yahoo! today. Google will be evil in the eyes of some, there will be zealots who preach both extremes, and there will be other companies (Google cast-offs among their employees) that will be doing the next generation of Cool Stuff.

      Slashdot is basically a tech gossip site. If something's not new and fun, it doesn't get attention here.

    • Re:just a thought (Score:3, Insightful)

      by killjoe ( 766577 )
      Lets hope so. The alternative is that our grandchildren will still be mocking microsoft just like we are mocking them now.

  • Wow...too bad it is restricted to Google... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by skogs ( 628589 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:31PM (#14104846) Journal
    I wish this was everywhere. Not necessarily because I want to talk to every advertiser, but because I would love to be able to talk to these jerks sometimes. Really, if you got a spam email, wouldn't it be better if you could then just click, and be connected with them and tell them what you think about their -bodypart- enhancement, or their new guaranteed -success at something-? This would be an excellent feedback mechanism to increase the cost of internet advertising so that every hokey jerk out there cannot bombard me mindlessly. I enjoy google ads, I like those for the most part, and the do work. Targeted ads work. I wish I could provide feedback to the dimwads that do not target their marketing. I wish I could feeback to those that abuse my bandwidth.
    • If you want to give them feedback, Don't do it over the phones, not to their marketting agents, I work tech support on the phones, and if someone has a problem with their computer that's fine, I'll fix it, but if they have a problem with the manufacturer (Who shall remain nameless), that's really not my concern, if you voice your complaint to me in a civil manner, I'll accept it kindly and make you feel better, then forget about it in 5 seconds, otherwise if you get mad and scream, I might do something to a

  • awesome (Score:4, Insightful)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <(circletimessquare) (at) (gmail.com)> on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:35PM (#14104873) Homepage Journal
    why ddos someone's website when you can ddos their phone network

    is that all of the telephones ringing in the office at the same time i hear?

  • If I go to google.com on my PDA phone, Google forwards me to http://www.google.com/pda [google.com]

    If I do a standard google search such as John Johnson, Chicago, IL it'll list all the phone numbers, and if I click on a number, it will automatically load up my phone dialer and begin dialing.

    This IS a little different from the Click-to-Call, but it has been part of Google's PDA services for well over a year. I use it every day (I hate saving contacts if I don't have to).

    I read on some SEO forums that Click-to-Call wa

  • Old News.... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Amazon has been doing Click To Call via A9 yellow pages for some time now. It's not terribly useful to when you sitting at the computer with a phone right next to you, but I've used it when people call me looking for a phone number. Put their's in, and they don't have to worry about looking it up.
  • My ex once worked for an outfit in England that had a service like this for websites. Cellular Services Development I think they were called. Their service was called 'contact me' and the way she described it sounds identical to this. That was about six years ago.

  • Cool idea (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AutopsyReport ( 856852 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:41PM (#14104914)
    Okay, cool idea. Except how many people actually click their ad links (I've never clicked one in my life), let alone would actually call these advertisers?
    • I actually click quite a few adverts. For example, I was looking for a diabetic-safe cake for my mothers birthday. Couldn't find any local, so I searched for recipes, and saw a few adverts.

      I clicked on a couple to see what they offered. After all, it didn't cost me anything - and it gave me a great way to come up with a recipe I was able to get a local company to make up for it.

      Sure, I probably should have ordered it from the website I clicked to, but then again - I don't really think that a cake would ship
  • I've done some searches for seemingly common things, and I haven't seen this phone icon yet. Anybody have a live one?

    -b
  • Is it wrong if I use this new service just so I can say Google called me? :(

  • Trolling (Score:2, Funny)

    by bprime ( 734645 )
    I'll confess: I'm basically going to use this to troll people I don't like by entering their phone numbers in ads for "freehotsex.com" or whatever.
    • I'm afraid that would qualify as sexual haraassment and I bet Google could track your IP. After all it says that your personal details are deleted "shortly"

  • Click-to-Call? Come on...where's the G? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ip_freely_2000 ( 577249 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @08:49PM (#14104962)
    What a boring name. No GClick, GCall, or G-Click-to-Call?

    They just don't put the effort into their naming schemes like they used to.

  • Debut nothing. (Score:2, Informative)

    by NoGuffCheck ( 746638 )
    This has been around for years in the UK. I used to work for a company that used the service(A very large mobile phone retailer). Let me tell you, as a call centre rep who took the calls it was total bollocks most of the time. Dead lines from people who change their mind, and worse just people not knowing what their doing. Its very gooods though for people who cant pick up a phone and dial. But what the hell do they want with a mobile phone anyway??
  • No WAY am I giving my phone number up to some shonky web form, even if it is Google.

  • Google Space launched too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lord Satri ( 609291 ) <alexandrelerouxNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:08PM (#14105064) Homepage Journal
    Busy day for Google?
    The Mysan website announces the new Google Space for London's Heathrow Airport [mysan.de]. From the article: "A half of British passengers surveyed said they had nothing better to do in airport terminals than eat, drink and shop. [...] To answer this demand, on Thursday 24 November, Google is launching Google Space at Heathrows Terminal One. Google Space is a laboratory comprising Google pods, which travellers can access for free once through security to log onto the Internet, check their mail and use Google tools to find out about their destination."

  • :D (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HunterZ ( 20035 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:33PM (#14105180) Journal
    Sweet! Now I'm just waiting for someone write some bots to connect advertisers to EACH OTHER! Phone DoS!

  • jumping on the bandwagon (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eagl ( 86459 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:46PM (#14105252) Journal
    Maybe I'm just easily excitable but that sounds like a neat idea. Cross-license with ebay and skype, flavor with paypal, and you can call from your computer and buy stuff without picking up the phone or even pulling out your credit card to read out the numbers or giving your address.

    Yea it's consumerism and capitalistic BS, but who wouldn't give a pinky finger to have the rights to the tech and marketing concept?

  • Google is great. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rice_burners_suck ( 243660 ) on Wednesday November 23, 2005 @09:47PM (#14105258)
    They are quite imaginative in their approach to advertising. I wonder if the advertiser will have to pay Google each time someone is connected via phone (for other than phone charges), and whether, as an advertiser, you can limit the number of phone calls that will take place (to, say, five per hour), in case you're just a small business without hundreds of operators standing by.
  • I advertise through google, and they have my Cell number on record. The last thing I want is to have everybody on the internet start "automatically" calling me on it!

    I hope that this feature is not enabled by default.

  • Google's New Free Anonymous Online Dating Service.

    Finally, I can talk dirty to call-center chicks with complete anonymity, without paying a dime.
  • Just for fun, google "private jet" or "fur coat" and open the google ads in a new tab. Each ad makes a few bucks for google and drains the high end advertisers.

  • Why calls? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Rirath.com ( 807148 )
    I can't say I quite follow Google's logic here. Google is already doing enough things "on their dime", without paying for searchers to call advertisers. What are they, a phone company now? I can only think of a few reasons you'd want to call an advertiser, and any decent company will typically have a 1-800 number. Even if they don't, unlimited long distance either through your local phone company or your mobile carrier is pretty common.

    Furthermore, this is going to cost the companies regardless. Sur

  • I can see it now... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cwsulliv ( 522390 ) * <cwsulliv@triad.rr.com> on Thursday November 24, 2005 @12:57AM (#14106038)
    Google connects you to the advertiser and you get the usual recorded announcement: "Please hold for the next available operator. Due to the high volume of calls this may take some time. For faster service please visit our website."
       

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