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Russell Mickler, Principal Consultant, has over 17 years of professional experience leading and managing IT organizations.
Use Google for Free Telephone Calls
Written on January 9, 2007
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Want to make freebie phone calls and have Google pay for the long distance? The technology is called Click-to-Call by Google and here’s how it works:
1. Use Google Maps to locate an address.
2. Expand the map to view it in large mode.
3. View the target – a content balloon will expand on the screen.
4. An option to _call_ the location will be available.
5. If you click-to-call, you’re asked for your telephone number.
6. Google then calls _you_, and when you pick up your phone, you’re connected to the destination.
Here’s a simple screen shot:
This service started around the end of November 2006 so I’m probably a little late on the uptake. A couple of comments on this.
1. Hey, it’s free, and who wants to refuse a free lunch?
2. No extra software, cords, microphones, or speaker-tweaking necessary.
3. Google does have a terse FAQ on this: http://www.google.com/help/faq_clicktocall.html
4. Connectivity is provided by a mysterious unnamed 3rd party vendor. The privacy policy swears that they don’t use the information for marketing purposes (ahem…)….
5. According to the privacy policy, the numbers you enter are stored briefly on the server and then periodically deleted, not used for additional search criteria for their engine (which I find suspicious – why else would Google want to do this)?
6. The click-to-call may actually end up as a charge-back advertising expense to the advertiser. Some of the blogs I’m reading suggest that this integration with Maps is the same as the integration with AdWords.
When I made the call, I could tell it was VOIP and the QoS was questionable; the call quality improved as the call went on, and by the end of it, the call was crystal clear.
I’m just left wondering what’s up – what’s Google doing here and how are they using this information? Maybe I’m just too paranoid…. then again…. what if Google could flip their call logs for telemarketing research? Eeek! “Do No Evil”, eh?