Google Tests Click-To-Call
from the click-ring dept
Google's started testing a click-to-call service that connects consumers to advertisers over traditional phone lines. Consumers click a button, enter their phone number, and the service calls them and the advertiser, and Google pays for the call. It's not too revolutionary, just the evolution of the 1-800 number, really, but it's yet another tool in Google's growing arsenal of types of advertising it sells. The only question is how Google managed to get this going so much faster than eBay -- after all, offering a service like this that links eBay buyers and sellers was part of the reason they dropped $4 billion on Skype.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
You think eBay sellers want to answer calls??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: You think eBay sellers want to answer calls??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: You think eBay sellers want to answer calls??
There are still lone sellers on EBay?
I can see why they did it... mostly because they seem to be firmly entrenched in providing a portal for distribution businesses...
The woman selling reconditioned antiques out of her basement, on the otherhand, is mostly forgotten, as one-offs make a lot less coin than 50 odd "buy now" Crapco USB hubs.
Not that I'm bitter or anything. I just miss the old days... you know, when E-Bay was an online auction site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: You think eBay sellers want to answer calls??
But there is a huge group of sellers who run their listings like its still 1995.
Personally, I love it when I see a seller who won't ship outside the 48 states, won't take PayPal, won't stand behind their merchandise, and has thousands of nasty words about what will happen to you if you don't pay.
It's another sale for me.
My phone number has been in my listings for a long time and I've never gotten a call. (I'm not a total idiot, however. It's an 800 number that rings to my cell phone. I can turn off the phone at night, and I can change the number in a flash if I run into some crazed individual.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
telephone numbering system
Bira Rai
birarai
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
One Click
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: One Click
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: One Click
[ link to this | view in chronology ]