Adwords for the telephone - bad news for your florist.

If one read the patent application RINGBACK ADVERTISING it is apparent that Google will try to monetize their Google Voice offering.

The question Google should ask itself is: Are the public ready for ad-based telephone services? This has been tried a few times on this side of the pond - without success.

I am not a psychologist - but it does not take one to realize that for most people, phone conversations are very personal. Not necessarily personal in a private sense, but in one-on-one kind of communication.

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I am very excited about Google Voice. Really I am, even tho I have stated on several occasions that Google Voice it not very innovative. For all practical purposes it is just Grand Central re-packaged. Grand Central was closed down for a very long time and reborn as Google Voice, it is a bit disturbing to see how few innovative services Google has put into Grand Central, Version 2.0.

This behaviour is really nothing new from Google (or any other big companies buying smaller fish). A lot of times we see when Google acquire a small company, the crowd goes wild, and more often than not, the services simply disappear and is never seen again.

Can we really trust Google (Voice) for our business use?

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