January 30, 2010, 4:35 PM — Google hauled its "click to call" program out of beta this week, enabling one-click calling of participating AdWords advertisers -- but only by smart phone users. Here's why I think a PC or desktop version is coming soon.
With click-to-call, users of iPhones, Android handsets and other phones can click on a link in an ad that connects them to advertisers. It checks in on Google Maps' My Location feature to connect to the closest offices, branches or locations. The feature enables Google to get paid for calls to advertisers in the same way that they get paid for users clicking on links. And it lets the advertisers measure the effectiveness of their ads.
I think a PC version is coming, via Google Voice. The Google Voice service enables users to specify which phones will ring at specific times of day. A PC version of click-to-call might use this information to connect the user to the advertiser by telephone when he or she clicks "click to call" on a PC browser-based ad.
Here's the scenario. You're surfing the Web on your home PC, and you see an ad on a Web page telling you about a half-off promotion for a national pizza chain. The ad has a "click to call" link. You click it, and three seconds later your landline phone rings. You pick up, and you hear the phone on the other end ring once or twice before your neighborhood pizza joint answers the phone to take your order. (It might also ring your cell phone -- it's user-configurable.)
This would likely be coupled with similar functionality with your own address book -- you could call people in your own Google Contacts list by clicking "Call." That would enable Google to sign up millions of Voice users, who might do so mainly to get that convenience, but then also get the click-to-call functionality.
That's my prediction. What do YOU think?
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