Today I was reading an article about Google getting into the print magazine advertising business via it’s

AdWords program. The print program is similar to the way ads work online except in print an advertiser gets a photo and a listing about the product. Multiple advertisers would share a page. In the article it mentioned that Google offered advertisers an 800 number that they could use so Goolge could track the ad’s performance. It didn’t seem like this was mandatory but then again this is an experimental program – or so it seems.

I then read Om’s blog where he ties the advertising in print to a pay per call model and further surmises that perhaps Google got into VoIP so they could not compete with Skype as many people believe but instead use VoIP as a basis for a foray into pay per call advertising.

Om could be 100% correct on this but I still think that Google wants to analyze our conversations and play relevant ads as we speak. I also think a natural extension of their business model is to bring up search results on the telephone number when a call comes in. I imagine a tabbed page with information from the Better Business Bureau for telemarketing calls, a White Pages listing, Yellow Pages listings and other directories of interest.

You can take this out to the Nth degree if you think about it. A person calls and their blog comes up along with a photo from Google images.

I see some tight integration between search and incoming phone calls in our future.

I have also surmised in the past that Google can use speech to parse conversations for objectionable content. Companies like SER’s Sertainty product do this in the contact center space already and if you think about it, corporations really don’t have a way to ensure that their workers and call center agents aren’t using profanity and other language that isnt permitted on the telephones. Think about SarBox and HIPAA compliance as just two reasons a corporation needs these sorts of controls. Moreover, call monitoring may be needed to protect trade secrets or even national security?

I imagine Google having the capability to monitor all phone conversations in your organization in real-time and alert the proper people of calls that meet certain filtered requirements.

Of course my predications may be a bit far away so for now, Om… Perhaps you are right and Google is simply trying to a make a buck from pay per call. At least that is the plan today. What will tomorrow bring?