Free Calling From GMAIL: Ringin’ The Register For Google?

Free Calling From GMAIL: Ringin’ The Register For Google?

via OnSIP blogs by rob on 9/7/10

Many people have speculated why Google is giving away free voice calls from Gmail. “SKYPE killer!” “A shot across the bow of Facebook!” “The beginning of the end of every non-Google social anything!”

But maybe it’s just more of the same from Google.

According to Google's First Quarter 2010 10-Q, 97% of revenue comes from advertising. No matter how you slice it, Google is in the advertising business, not the telephone business, or any other business for that matter.

By allowing people to make phone calls out of Gmail, is it possible Google is simply trying to get people to stare at their open Gmail web pages, filled with ads? Consider this:

Math Alert: Google's cost per minute of a phone call = 1.5 cents (assumption)
Google's average revenue per Adwords click = $3.00 (giant assumption, but probably not a bad one based on our experience).

That means Google is making money if you click on an ad more often than once for every 200 minutes you are on a call using outbound calling from Gmail.

A hug for anyone who just realized that Google is attempting to get your eyeballs on ad supported content wherever and whenever possible. Don’t be sad; it’s a fact of life that nothing is free.

Here’s more:
Consider another possible benefit ($$$) to Google in exchange for “free” calls from Gmail:

Let's say you are currently using a free Gmail account, but access your mail via POP or IMAP on your computer mail client (Outlook, Mac Mail, etc.) Now that you can make an occasional free call using Gmail, you might consider ditching the desktop client for the Gmail browser interface. What's that worth to Google? I'm guessing, a LOT!

More math:
I received 80 emails yesterday. I read them all via Mac Mail. If I had read them in Gmail, how many ads would I have seen? 50? 100? More? Let's say 50 to be conservative. How much revenue is that for Google? Assume an average ad impression generates 1 cent for Google (which is conservative from our experience). That’s 50 cents worth of revenue to Google, or about 30 minutes of outbound calling using Gmail calling.

So, if I spend less than 30 minutes a day on the phone and use Gmail, Google is cashing in on me, regardless of whether I click on an ad or not!

I’m guessing, someone at Google did this math and concluded a pitch to management with a big

CHA-CHING!

Smile and dial, Gmail users. (But, please keep your eyes on the screen while talking!)

Mobilna telefonija na pohodu | Dnevnik

Odhodni promet fiksne telefonije se je tako v prvem letošnjem polletju zmanjšal za dobrih enajst odstotkov. Na drugi strani pa so uporabniki mobilnega omrežja v prvem polletju letos v letni primerjavi ustvarili 7,1 odstotka večji odhodni promet, kar je povzročil predvsem dvig prometa, omejenega na domača omrežja, saj je promet, ustvarjen s klici v tujino, ostal praktično nespremenjen.
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Poleg rastočega števila minut pogovorov pa se v mobilni telefoniji še bolj drastično povečuje število SMS-sporočil, kar ob mnogih ponudbah paketov mobilnih operaterjev niti ne preseneča. SMS-sporočil je bilo tako v prvem letošnjem polletju poslanih približno toliko kot v vsem letu 2008.

via dnevnik.si

FriendCaller Shows There is Voice Beyond Skype: Tech News «

FriendCaller, a browser-based click-to-call voice calling service developed by the Dortmund, Germany-based startup C 2 Call, is once again showing that despite Skype’s monstrous market share, the game isn’t over just yet. The company is adding over 15,000 new users every day. In past three months it has added a million new subscribers for a total of 1.4 million to date. So far, these folks are making about 250,000 calls a day.

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FriendCaller is a simple and barebones free phone service and in that lies its beauty. In order to make phone calls, you don’t need any special software — a 750 kilobyte Java-based soft client downloads and loads up inside a web browser. You can sign in using Facebook, but it is not necessary. FriendCaller gives you a special link (CallMe links) to share via social networks, email and instant message. Your friends can click and call you, and they don’t need to register with the service. In addition, the company has special FriendCaller apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Facebook.

If you wish to make phone calls to external phones outside the C2Call’s footprint, you need to sign-up for an account and pay for the the calls — from the U.S. it costs about 2 cents a minute to 35 different countries. From April 2010 to early August 2010, the two-year-old C2Call had generated $2 million in revenues — showing signs that it has a business model, as long it keeps adding people and encourages them to keep talking.

CEO Martin Feuerhahn and CTO Michael Knecht started C2Call in 2008. The service is based on internally developed technology and is hosted entirely on Amazon’s cloud. It scales on an as-needed basis. FriendCaller’s early success has helped the company raise $2 million in Series A funding from original Skype investor Bill Draper of Draper Investment Company, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Klaus Wecken, co-founder of KHK Software.

Try this one out — it might pleasantly surprise you!

Updated: As per your requests, here are some more technical details from folks at C2Call:

Is the Java client open source?

No, the Java Client is our own proprietary development, but we are using open standard protocols like SIP/SDP/RTP to establish a connection between the clients.

Is the protocol for phone calls open or closed? What is the protocol?

An open protocol SIP (Session Instantiation Protocol). We can connect to our own service, but we also have a client for 3rd party SIP providers. Very soon we will also open up our network for 3rd party SIP devices like SIP soft phones or SIP-enabled mobile devices (e.g. Nokia mobile phones, with built-in SIP client)

How does the service work? Is it based on peer-to-peer topology?

It establishes a platform-independent, peer-to-peer connection through any Java-enabled Internet browser. We host a SIP compliant backend infrastructure with SIP proxy, media relay, presences service, etc. However, the actual audio connection on VoIP calls will be peer-to-peer whenever possible, which sometimes depends on the firewall/NAT. As fall back, we can always use the media relay, hosted in our back-end system.

What codec do you use?
We use iLBC, Speex, uLaw, aLaw, GSM codecs

via gigaom.com