NationStates Jolt Archive

Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., is introducing an Internet phone service today that will be supported by advertising related to what people are talking about in their calls. The Web-based phone service is similar to Skype’s online service — consumers plug a headset and a microphone into their computers, dial any phone number and chat away. But unlike Internet phone services that charge by the length of the calls, Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges.

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation. Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking.

A conversation about movies, for example, will elicit movie reviews and ads for new films that the caller will see during the conversation. Pudding Media is working on a way to e-mail the ads and other content to the person on the other end of the call, or to show it on that person’s cellphone screen.



its from the new york times so it requires a log in but im sure its also on news sites that dont require one

so would you subscribe to an internet phone service that is free but your calls are monitored so they can put ads on your computer screen? and eventually into your cell phone? as they mention, its not so different from targeted ads in your gmail account that scans your emails to see what ads you might respond to.

i dont need free long distance so much that i would be interested in it.

Nearly all the emails I send are impersonal and meaningless to anyone besides me and who I write it to; typically newsletter subscriptions etc. My phone calls are not so, and I wouldn't be interested in someone listening in on those.

My cell phone handles long distance for me, as such there is no interest in a land line, internet phone or otherwise. Even if it's free.

Arg...just what we need. Corporations monitoring my calls. What my wife and I talk about to and from work is our business, not some stupid advertiser's. Aside from that, we'd probably get ads for things we don't need, since my wife has been working in a daycare center recently (we don't have any kids and wouldn't dream of putting them in a daycare like the one she works in if we did...)

Frankly, I'm a little disheartened that e-mails are monitored, especially by Gmail. Really makes me not want to sign up for a Gmail account.

I would, but mainly so I could talk to the person listening in. Ask how things are going, what working there is like, things of that nature.

I would, but mainly so I could talk to the person listening in. Ask how things are going, what working there is like, things of that nature.

i dont think there will be human monitors involved. its voice recognition software that "hears" you say the word "hungry" and has the system send you a domino's pizza ad. or something similar.

i dont think there will be human monitors involved. its voice recognition software that "hears" you say the word "hungry" and has the system send you a domino's pizza ad. or something similar.

Exactly, nobody is actually listening to your calls. If I had the need to talk to people overseas on such a service I don't see why I wouldn't use this service as opposed to one which charges.

its from the new york times so it requires a log in but im sure its also on news sites that dont require one

so would you subscribe to an internet phone service that is free but your calls are monitored so they can put ads on your computer screen? and eventually into your cell phone? as they mention, its not so different from targeted ads in your gmail account that scans your emails to see what ads you might respond to.

i dont need free long distance so much that i would be interested in it.

don't use long distance.

Won't they be required by law to state at each phone session that the calls are being monitored?

Let's get this straight. Once upon a time there was a phone plugged into the wall and if you wanted to get a cup of coffee or take a leak during your call, you were in trouble. Then along came mobiles. OK they were and are more expensive but for short messages there's always text. And there are emails. And with Skype you can plug yourself in and go back to the old fixed set - or to something more like the control room in a Nazi-war flick. With broadband there's no need to pay extra to communicate anyway and webcam applications anyway.

Personally I wouldn't care what advertising comes up anyway - I'm very good at ignoring adverts and my software is at blocking popups - as long as it doesn't butt in on the conversation. At the same time, it strikes me as about as useful as shortwave radio.

i dont think there will be human monitors involved. its voice recognition software that "hears" you say the word "hungry" and has the system send you a domino's pizza ad. or something similar.
can you imagine the type of... adverts that would pop up for phrases like this?

Puritian Mother: oh, a new addition to the family? what's it's sex?

A Farmer updating his son on farm stuff: Yeah, Mark's cock came in first place...

can you imagine the type of... adverts that would pop up for phrases like this?

Puritian Mother: oh, a new addition to the family? what's it's sex?

A Farmer updating his son on farm stuff: Yeah, Mark's cock came in first place...

lol it could be very embarrassing

i was thinking that id end up with ads for adult diapers and baby diapers since i (and those i talk to) am OLD and my nieces are having babies now.

i wouldnt be happy with either type.

Exactly, nobody is actually listening to your calls. If I had the need to talk to people overseas on such a service I don't see why I wouldn't use this service as opposed to one which charges.

especially since the government is monitoring it anyway?


i can see drinking games being invented around what kind of ads you can make the system send you. or gambling maybe. it could be fun.

Nah I wouldn't be interested in it. Knowing my luck with my speech problem, both sides will be getting ads about wand massager's and lube, when our conversation is actually about fishing at the pond and Tire Tubes.

Nah I wouldn't be interested in it. Knowing my luck with my speech problem, both sides will be getting ads about wand massager's and lube, when our conversation is actually about fishing at the pond and Tire Tubes.

...

ok, I see alot of entertainment value with this service... and it's free!

I detest using telephones. I do not have a particularly good phone voice, and having to ask others to repeat what they are saying because a line is bad or a battery is failing holds no interest for me. I only own a phone because it is essentially required when one is employed, at least here. Luckily we only rarely need to use them at work.

Texting I do not mind so much. Usually, though, I perfer to chat with an instant messenger or webcam. Any way one looks at it, this new phone service with its overt eavesdropping would not be particularly my style. If I were to use it and found the adverts irksome, I would probably just start a conversation and turn off my monitor. I know in the e-mail version of this advertising form, things only rarely match up correctly. So not only would the adverts be annoying, they might also be irrelevant anyway. I would rather just straight-up pay a little for entirely distraction-free service.

Those drinking games do give it some potential, but overall, I would just as much rather to pretend that my calls are not being monitored by anyone other than the person on the other end, and that is easier to do without annoying advertisements taken from what I say.

As long as they aren't, like, pop-ups that get directly in front of what I'm looking at, I've never found ads that distracting...?

I wonder whom this service providers target audience was...

Middle class families already enjoy the mobility and freedom of their cell phones. Poorer families who might like the free telephone service are most likely going to be minorities, and if their in California, probably very skeptical of anything resembling government spying programs for deportation. Wealthier families would defiantly be abhorring the idea of invasion of privacy.

At least its a pretty original idea when it comes to phone service :']