August 29 2006

Online ads: soon "click to CALL", not just to look

In an article in Internet.com we get a quick heads up that eBay, Yahoo and Google are aligning their systems to allow customers to click on an ad and "call" - using eBay's Skype and Google Talk technology.

And we thought life was complicated enough with text ads! Time to brush up your relationship with your friendly contact centre provider...

The folk at Internet.com are carrying a story about the new detente hugging its way through the giants of search and commerce, proving that the only force more powerful than competition is enlightened self-interest in pursuit of marketing dollars!

Beyond 'click and link' we now have a granular, fancy 'click to talk'.

For retailers who already have 'live agent' or 'click to talk' technology on their sites this is a chance to cut to the chase. Don't bother visiting our website, just click here to be connected to a sales person.

The financial services industry should be rubbing its collective palms together vigorously.

While it'll take a while for this to become mainstream, two things are patently clear:

1) the pace of change and innovation in this sector continues without let-up 2) the world, if possible, is becoming evermore integrated. Voice, web, email... all the same to the customer.

Ian Jindal