NYTimes had yesterday announced the launch of yet another VoIP service, ThePudding. Pudding Media, the company behind ThePudding, plans to offer free VoIP calls to those who allow the company to monitor their calls and are willing to see advertisements based on their conversation. The offering is still in closed beta and is currently available in North America only (I am still waiting for the invite :-)). To make the advertisements more relevant, Pudding Media asks the Zip Code, sex, age range and the language at the time of registration. The advertisers pay on the basis of the number of clicks, something similar to Google Adsense. The company is in the process of adding other payment models.
The concept of ad-supported calling is not new. Globe7 did it earlier( Edit by Vinay- They stopped giving away ad-supported free voip calls once they got enough members) But Pudding Media plans to do it differently. The approach is similar to what Google did to text advertising. The company will employ voice recognition software to monitor calls, select advertisements on the basis of the keywords recognized and show them on the screen. Mr. Ariel Maislos, chief executive of Pudding Media, mentioned that relevant advertisements had the ability to influence the conversation, as their tests highlighted.
Pudding Media seems to have created quite a stir in the blog world and lot of articles have been written about how the concept is creepy and how is it a direct assault on privacy. While, I respect the comments of the fellow VOIP bloggers, I think they are overreacting and taking it too further. Recall that there was a similar furor when Google launched Gmail, which was to be supported by relevant text based ads according to the content of the mail. The community was quick to conclude that this idea is doomed. But Google is still here and is slowly moving toward the number one position.
Online privacy is a myth. We have always been monitored when we are online, with or without our explicit consent. (Edit by Vinay: In fact, google toolbar even records your every mouse movement and your search pattern). We are more comfortable posting our details, including photographs on social networking sites, blogs, etc. At least Pudding Media is giving an option to use its services or not. Also, the company claims that they will not save the call history and the advertisements will be based on the content of the current call only. Contrast this with some other companies, which save your history and often sell it to others for a price.
You have one more option now, so you decide for yourself. If you are OK with a little more invasion on your privacy, go sign up for an invite at Pudding Media and make free calls, otherwise keep using the other VoIP services that we have told you earlier to make cheap/free calls!!!
This article is written by Alok Saboo. Alok is PHD student at Pennsylvania State University.
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