trillianjedi - 3:04 pm on Nov 25, 2005 (gmt 0)

That's true but do you not think that this is a short-term thing while they're waiting for VoIP to take off more than it already has?

Absolutely.

I'm guessing the 3-5 year goal is that people click and then use Google Talk to connect to whichever advertiser?

I agree. In fact, I've laid money on it.

But they can't monetize that yet which is why they're going the "click-to-call" route - for now.

For now? It's still click to call whether you terminate to a landline phone or to a VoIP phone. No VoIP? Then google asks you for a phone number. Have VoIP and callto:// assigned in your OS? Google boots the softphone up. Both are implementations of click to call. There is never a phone number displayed in the ad, which is the model that the Ingenio patent uses.

TJ