Today around 8:00 AM or so the folks at GizmoProject will roll out GizmoCall, a new web based calling service.
What makes this something cool is that you can make calls today and in the near future receive calls in a browser. That means you don't have to at YOUR computer, you can be at ANY computer.
In many ways the folks at SipPhone, the company behind GizmoProject, have done what Adobe has been hoping to do, and yet not doing. That's taking a Flash plug-in and putting a telephone calling service around it so it works within the web browser.
Om comments in his Web Worker Daily piece that you should be able to trigger a call to another number, like a cell phone. That's a big idea and one that won't escape any of the SIP oriented voice 2.0 companies out there. Already it's possible to bridge PhoneGnome and GizmoProject in such a way as you can log in via Gizmo and it registers with PhoneGnome (or vice versa) which means that if my PhoneGnome number rings, a number which is really a plain old AT&T PSTN number, that 'Gnome turns it into a SIP call and routes it to Gizmo, for free. If another PhoneGnome user called me, it would have been a SIP to SIP call and ended up on my Gizmo number. That means any browser I'm at, is where I can receive calls.
So what does this mean? Well for starters since you can point any SIP service to GizmoProject it means that the idea of a softphone as a piece of software becomes unneeded, because any browser now becomes a softphone. That's very similar in approach to VoIPster and Abbeynet, but with a difference. GizmoPoject already has hundreds of thousands of users and they have built some telco relationships with carriers such as SingTel. Gizmo also leverages Level3's network and capabilities and since migrating away from some Tier 2 carriers here in the USA has seen their quality steadily rise.
For the road warrior this is a great solution. It means your phone number, and your calling, once you install the plug in, is only a screen away.
So, how will you finance your mentioned free click-to-call application (http://click2voice.com/)? Maybe by advertising like http://www.peterzahlt.de/ in Germany?
How will you pay the 2 termination fees that you have to cover for your callback service? Where is the difference to the free version Jajah (that is also financed by advertising) and other callback services that exist in the web?
And why can I put in only 10 digit numbers? Who has such a short number?
I am always very exited about new services. :)
free conference call
Posted by: sudipta | September 14, 2007 at 02:18 PM
I think SIP may be taking a big risk in making such an easy, free VOIP solution available and trying to fund that off the back of in-context advertising. How many in-context opportunities will there be really when most of us are calling friends and family? See:
http://idiots.blogspot.com/2007/02/gizmocall-takes-voip-startup-on-wild.html
Posted by: bigyahu | February 06, 2007 at 06:59 PM
It sounds like a winner!
Particularly if their backbone is Level3, calls can be taken at any browser, and $0.02 per minute for Call Out.. a road warrior's dream.
Bill Burke
http://www.adondo.net
Posted by: The Team | January 29, 2007 at 06:26 PM