Verizon Tapped for 'Click to Call' Integration
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Microsoft has teamed with Verizon's business arm to provide consumers with one-click phone calls to businesses found on its Live Search listings, the telecommunications company said on Monday.
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When Verizon wanted visitors to its Verizon Experience store to have a wholly different encounter than they would at a typical cell phone retailer, it took cues from an unlikely source. The company entrusted its interactive agency, R/GA&#x2014;better known for its work in cyberspace than anything consumers can actually touch&#x2014;to incorporate the principles of e-commerce. The result was 70 touch-screen kiosks of production demonstrations in the store, which opened outside Dallas Oct. 31.
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New software from Ribbit could make it easier to stay in touch.
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Verizon Communications Inc. yesterday launched a new $7.95-a-month messaging and call-forwarding service that lets people get many of the benefits of advanced Internet phone systems, even if they have only conventional telephone lines and dial-up Net access -- or no computer at all.
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VoIP service will be available using traditional handsets.
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A Mountain View, California, company is launching a platform designed to let developers create telephony applications they can embed in Web pages and existing Web-based services.Ribbit&#39;s back-end technology includes a software switch that essentially connects Internet-based voice communication services with mobile phones, landline phones and text messages. On top of that connection is the Ribbit API (application programming interface) that lets developers build applications that unify the wide variety of communication methods.Developers can build applications that include functions such as recording, sending and receiving voicemail, and making and receiving calls. The applications can be built using Flash, embedded into any Web site, and integrated into existing Web-based services. The platform supports many existing Web-based calling services, such as Skype, GoogleTalk and MSN.Developers can charge end-users for the applications, and Ribbit can handle the billing for them. There are several ways developers can offer and charge for their products, and in some cases Ribbit will share revenue with developers.Ribbit showed off one application a developer has created that embeds phone capabilities into Salesforce.com. By keying a code into a mobile phone, users essentially replace their current voicemail with Ribbit for Salesforce. Then users can listen to or see text transcripts of their mobile voicemail messages within Salesforce. They can send the messages to colleagues and tag them for easy sorting later.Users can also make and receive phone calls through their Salesforce page. Such calls are automatically logged in their Salesforce application.Ribbit for Salesforce will cost $25 per user per month for end-users. It is currently in a private beta with more than 90 companies, and should be widely available in February, Ribbit said.Salute America&#39;s Heroes, a veterans&#39; association, has built essentially a call center application that lets veterans who work for the group make and receive phone calls while at home through a browser. The capability is integrated into a Web site that also hosts tools they use while making the calls. The capability allows the association to take on the cost of the calls rather than reimbursing workers for the use of their home phones.Ribbit designed its own softswitch, which runs on Linux blades and has been certified in an Alcatel-Lucent lab to meet the capabilities and reliability that telecommunications providers typically require, said Ted Griggs, CEO and co-founder of Ribbit. Ribbit&#39;s network operations center is hosted by a third party in Virginia, and the company is working on opening one on the West Coast to offer geographic redundancies. It can add capacity simply by adding more servers.Another, more consumer-oriented application is available to try on the Ribbit developers page. The AIR iPhone is essentially a software-based voice over IP phone that looks just like Apple&#39;s iPhone. Users can make and receive calls to mobile and fixed-line phones, including from the contact list in the phone, on their computers.Ribbit hasn&#39;t quite yet configured its offering in terms of pricing for such consumer applications, but expects to in the first quarter of next year. In the case of the AIR iPhone, Ribbit would share revenue from end-users with the developer.Ribbit says that more than 650 developers are working on new applications, although on Friday only two were listed on the developers site. &quot;Dozens&quot; are near release, a few additional applications should be available on Monday, and many more should be available in the early months of next year, Ribbit said.Ribbit opened its offering to developers in August but plans to officially launch the company, along with details about how its technology and business model work, on Monday.&#160;
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Verizon Communications plans to work with Yahoo, the Internet search engine, to introduce a portal for its high-speed Internet service.
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Blog: A deal with Obopay will allow Verizon's wireless subscribers to use their cell phones to send money to each other.
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Verizon Communications Inc. is moving to phase out a half-dozen of its local calling plans in Eastern Massachusetts later this month, although current customers will be able to continue subscribing to plans like Bay State East and Metropolitan.
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Verizon will use Linksys phone adapters for its VoIP service, as the market for placing calls over the Net picks up momentum.
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Verizon Communications Inc  and  Vodafone Group Plc  aim to develop a common technology  for their future mobile networks that would allow their cell  phone users to roam on each others&#39; services.
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Two vendors are releasing products for the enterprise that enable what they claim is seamless switching between cellular and standard voice-over-IP calls.
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Yahoo Adds Conference Calling to Messenger Yahoo continues to beef up its Yahoo Messenger Voice offering with the addition of VoIP conference calling from a partnership with Vapps ConfreeCall. Red Herring reports: &#8220;It will let you select people from your buddy list and start a conference instantly with them or schedule one for later via email,&#8221; said Vapps [...]
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Verizon plans to offer a service that would act as a virtual switchboard operator, letting customers stay in touch at all times. The program would send phone calls, voicemails and e-mails wherever customers designate. By Elisa Batista.
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(InfoWorld) - Following on rumors that a deal was in the works, Google acquired GrandCentral Communications for an undisclosed sum. GrandCentral lets users of its software combine all their phone numbers and voicemail boxes under one phone number so they can manage various phone features online. Users can set up their accounts so that the number can ring on one or multiple phones based on who is calling. Customers can hear voicemail online or from a phone and forward voicemails to others or post them to a blog. Users can log into their online address book and then click on an entry to make a call. Once the user clicks on the number, GrandCentral calls the user's designated phone and then connects it to the number from the address book. Last week rumors of the acquisition swirled online. At the time, a GrandCentral spokesman said he couldn't comment on the rumors. Google made the announcement on Monday on its blog. On its Web site, GrandCentral said it was pleased about the acquisition because it would assure users that their GrandCentral numbers will be around for the long term no matter how many times users move or change jobs or phone providers. Google will continue to support existing users without interruption but will issue only a limited number of invitations for new beta customers while it transitions the service over to Google. Interested users can ask for an invitation on the GrandCentral Web site. GrandCentral listed one feature that isn't available following the Google acquisition. Although customers will be able to choose from a selection of sound files as ringback tones, they won't be able to upload their own sound files going forward. The acquisition adds to other Google communications services, including Google Talk, an instant messaging service that includes VoIPÂ calling.
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The service lets users make calls over Wi-Fi from their homes as well as T-Mobile hot spots.
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(InfoWorld) - Starting on Tuesday, when Sprint Nextel customers use the search bar in their phone browsers the results will automatically incorporate the users' location. Some customers will also be able to use voice commands to conduct searches. The capabilities are an extension of aÂ relationship that Microsoft and Sprint formedÂ late last year that initially involved including Microsoft's Live Search in the browser on Sprint phones. Microsoft is now adding automatic location detection to search results so users won't have to input their zip codes in their phones before getting local search results. Search results will include results from the Web, the phone and local information such as maps. Most recent Sprint phones include location-finding capabilities. In addition, users of five of Sprint's high-end phones will be able to download a client that will let them use voice commands to conduct searches. Once they have the application, users press the talk button on the phone to speak a search term. If the search is for a local business, for example, the results will include directions, the ability to press a button to call the business and the option to send directions to the place to a friend via text message. Sprint users of the Samsung a900, Samsung a920, Motorola Razr, Sanyo 840 and LG 550 phones will be able to download the voice search client. The application is based on technology from Tellme, the speech recognition company that Microsoft bought earlier this year. The services are not exclusive so they could become available via other operators in the future, said Phil Holden, director of mobile services at Microsoft. While other similar services are available to mobile users, this location-based search offering is more apt to be used because it comes built into the phones, Holden said. Earlier this year Ask.com came out with an applications that phone users could download and use to combine search with location information. In August, Nuance Communications began offering a service for BlackBerry users that lets users search and get driving directions using voice commands. Microsoft rivalÂ Google offers a mobile serviceÂ that automatically combines maps searches with a user's location. It's available for download on certain phones with location capabilities. Microsoft earns revenue from such offerings in two ways, Holden said. Microsoft shares in the revenue stream from the data services offered by operators and also from advertising, he said. The software giant hopes that it will be able to deliver more targeted advertising along with services like these that offer local search results.