Comments on: Pudding Media Raises $8 Million To Serve Ads Against Phone Conversations

By: Voip Hype!

Voip Hype! — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 07:24:41 +0000

VoIP technology is going to be one of the very powerful trends in 2008!

By: Qube Media.

Qube Media. — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:52:53 +0000

Advertisers to bug your calls?…

Startup Pudding Media are planning to take contextual advertising to a whole new level serving ads based on phone conversations. Their PC-based service offers free phone calls across the US and Canada but monitors every word of the conversation to…

By: Rantings of a New Yorker » Blog Archive » Spying on Your Free Phone Calls In Order to Deliver Ads To You

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:05:53 +0000

[...] Media has raised $8 million for their new venture, giving you ads while you talk. They own ThePudding, a free, web based service that allows you to make phone calls for free over [...]

By: Fake Bill Gates

Fake Bill Gates — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 09:10:26 +0000

Good illustration of how out of touch VC’s can be.

By: Don Jones

Don Jones — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:17:09 +0000

A computer analyzing my conversations is kind of creepy. I’m sure their venture capital guys are smart, but no one is infallible.

By: AW

AW — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:20:06 +0000

I don’t understand how people are supposed to find this “chilling.”

Can someone explain?

By: John Wesley

John Wesley — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:19:52 +0000

SA Insider beat you guys to the punch on this one. What’s up with that?

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:03:29 +0000

With the Beacon incident still fresh in everyone’s mind, you’d think that business would begin to recognize that even though finding new and inventive ways to advertise is definitely important to any company’s business plan, consumers still HAVE RIGHTS and will ASSERT THEM when they feel that their privacy is being intruded upon.

Advertising has supported much of the entertainment technology and creative content we take for granted today, but instead of finding new ways of treating consumers like LAB RATS to be studied, WE NEED to find ways to work TOGETHER.

Consumers are NOW ACCUSTOMED TO advertising, BUT I doubt WE want to hear ads in the middle of a conversation! With the continuing evolution of user generated content, the next logical step is to involve consumers in the advertising process and turn that into a conversation TOO.

By: EH

EH — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:21:28 +0000

“It’s where tech is going so embrace it people”

It’s only where tech is going IF people embrace it. If they don’t, there’s a greater chance for the future not to look like this. Are you an investor?

By: Shai Berger

Shai Berger — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:46:52 +0000

@Nick (#1): Pudding is only for North American calls, not international. And, actually, I think that’s their main shortcoming at this point, rather than the privacy issue. Long distance in NA is already cheap enough to be below the threshold of caring for most people. I have $25/mo flat rate long distance from my cable co (Rogers).

HOWEVER: International calling is still expensive enough that a lot of people are motivated to find cheaper solution. This is really the basis behind Jajah and many other Voice 2.0 start-ups. I’ll bet Pudding has aggressive plans to expand into international calling.

@Bill (#4): The ads are visual, not audio. They show up on your browser while you make the call.

Back when they launched, I had about some other ideas about where Pudding was headed. See here http://www.shai...erger.com/?p=32.

Ken Elefant (at Opus) is a sharp guy — I met him as part of the funding effort for Streamcheck — and there is more going on here. Think past the *immediate* incarnation of this technology. Think about ads pushed out to the mobile phone… context-driven services…

I have some further thoughts here: http://www.shai...erger.com/?p=50

By: Lateefx

Lateefx — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:43:55 +0000

All these comments are hilarious! I could crack on this forever.

I think they’re smart as hell – it’s one of those ‘why didn’t i think of that’ situations. The market for VOIP has been steadily improving every quarter and more and more weight is being placed on ads served on non-traditional media like 411 services, ads in online video, phone sex lines, etc.

It’s where tech is going so embrace it people – and feel the warmth of social exploitation as it envelopes every aspect of your life.

By: hehedavid

hehedavid — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:06:57 +0000

There’s already a working version of this already stuff from a regular phone http://69.57.168.29/asr/ – See coverage here. http://www.cent...id-google-phone

By: just me

just me — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:00:21 +0000

a friend of mine grew up in india and has a strong accent. his bmw gps navigation system can’t understand him.

so what happens if you grew up outside the u.s. and have an accent? or if you’re from n.y. and you talk really, really fast?

By: EH

EH — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:38:32 +0000

Their business model is as serious as their name. I’m guessing one of the top guys or founders went to b-school with someone on the VC side of this deal.

By: Bradley996

Bradley996 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:23:45 +0000

typo correction: “Just becasue we can, doesn’t mean we should’

By: Bradley996

Bradley996 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:22:32 +0000

What a waste of $8M
Another example of the old addage: “Just becasue wascan, doesn’t mean we should’

What’s worse than “dead pool”?

By: Gavin Schulz

Gavin Schulz — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:20:50 +0000

I definitely would never use this service. Those VCs in California are awfully stupid, or greedy. Like who would ever want to invest in this. They just blindly give away money to strike it rich on the “next big thing”. This is seriously crossing the line. And lawsuits will fly for sure!

By: Jon Doerr

Jon Doerr — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:16:39 +0000

Speech. less. Dead. Pool.

By: Lord

Lord — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:16:12 +0000

The one area it would work though, is information, directions, directory assistance, white and yellow pages, restaurant ratings, etc. No real privacy issues there and the ads could actually be useful to the listener.

By: Lord

Lord — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:11:25 +0000

How are they supposed to insert an ad before they have heard the conversation? What makes them think they will stay on to hear it afterwards? The real problem though is the problem free internet access had. It simply isn’t a very valuable ad space and they will have too much difficulty selling it to pay for itself.

By: Amit

Amit — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:02:42 +0000

what about languages which are not english??

By: courtney benson

courtney benson — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:36:09 +0000

Putting Media and Google with DoubleClick would be a slam dunk!

By: .rb

.rb — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:23:38 +0000

Can’t work for business (real business)

– I can see this used from west africa – with scammers, calling americans on the cheap and – offering that 1bil from my deceased relative

By: TS

TS — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:22:58 +0000

OK, so if I talk on the phone about buying a book, the system will give me ads about other bookstores offering better deals? And if I talk with my girlfriend, it will give me ads from dating sites for “comparison shopping”?

But the privacy implications are of course staggering. How long until the company will decide there is extra money to be made by giving companies information about which customers mentioned their products or are possibly interesting in a new car?

By: lawrence

lawrence — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:19:15 +0000

this is a tough sell