Google Maps Drops Click-To-Call

Here’s some news that doesn’t surprise me.

It appears that Google Maps has discontinued its experiment in click-to-call, which allowed users searching a particular area to dial a business located in that area by simply clicking a button marked ‘call’. The user and the business would receive a phone call simultaneously.

This doesn’t surprise me because, though click-to-call was the first technology to bridge the gap between Internet and telephone modalities, it only truly benefited the implementer of the technology, not the user or the business. The implementer (in this case Google) had opportunities to play audio ads or sell subscriptions to participate in this service. But other than auto-dialing, it created no value for the user or the business - so no wonder it’s been removed from Google Maps.

I believe that you’ll see click-to-call diminish from search, but it may remain a helpful tool to direct visitors of a particular website to contact, say, customer service or technical support (even there it’s a bit shaky).

You’d think that as someone working in the Internet-telephony space I’d be happy to see a competing technology being discontinued. You’d be wrong for two reasons.

First, any advances in this nascent industry are good for our company – the more people utilize these types of technologies, the faster our product will mature. That one’s easy. The second reason, hold on to your hat angel investors, click-to-call is NOT a competitor of Search-To-Phone but rather a potential partner with a complimentary technology. (Investors hate when you say that you DON’T have competitors.)

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking this guy is anti-competition but you’d be wrong again. The simple fact is we’re not competing for the same user. To put it bluntly, users of click-to-call are essentially saying, ‘get that BUSINESS’ while Search-To-Phone users are saying, ‘get that PRODUCT’. We don’t do business search, per se, we find products and services… fast.

No matter what becomes of the click-to-call technology, it blazed a trail and planted a flag and that’s something to be admired.