p2pnet news | Advertising:- A company with the innocent-looking name of Pudding Media has come up with one of the scariest advertising concept yet.

For a fee, it’ll spy on users of its online telephone calls and use the information gleaned so advertisers can “join in on the conversation”.

“The Web-based phone service is similar to Skype’s online service,” says the New York Times.

Users plug a headset and a microphone into their computers, dial any phone number and chat away but, “unlike Internet phone services that charge by the length of the calls, Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges”.

Pudding Media is “eavesdropping” so it can dish up ads related to whatever the caller and the called are talking about.
“Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking,” says the NYT.

The Associated Press picks the story up, zeroing and not on this invasion of privacy, but the fact technology might not work as advertised.

“It’s notoriously difficult for computers to recognize speech,” says the story, going on:

“A test of Puddingmedia’s beta software was a mixed success: Relevant ads appeared when this reporter talked about restaurants and computers, but the software was oddly insistent that he should seek a career as a social worker, showing multiple ads and links pointing to that field.”

And, “Sometimes crazy things pop up,” AP has CEO Ariel Maislos stating.

“It actually enriches the conversation, which is very cool.”

Stay tuned.
Slashdot it!

Also See:
New York Times – Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads, September 24, 2007
Associated Press – New Service Eavesdrops on Internet Calls, September 24, 2007

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 6:17 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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