Click-to-call - Google Maps and Rumors

Google Maps and Rumors

In August 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported a joint effort by eBay and Google which would offer CTC, but Google issued a statement by October 7, 2006, which said Google had reconsidered. Google was later setting up a new beta CTC system, where AdSense users would be able to submit their phone number, and Google would put a call button next to their website link. Now Google Adwords users can set up CTC functionality.

In November 2006, Google experimented with a callback process in its Google Maps product but eventually removed the feature . As of January 2008, Google is testing click-to-call for businesses listed in search result pages . Some people have indicated that such failure is due to the fact that Google is using the CTC in the Auto Dialer mode, providing very little benefits to the end users. Other vendors who provide Callback mode fare differently such as Ingenio was acquired by AT&T Yellow Pages and eStara was acquired by ATG.

PI Microsoft's maps.live.com was rumored to have a similar feature, but it appears to have since disabled it. Some users believed that this was a better feature.