VoIP rumor: Skype buy-out & voice-recognition AdWords

[Mr Android]

20 November 2007 - 17:30

From small suggestions big rumors grow; after a flippant post over at UK paper The Guardian, talk is growing of Google’s possible plans to buy out Skype from auction giant eBay. Article author, Jemima Kiss, suggests that negotiations are already in process, with eBay seemingly wanting to rid itself of the VoIP service it has found surprisingly hard to monetise:

“This makes sense on a number of levels, particularly because it fits with Google’s ambitions for disrupting the mobile industry through its new open mobile phone development platform Android, and for eBay - which was recently forced to admit that it had paid too much for Skype” Jemima Kiss, Guardian

An out-of-the-box VoIP addition to the Android Platform would be a persuasive argument for handset manufacturers, whose own attempts to include IP-based telephony has met considerable (and predictable) reluctance from carriers. The suspicions that Google was planning a closer partnership with a US telco - rumored to be Sprint, with some going so far as to suggest a buy-out of the operator - as well as the upcoming 700MHz auction (the spectrum of which is known to be eminently suitable for the high-bandwidth data VoIP requires) could be early signs of their intent for Android to favour internet calls rather than traditional methods.


Although merely speculative, with speech-recognition specialist Nuance - who are behind the Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice-control and dictation software package, among other projects - a member of the Open Handset Alliance, could we see targeted advertising based on spoken keywords? Google has already done something similar with its GMail free email service, with key words and phrasing in emails used to prompt the contextual adverts that subsidise the service; at its introduction there was widespread concern that the company was “reading” users email, but amid assurances that it was a fully automated system the furore died down as people were placated with a sleek UI and plentiful free storage space. The thought of AdWords eavesdropping on phonecalls may be equally shocking at first, but it seems likely that users would similarly grow used to the idea.

Chris Davies for Google-Phone.com