Eine eigentlich ganz praktische Funktion in den Google Maps wird wieder eingestampft: „click to call“. Mit der im November 2006 gestarteten Funktion konnten in den USA gefundene Firmen einfach durch die Angabe der eigenen Rufnummer kostenlos angerufen werden.
Garett Rogers hat einige Vermutungen, warum Google zu diesem Schritt gekommen ist:
1. The feature was never used: It?s unclear how popular the service was. It?s possible that people using Google Maps may be more interested in finding a physical location or address for a business rather than needing to call them up. Second, do people feel comfortable enough, or are they adventurous enough to give the feature a try when it?s just as easy to use the phone on their hip?
2. The feature was abused: When the feature was first launched, people realized that it is really fun to ?make a call? to somewhere humorous ? only to provide a friend or enemy?s phone number. Second, it was quite simple to ?start a business? and make free long distance phone calls by searching for yourself and entering the phone number you want to dial.
3. It was costing too much money: Long distance isn?t cheap, and after Google?s disappointing second quarter results, they decided cutting these types of costs may be the right thing to do.
4. GrandCentral will take over: Maybe they are preparing for the GrandCentral transition ? you may need an account on GrandCentral (which will one day charge for outboud click-to-call) to make calls on Google Maps.
Eine weitere Möglichkeit ist natürlich auch, neuen eigenen Diensten keine Konkurrenz machen zu wollen, in denen eine ähnliche Funktion wieder zum Vorschein kommen könnte…
[ZDNet, downloadquad, Meldung bei Golem im November 2005 über die Erprobung]
Nachtrag:
» Der offensichtliche Grund zum abschalten von Click-to-Call