Pay-per-call: Is this Google's new revenue model?

The open question is now that the big boys are making VoIP plays, what are they going to do with them to make serious money?

Om Malik has an interesting, speculative post on the topic, where he attempts to triangulate Google's intentions by examining the company's thirst for fiber, traffic-monitoring, and its print ad experiments.

The idea is that Google is already an ad powerhouse, so why not step blithely into the pay-per-call model, instead of offering consumer minutes along with everyone else?

David Utter, at WebProNews.com, has similar post on the topic, which is well worth reading.

Rich Tehrani at TMCnet has an op-ed on the topic as well, where he suggests that ultimately, Google may want to present targeted ads to the consumer that are relevant to what the consumer is discussing at the moment.

Scary thought, that. But I suppose there will be an argument made that the expectation of privacy is proportionate to the cost of the call, and that for calls made free, the expectation is zip.