Free Phone Calls... With a Catch

I've been sitting on this one for a few days, but finally have gotten around to writing about it. It's a doozy: A company called Pudding Media has launched a web-based phone system that lets you call any phone number in North America and talk for free, as long as you want. The catch: The company listens in on your call and serves up ads based on what you're talking about.

Pudding is a VOIP operator, much like Skype, so you have to use a computer and a microphone or headset to make your calls. That's critical to the Pudding experience, as the ads are delivered on your computer screen (rather than via commercial-like audio interruptions). Of course, it wouldn't make sense for a human to listen in on your call and push a button to send you an ad. Voice recognition software listens for keywords. An example cited by the New York Times says that Pudding could offer movie reviews and ads for films if you're talking about the latest blockbuster.

Pudding says it does not keep recordings or logs of call content, but that's little consolation to those who find this an egregious privacy violation. For its part, Pudding says this is no different than what Google does with Gmail, offering ads related to what people are emailing you about, and arguably with more of a paper trail than a telephone conversation.

But is it? There's something indescribably different about a phone conversation than an email. It's more intimate, more personal. I'd have trouble using Pudding's system for all but the most trivial of phone calls. Still, I'd also have no problem trying it out and getting an account in case of emergencies. (I'm currently on the waiting list to join the beta, which you can join as well at thepudding.com.)

Would you give Pudding a try? More than once? Are free phone calls worth it? Be careful how you answer: Pudding notes that people actually change what they're talking about based on what the ads delivered on screen are. That's a little spooky, if you ask me.