Placing ads based on what people say in phone conversations is going to be controversial, but Pudding Media just raised $8 million in an A round led by Opus Capital and BRM Capital to prove the concept. ThePudding provides free, PC-based phone calls to anywhere in the US or Canada. The big catch: computers in Fremont, CA will eavesdrop on and analyze every word of your conversation so they can serve up advertisements tailored to the topic at hand. These ads are like the ads in Gmail, except that the Pudding’s computers do a speech-to-text translation of what you are saying and serve up contextual ads accordingly. The company says it does not store any of the conversations. The company plans on using its new capital to expand its reach to “cover all forms of voice services - mobile carriers, VoIP operators and Web voice applications.” Privacy hawks could have a field day with this one. Many people, if they stop to think about it, will find this idea chilling, even if it is just a computer that is doing the surveillance. Others will be willing to give up anything for a free call, and that is Pudding Media’s target. Consumers who object to the surveillance aspect of the service don’t need to use it, right? But what about the people on the other end of the line? It doesn’t seem like they ever consent to their phone conversations being monitored (or monetized).http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/04/pudding-media-raises-8-million-to-serve-ads-against-phone-conversations/
http://www.thepudding.com/
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