New pay-per-call player

Callgen introduces cost-per-call ads in the UK on Google. They are cost-per-call (or pay-per-call) based: the advertiser only pays when the customer phones (as opposed to pay-per-click, when the advertiser pays for every click). Other providers include Ingenio (that works with AOL and FindWhat) and eStara.

This deals with click fraud, but also with the limited (if huge) scope of pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo! etc. Callgen lists the advantages:

• Businesses don't need to have a web site.
• A higher RoI seems inevitable, because web site visits have a much lower conversion rate than somebody taking the trouble of actually picking up the phone.
• No click fraud problems (unless of course a disgruntled former employee or competitor wants to spend time making the call). At a time when a lawsuit is sent back to a state court.

Callgen is "backed by an award-winning ISP and a licensed telecoms provider, both UK-based and supported. (...) The future looks extremely bright for Callgen (...)". Now that sounds an awful lot like Orange/Wanadoo (France Telecom), doesn't it?