robwebb2k

Google’s purchase of Grand Central has been confirmed. Grand Central has interesting technology that allows for lots of cool phone number control and functionality, like clicking buttons on websites that call phone numbers directly, ringing different phones depending on the incoming callers, and detailed web based call reports.

I guarantee the purpose of this acquisition is to beef up Google local and other non-PPC Google advertising. When someone clicks on an ad in the search results, Google sees the click, logs it, and bills the advertiser for it. This is how they generate +$1B in net income per quarter. Lots of people click those ads, and advertisers are willing to pay for the traffic.

Most other forms of advertising don’t result in web traffic. Radio ads are generally just heard, billboard ads are generally just seen…even local search ads might not even be clicked – they might just result in a direct phone call. This is the biggest challenge Google faces with non-PPC ads: lack of clickstream. A telephony platform like Grand Central, if it can be scaled, will allow Google to route phone numbers and track inbound calls to advertisers of all types…a pay-per-call platform. Google has dabbled with pay-per-call/click-to-call in the past with mixed results, but if local is truly the next frontier, they need to make it work…they must think they can do it with Grand Central’s technology.