Filed under: Google
Google sees the future, and its all about free cell phones
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt is dreaming about free cell phones. Schmidt said that he definitely sees a future where consumers who accept to watch targeted advertising on their mobile phones, will in turn get them for free. As advertising is starting to hit the mobile market with consumers spending large amount of time talking, texting, and using the mobile Internet, this new form of mobile advertising makes it highly viable. This is a great option for people. Why not offer free phones and usage for targeted ads? What do you think? Would you grab a free phone for listening to, watching, or receiving text ads?
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rednapx said 7:47PM on 11-12-2006
Will they record my calls for deliver personalized ads?
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Robotic Sheeple said 9:55PM on 11-12-2006
If I had to hear a 15 second ad every time I got my voicemail that would be fine, if I got SMS ads at no cost to me (in a silent mode too) that would be fine, if the background was even a sponsored ad I wouldn't have a problem. In the end, anything that doesn't interfere with my life and doesn't record my life would be an excellent deal.
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Mark said 9:56PM on 11-12-2006
You bet I would! Talk about putting Cingular, Verizon etc out of buisness!
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dragonguano said 9:36PM on 11-13-2006
this would be great, especially if it could be used to make international calls,,, even if it might cost some money each month, it would beat having sprint verizon att etc prices, just for some advertising
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vuk said 3:20AM on 11-13-2006
How would that work with cars? Waiting for a 10 sec pre-roll before leaving the garage. Getting location aware ads projected on my windscreen while waiting on traffic light? Hearing wall-music targeted to my car speed?
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Tal Shafik said 8:11AM on 11-13-2006
With all that insight, it's strange he doesn't see Ad blocking software for your free cellphone.
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Christopher Carey said 10:30AM on 11-13-2006
In other news Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was rear ended by a Semi the other day. Accident investigators were able to determine that the Semi's driver Bob Enweave was watching ads on his Google cell phone. In yet another ironic twist the semi driver's Google cell phone hearing the drivers last commands automatically sent a supply or Cherrios and Depends to the scene of the accident.
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rebootjac said 7:44PM on 11-13-2006
I was reading the little blurb about this story and I couldn't help think the same thing Chris did. Comments like Chris's are the reason I read comments on blogs. Thanks Chris, that one made my day!
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Sean Hackbarth said 4:53AM on 11-14-2006
Wasn't this scheme tried with desktop computer in the 90s? I know it did with internet access (Kmart tried it). Someone will try free cell phones, but I don't think it will have legs. People will get annoyed with the text/audio/video ads and competitors will push cell phone subscription prices down to levels where people won't bother with free.
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