I’m not answering calls from trolls!

A Silicon Valley start-up is gearing up to embed free, Web-based telephone services on a variety of popular social networking and blogging services, including MySpace, Friendster and Blogger.

By contrast with existing Web calling services such as Skype that are typically computer-based, or require consumers to buy special headsets or microphones, Jaxtr plans to allows users to make inbound calls to bloggers from any phone in the world.

Jaxtr, a 14-month-old closely held company based in Palo Alto California, said it is beginning a test by private invitation of its new calling service, with plans to make it widely available to Web users sometime early in the new year.

Once registered on Jaxtr’s site at , a user can embed an interactive phone feature into selected blogs or social network profiles — News Corp.’s MySpace, Tagged, Friendster, Hi5, Xanga and Google’s Blogger.

Consumers will be able to click on any Jaxtr link, enter their own phone number, which triggers an instant call to their phone. Answering the phone connects the caller to the Jaxtr user’s own phone. Callers then speak phone to phone.

A recipient gets to choose which of their phones receive the call. One can switch between a home, office or mobile phone, for example.

Who will use this the most? Horny teenagers, trolls or hookers?



  1. Gig says:

    Otherwise known as the “Perv Connection.”

  2. Drew says:

    Yeah – this really feels like Web 1.0 circa 1999 with regards to the press and hype some of these new companies’ ideas get.

  3. Mike Voice says:

    I’m sure Heiress Hilton and Lindsay Lohan will be among the first to include this on their pages…

  4. Alex says:

    Well what ever works! It wont last, people are wiser than that.

  5. V says:

    For podcasters, this could be a very cool way to “audio comment.”

  6. giap says:

    #4 — myspace subscribers are wiser than what? Fossil poop?

  7. Zuke says:

    MySpace Hook-up Express.

    No way this is NOT get completely out of hand unless the blogger can hand out passkeys or something to limit the crank calls.

  8. Matt C. says:

    How old is that picture of John C. Dvorak?

  9. Angel H. Wong says:

    #8

    I think I saw that photo of John in an old PC-mag I bought in 1991-1992. But then again, it was the latin american version of PC Magazine so that probably means that photo is much older.


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