Pretty random, but saw this today
Fonolo on KXLY “Cool Clicks”
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Category Archives: Fonolo
Fonolo Widget – Deep Dialing For Your Business
Fonolo for business lets you embed your companies phone menu (IVR system) right on your website, or in your mobile applications, with just a few simple lines of HTML code.
Fonolo automatically maps out your phone system (and stays up-to-date with any changes you make)- You will get happier customers, fewer misdirected calls, and better feedback from your callers. Best of all, you do not have to change anything in your existing phone system.
Here’s a really simple example for our fake “Fonolo Airlines” company:
More details about Fonolo for business can be found here. We’re running several live trial runs with a handful of companies- if you’re interested in getting access to the Fonolo widget, contact us.
Fonolo named to Time.com’s “50 Best Websites 2009″
We’re pretty excited here at Fonolo today- We were named to Time.com’s “50 Best Websites for 2009”.
Other websites on the list, include: Twitter, Google, Skype, Amazon and Flickr- which is great company to be in- we couldn’t be happier.
It’s great to see how well Fonolo resonates with the public. It’s further proof that we’re addressing a point of pain felt so deeply by so many people.
You can read the whole article here.
All new Fonolo interface launched!
I’m very excited to announce the release of the new Fonolo consumer web interface. This new web interface not only has a new look and feel, but has improved usability, and many new features and enhancements.
Some of the enhancements to the web portal include:
Anonymous Deep Dialing
Anonymous, in the sense that you do NOT have to sign-up for an account with Fonolo, to try the service out. Search for the company you want from the list of over 500 companies in our database, right from the main page of our website, and click to start your call- no sign-up required. no special software. no special phone- all for FREE.
QuickTones
Ever been on a phone call, and they ask you for your account number? or if you have a Frequent Flyer number, but you can’t remember it, and the piece of paper you have it written down on is long since gone?
Store frequently used account numbers, frequent flyer numbers, PINs, etc, in the Fonolo system, for one-click access while on a call. Simply select the tones from your list, and Fonolo will send the tones on your call, as if you had pressed the buttons yourself.
Heads-Up Display for your calls
While a call is active, you’ll have full control over adding notes or recordings, with our new “Heads-Up Display” at the top of your screen. This control panel remains active during the life of your call, even if you navigate to other sections of the site.
Improved Call Recordings and Notes
When you make recordings during a call, Fonolo will organize them on a master timeline for that call, along with any notes that you added. Now you can flag the important parts and easily find them later.
Try the new Fonolo website today! it’s completely free, and easy to use.
Gizmo5 747 Area Code
I was playing with the Gizmo5 service today- we’ve had a few customer now ask if they could have Fonolo call them back at their Gizmo5 address, instead of a regular PSTN number. Their service, which is very Skype-ish, aims as providing cost saving on international phone calls, as well as provides free calls between Gizmo5 users.
One of the first things I noticed (after installing the Gizmo5 client), was that their system allocates each user a “SIP” number, which they made the unfortunate choice of formatting like a standard ten digit phone number (XXX-YYY-ZZZZ)- not only that, but they used the area code 747!
Unfortunately, they don’t have any stake in the *real* 747 area code controlled through NANPA– even worst, looking at the NANPA database, the 747 area code is already allocated as an overlay to the 818 area code (in California), and is set to be put in service May 18th, 2009 (~3 months from now).
Now, the Gizmo5 site doesn’t seem to make any mention of this, and there are only a few posts out there I can find- but they all simply say that the “SIP number” was never meant to be used as a normal PSTN number- it can only be called from one client to another, or as a full SIP address (by tacking on @proxy01.sipphone.com)- if that’s the case, it seems really weird that they opted to use phone numbers, instead of just usernames.
I’m not sure how they plan to handle it when *real* PSTN numbers in the 747 area code start getting allocated to people in California, and then one of their users with a DialOut package tries to call one of them? I’m sure it’s not going to take long before phone numbers start being duplicated, and they’re going to have to solve this issue.
Not to mention general confusion; I’ve read post after post about people being confused about why they can’t dial their 747 phone number from PSTN number.
As far as Fonolo support, I was hoping to simply trunk any calls to the 747 area code over SIP to the Gizmo5 system, as if they were just regular phone numbers; in testing, it seems to work well, but I’d just run into the same issue they will, come May.
I’ll have to just add them into the system as generic SIP addresses- hopefully I’ll have this working soon.