I have been wanting to try this–as well as Sightspeed’s MySpace plugin.
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CHICAGO, April 29, 2008—Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, today announced a new Facebook application called Phone-Me-Now that enables users to place free calls from their friends’ Facebook profile pages, without revealing either party’s caller ID.
Facebook users can register for a free Phone-Me-Now account within their Facebook profile. Their Facebook friends can then contact them by setting up a two-person conference call—with the click of a button.
To place a call, a friend visits the Facebook profile of the Phone-Me-Now user with whom he or she wishes to speak, provides the number of the phone they want to use during the call and hits “click to call.” Then Ifbyphone rings both telephones, blocks the caller IDs and conferences the two callers together.
The application enables Facebook members to have personal conversations with other members while still keeping their phone numbers private. Users are also able to review the Facebook names of the last 10 callers and block specific callers.
“Even In this age of online social networking, there are times when only a real-time personal phone call can convey the right message between two people,” said Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone CEO. “Phone-Me-Now makes it easy to connect privately with a friend by phone, without automatically divulging personal contact details the way caller ID does, and without leaving Facebook to make the call.”
The Phone-Me-Now application widget is a phone mashup that takes advantage of powerful Ifbyphone technology to enable all types of phones—whether mobile, VoIP or even old rotary handsets—to connect via the Web. Ifbyphone mashups enable inbound, outbound and click-to-call telephone applications with integrated interactive voice response dialogs.
Phone-Me-Now is an extension of Ifbyphone’s “voice of the Web” services that give small and medium-sized businesses enterprise-level presence on the Web for a fraction of the cost, through click-to-call, toll-free number, voice mail and other communications tools.
The first 1,000 Facebook users who sign up will receive free Phone-Me-Now accounts and 100 minutes per month of calling time to U.S. phone numbers. These free accounts expire in six months. Standard Ifbyphone subscriptions start at $14.95 per month.
The widget is available under Applications at Facebook.com by searching under “Phone-Me-Now” or through the following link: http://apps.facebook.com/phonemenow/.
