This week saw the introduction of Yet Another Anonymous Number service: Craigsnumber. Trading rather blatantly on the success of Craigslist, Craigsnumber provides a very simple way to create an anonymous number that can be placed in an ad and which forwards to a specified real number. The innovation here is that the user specifies the length of time (1 hour, 1 day, or 1 week) when setting up the number.
Callers to the number get the following script:
Please enter the extension number.
After the beep, record your introduction. When you are done, press pound.
[record your introduction]
Please wait while I connect you.
[Music]
At the recipient’s end, the caller’s number is displayed and the following script is followed:
Hi, this is Craigsnumber.
You have an incoming call with introduction. [plays]
To accept this call, press 1. Otherwise, Just hang up.
[press 1]
[Beep]
[call legs are bridged]
If the recipient hangs up, the system hangs up on the caller without any explanation. I suspect this is a bug, because if the recipient does nothing (which is what happens if the call is intercepted by voice mail), the caller gets the message “The part you are calling is unable to take calls at the moment. Please call back again. Goodbye.”
Last time I checked, there were at least 17 companies that provided some sort of anonymous calling capability at varying levels of sophistication. My list:
Broadvox Direct, Cleveland, OH
Craigsnumber, ????
Hullo, Inc., Gatineau, Quebec
Jangl, Pleasanton, CA
Jaxtr, Palo Alto
My Ad Box, Inc., Baltimore, MD
MyPrivateLine (formerly PrivateTel), Network Enhanced Telecom, LLP, Dallas, TX
PrivatePhone, NetZero, United Online, Inc., Woodland Hills, CA
SafePhoneCalls, Tego Networks, LLC, Dallas
SpokenBuzz, LLC, Santa Anna, CA
Staysafe, Liquid11, Lowestoft Suffolk, UK
TalkPlus, Inc., San Mateo, CA
Talkster International Inc., Toronto
TalkTrust.com LLC, Palo Alto
Tossable Digits, Inc., Falls Church, Virginia
Verbdate, Verbster Corporation, West Vancouver, BC
Zogo, Wireless Introduction Network, Inc., New York
Hey Chris, glad you caught this one. I agree with your assessment. The other thing to note is that this only provides unidirectional anonymity/privacy. Meaning the callee cannot place a call back to the person if they miss the call.
Posted by: Michael Cerda | 22 December 2006 at 01:57 AM
We just added Youtube to the mix at verbdate and while we expect people to start uploading video greetings soon most are just having fun showin their favorite music videos, which does tell you something about them I suppose! cheers from Vancity!
www.verbdate.com/about/Barmann
www.verbdate.com/about/becky
www.verbdate.com/about/Vegas
Posted by: BobbyD | 22 December 2006 at 01:48 PM
Just sent an email to craigsnumber with a bunch of suggestions and feature requests. I love the simplicity and ease of use.
By the way, I noticed a pretty elaborate privacy statement. Perhaps it got added based on user requests.
Happy new year!
Posted by: John | 31 December 2006 at 09:40 PM