Cactus Pizza

[matthewr]

I managed to get a Google Maps/800GOOG411 listing in Seattle, WA for "Cactus Pizza."  It's currently pointed to an IPKall number which is pointed to a voxeo conference line at the moment, but I'd like to do more with it.  I can use asterisk.  Any suggestions?

[bitbox]

nice find.  fill me in on the IPKall?

[matthewr]

nice find.  fill me in on the IPKall?

IPKall (ipkall.com) is a free service that gets you a washington state DID.

Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions on what to do with it, since it can be called for free from any North American telephone (including payphones, last time I checked).

Here are some ideas that I came up with a while ago with some people on the bridge:

-Toll-free diverter
-conference line or something to get into the PLA bridge easier (it's somewhat difficult getting into the PLA bridge with 800goog411, but if I let people use cactus pizza for that, the people with soundboards and tone generators would use it, too )
-Free long distance using Skype unlimited (suggestions for securing it and keeping it from being abused would be great, however, I don't have Skype unlimited yet, so I'm unsure of paying $30 to allow other people to get the same thing for free)
-Cheap calling card? (I'd only have to pay for outbound calls in that case, since google is taking care of the toll-free inbound part... a lot of people would like a ~1.5c/min calling card)

Some other interesting stuff:
-google doesn't forward caller ID to businesses (fake and real)
-The random address I put in happened to be located right in the middle of an intersection (look it up on google maps)
-Google calls are limited to 1 hour (I learned that when I was using goog411 to get into the conference bridge)

[Tachyon]

I think you should link it to the voicebridge. With two call in numbers, it's less likely to raise red flags at Google. Once one is found, I doubt they'll allow another number to be connected to the bridge again.

[gangals]

I doubt they'll allow another number to be connected to the bridge again.

I also set up the business "PLA Bridge" to go the the bridge. I just confirmed the pin last week so I'll have to wait till google does their next update.

[matthewr]

I think you should link it to the voicebridge. With two call in numbers, it's less likely to raise red flags at Google.

That would certainly be one of the options in the main menu of features, but I'll need some way of calling the bridge without it costing me anything.  I want to do this as cheaply as possible.  I found a service called iCall a while ago, but it can't be used with asterisk yet, so it has to be reverse-engineered before it can be used for this purpose.

Another idea is getting a bunch of free trial accounts from voipbuster, voipstunt, internetcalls, etc (they use SIP, so it can be used with asterisk) and cycling through them one by one as the trial minutes expire. (I think I could do that for now to see how well it works out, but it is too much of a hassle as a permanent thing.)

I could also do some sort of donation-based service and use callwithus.com, but that would mean it isn't free per-se, and most people would call out without donating, so it wouldn't work most of the time because it would always be out of minutes.

I also set up the business "PLA Bridge" to go the the bridge. I just confirmed the pin last week so I'll have to wait till google does their next update.

Good!  BTW it'll take about 2-3 weeks for them to get off their lazy ***es and update it.

EDIT: I just checked and it's in there! Search for "PLA Bridge" in Cincinnati, OH on google maps.
EDIT2: I tried using goog411 and it doesn't seem to like the PLA part (I don't think it likes dictation in general) and typing 752 returns some other business.

I'd appreciate some suggestions on how to call the bridge free/dirt cheap and unlimited from asterisk, and how to keep the assholes that tone/soundboard the bridge to death from using this.

Oh, and I'm planning to have many more features than just calling the bridge, so other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[samo]

what category is cactus pizza listed in? And where is all of this worry of google "raising red flags" about the voice bridge listing coming from?

[gangals]

And where is all of this worry of google "raising red flags" about the voice bridge listing coming from?

There is none.

People are just pansies.

[iron]

I did the same thing but used a GrandCentral number; so i can make free calls to anywhere if I edit the GC fwding number. But it seems that someone already has a GC account that forwards to the bridge so I use IPKall for that.