The Return of Phone.com.

Another story from the bubble days, but this time with a happy ending. Phone.com - I can't recall whether it had a use other than being an easy to remember URL - was merged with Software.com back when for a gabillion monopoly dollars. The buyers were going to change the world. Well the world changed, but they had little to do with it. In fact, the URL has sat fairly silent since the turn of century.

Now it's back (under new management), preparing to do battle with the host of virtual PBX offerings in the market - GotVMail and RingCentral to name a couple. It may also be revving its engine to take advantage of the market Google is going to create when it relaunches GrandCentral, which I must say I am curiously waiting for.

Phone.com for the moment does more or less what its competitors do, although they have chosen to sell VoIP services to the home market. One other difference worth noting: By bringing along the Phone.com name (which the investors seem to have bought for a steal - they are the same guys that bought and sold beer.com when you could still flip names) they get to go to market with a built in traffic base of 10,000 visitors a day on type-in's alone. Not bad. Let the battle for SOHO customers continue.