A Who's Who in New Telephony.

Coverage has been excellent so I am probably not telling you anything you don't know, but the The Top 25 VoIP Innovations of 2007 for VoIP-News is worth a read.

I can't say that I agree with all of them - not sure I would have put MSFT first - but the list is comprehensive. And if nothing else it tells us how much telephony has changed in just 12 months. In the past, changes have come more slowly and typically for the benefit of the enterprise buyer. No longer. This Christmas list comes with something for everyone - the consumer (especially the social one); the small business (more than ever before) and of course, the big company guys. Open access is in and 'closed' is out. Telephony is finally for everyone, which most importantly includes the web development community. Many of them are getting their first taste of telephony, and liking it. And 2.0 has shown us what that community is capable of.

I have to mention number 18 on the list - 'Click-to-be-Called' - because it represents innovation on top of, well, innovation. By this I mean that click-to-call seems so simple to people that it almost feels like it has been around forever. Not so. Products are only as important to businesses as their ability to take advantage of them. Many click-to-call vendors have not met that challenge. Ifbyphone, a long time provider of click-to-call and call routing services for small business, released 'zero-configuration' click-to-call. Write out a URL, add your phone number and like magic you have a click-to-call to put anywhere you like. Web site, email, Word documents. Now this is innovation. Try it.