> VP ENGINEERING: But that’s impossible. How do we even know what people are talking about on their phone calls?
> MR. GOOGLE: That’s a great question, and it makes clear how little you have done to exploit your platform. You need to monitor every call, and compile a file of information on every customer.
It kind of ruined it for me to have suggestions like this that were totally impractical with 1920s technology.
> MR GOOGLE: That’s just the start. There are a hundred more ways we can make money from phones. For example, people need to find out the telephone numbers of the people they want to call. That’s what we call a search function. Businesses will pay top dollar to be included in the search results.
> PRESIDENT: [So shocked he spits out his coffee]: Whoa—do I understand you correctly? When someone calls the operator and asks for the phone number of Judy’s Beauty Salon, we give out the number of another beauty salon instead—and take a kickback for lying?
IIRC, the automatic telephone switch was invented to prevent this very problem. An undertaker invented it because one of his competitor's wives was the telephone operator, and she would route calls for new business meant for him to her husband.