Someone left this comment in our uninstall feedback form.
A very good app. I did not use it so often however. For a freeware it is important to tell the “customers” how it is possible to make money. If the message is not clear one can suspect that the program does “things” with my computer. I dont want to suspect that at all, and therefore want to use FOSS-alternatvies.
First of all, thank you for the feedback and for trying out Call Graph. We appreciate it. Your concern is valid. The term ‘freeware’ is more commonly associated with Malware/Spyware. And since we are not an open source product, we have to answer the questions. Here it is.
The short answer is through premium services of Transcription and online storage. The long answer follows.
Call Graph is all about what happens to your recordings after it is done. Since you recorded the call it has some value for you. If not, then you’d most probably delete it right away. So our business model is built on the fact that for those records which are important to you, we can offer some services to you. Right now the premium services we offer are online storage and backup and transcription. Of course, only 1% of the all our users actually come back to us to use these services. That’s true for any internet venture and ours is no different.
Another revenue stream for us is ads. We have placed ads on the client, when you view the recordings or want to change the config (only in the Browser UI mode) and on CRIMS. These ads help us to cover the costs of distribution (hosting mainly).
We are also working on a another service which is indexing and search. If you have a lot of records stored, then obviously looking for a particular one can become a big pain. We already provide basic search services which uses the metadata of the record to look for the file. But our long term aim is to use keyword mining from the record itself and use those keywords for indexing the call record. A very rudimentary implementation is present in CRIMS. It still needs a lot of work though.
Right now we have a few paid customers for our services. A big thanks to all of you out there who have used our services and have come back for more. Call Graph is still very young and there are lot of more features planned. The year 2009 is going to be very important for us from the development perspective. So watch this space for more.
Also at some point in 2009, we’ll also apply for the Skype certification program. The test specifications provide us with a basic set of requirements and our intention is to meet them fully. Its a tough ask but we are confident that we’ll make it. After that Call Graph will no longer require manual authorization.
Last but not the least, we are a legitimate business entity and are covered by laws. We are accountable for our actions and we are committed to preserve the interests of our customers and investors. We want to categorically state that Call Graph does not contain any malware or spyware. It does not harm your PC in any way.
If you have more questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment or contact us directly.
Fixed a bug introduced in the last version. Thanks to Monica for pointing it out.