Just the other day I was sitting next to Brenda on a laptop and we were planning on going to the Original Pancake House. Not a bad place by the way. The girls love it. So to avoid another 411 connect charge (Brenda kills me! I can’t train her off of 411!) I went to Google maps to find the business and it’s phone number.

Really simple of course and I find the result on the first try. But next to the number is an innocent looking “call” link.

Now I’m thinking this is a little odd. On the Blackberry I wouldn’t bat an eye - all phone numbers on the hand-held are linked and they’ll place the call from the browser. It’s a phone after all. But here I’m on a laptop. Will it really place the call maybe and use some google talk magic with laptop mic? So I click it.

And the most amazing thing happens. It asks me for my phone number, I provide our land line, and it informs me it’s calling my phone to complete the call. Brenda answers the phone and I tell her she’s going to be connected to the pancake house. (The browser has in fact told me that’s what it’s doing next.) And then it’s done! In as quickly as it took two phones to be answered I had used a web page to place a call between two parties.

Now this is right on the heels of GOOG-411 directory assistance and free call connection. Add to that mix the Google Talk client which implements computer based voice calls in addition to the simple instant messaging.

Now I’m just speculating but this small handful of tricks could be the tip of the iceberg. Who knows if they’ll ever connect the dots, you know? That said you could be looking at a company here that could shake a few paradigms if they step into the personal telephony market in any significant way.