I was introduced to a new industry last night: Pay-per-call. It's like pay-per-click advertising, except the site hosting the ad gets paid when the customer picks up a phone and calls the vendor.

I learned about pay-per-call advertising from Robert Burns, of VisibleWebsite.com, a pay-per-call vendor here in San Diego.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn a lot that I can share with you -- we met at the San Diego Web Design Meetup. Good event, about 30 people in attendance, but the room had a lot of flat, echoey surfaces and it was HARD TO HEAR WHAT ANYBODY WAS SAYING.

(I'm sorry, did you say it's HARD TO HEAR THE GRASSHOPPERS PRAYING?)(NO, HARD TO HEAR WHAT ANYBODY WAS SAYING.)(HARD TO HEAR THE SCHOOLCHILDREN PLAYING?)(NO, HARD TO--- OH, NEVER MIND!)(WHAT?!)

But, still, a good event and I'll be back.

Turns out pay-per-call is not new; SearchEngine Watch did a write-up two years ago.

From the consumer standpoint, it's much easier to call a local business than rely on email to ask details about pricing, programs and product availability. When your pipes are leaking, and you need to locate a plumber-fast, people will be searching for phone numbers-not relying on email.

"People going online and performing a local search are not 'traditional searchers,'" says Barach. They typically want to talk to someone on the phone."

Also, with pay-per-call ads, the ad-buyer doesn't have to worry about click fraud.