A new Google patent application hints at the search giant's plans for the mobile advertising market, with a type of ad that would result in a phone call instead of a visit to a website, reports ClickZ. A senior research scientist at Google, Shumeet Baluja, filed U.S. patent application 20060004627 for the "call-on-select" process that takes into account screen size, connection speed and input capabilities of mobile devices to determine whether to serve an ad that would link to a website or place a phone call to the advertiser.

The patent application describes an algorithm that considers the various limitations of a device, an ad's relevance to users (both contextual and behavioral), CPM and CPC price, user preferences and other "performance parameters."

"Everybody talks about pay-per-call in wireless as a natural business model," Greg Sterling, program director at the Kelsey Group, told ClickZ."Our data indicate that 71 percent of small and mid-sized businesses would rather receive a phone call than a click in a performance-based ad model."