Automatic virtual phone number pool management

• US 10,354,272 B1
• Filed: 06/13/2018
• Issued: 07/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Agrawal, Anurag, Baliga, Girish, Kothari, Anshul, Yi, Seung, Huang, Tao
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Jimmy H
• Application Number:
  US16/007,334
• Time in Patent Office: 398 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/65 Telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/828 Allocation of resources per group of connections, e.g. per group of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/152 Temporary dial plan
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus include computer programs encoded on a computer-readable storage medium for dynamic contact information assignment. A method includes: identifying a pool of telephone numbers; assigning the telephone numbers to a pool manager; allocating by the pool manager, subsets of the telephone numbers to a plurality of allocators, each allocator responsible for allocating telephone numbers to an associated group of content sponsors; determining a first allocation of a first subset, the first allocation being distributed among the content sponsors associated with a first allocator, creating first pools each associated with a respective one of the content sponsors associated with the first allocator; reclaiming one or more telephone numbers from a pool of the first pools; and assigning ones of the reclaimed telephone numbers by the first allocator into either other pools of the first pools or back to the pool manager for allocation to other allocators.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, by one or more computers, an interaction with a click to call control at a client device;

connecting, by the one or more computers, the client device to a specific entity using a forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred;

storing, by the one or more computers, an association between an identifier of a user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and a telephone number of the specific entity;

reassigning the forwarding number to a different entity; and

after the telephone number has been reassigned to the different entity, routing, by the one or more computers, a call to the forwarding number by the user to the telephone number of the specific entity rather than the different entity based on the stored association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity is maintained for a predetermined period of time after the interaction is detected.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the routing of the call to the forwarding number occurs before the end of the predetermined period of time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reassigning of the forwarding number to the different entity is based on a determined change in forecasted traffic for one or both of the specific entity or the different entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding number was allocated to the click to call control from a pool of numbers that were available to be assigned to the specific entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a caption of the click to call control does not include the forwarding number.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

8. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memory elements including instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to;

detect an interaction with a click to call control at a client device;

connect the client device to a specific entity using a forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred;

store an association between an identifier of a user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and a telephone number of the specific entity;

reassign the forwarding number to a different entity; and

after the telephone number has been reassigned to the different entity, route a call to the forwarding number by the user to the telephone number of the specific entity rather than the different entity based on the stored association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity is maintained for a predetermined period of time after the interaction is detected.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the routing of the call to the forwarding number occurs before the end of the predetermined period of time.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the reassigning of the forwarding number to the different entity is based on a determined change in forecasted traffic for one or both of the specific entity or the different entity.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the forwarding number was allocated to the click to call control from a pool of numbers that were available to be assigned to the specific entity.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein a caption of the click to call control does not include the forwarding number.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

15. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage device and comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

detect an interaction with a click to call control at a client device;

connect the client device to a specific entity using a forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred;

store an association between an identifier of a user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and a telephone number of the specific entity;

reassign the forwarding number to a different entity; and

after the telephone number has been reassigned to the different entity, route a call to the forwarding number by the user to the telephone number of the specific entity rather than the different entity based on the stored association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity.

16. The product of claim 15, wherein the association between the identifier of the user that interacted with the click to call control, the forwarding number that was allocated to the click to call control when the interaction occurred, and the telephone number of the specific entity is maintained for a predetermined period of time after the interaction is detected.

17. The product of claim 16, wherein the routing of the call to the forwarding number occurs before the end of the predetermined period of time.

18. The product of claim 15, wherein the reassigning of the forwarding number to the different entity is based on a determined change in forecasted traffic for one or both of the specific entity or the different entity.

19. The product of claim 15, wherein the forwarding number was allocated to the click to call control from a pool of numbers that were available to be assigned to the specific entity.

20. The product of claim 15, wherein a caption of the click to call control does not include the forwarding number.