Methods and apparatuses for advertisements on mobile devices for communication connections

• US 10,425,538 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Van Der Linden, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US11/536,628
• Publication Number:
  US 20070121846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,744 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1455, 705 1464, 705 1469
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to present advertisements on mobile devices for communication connections of multiple content types. In one embodiment, a method includes: providing an advertisement to a mobile device, the advertisement to include a communication reference to be used by the mobile device to request a communication connection; and billing for the advertisement in response to an initiation of a communication, comprising more than one of text, voice, audio, image, and video, via the communication reference.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

processing, by a server, a transmission from a mobile device of a user, the transmission corresponding to a request made during an audio communication session via an audio communication link, where said request transmitted is data representative of the user'"'"'s search request which is processed by a search engine processing on the mobile device where said search engine has a function to receive input of the user'"'"'s search request and output the data representative of the search request for transmission;

detect, via the server, a geolocation of the mobile device by receiving transmission of location information from a GPS transmitting from the mobile device;

searching with a search module, by the server processing the search module, an advertisement database communicable with the server and said advertisement database having various advertisements stored thereon encoded with an associated determined geographic area, thereby to identify from among the various advertisements an advertisement, of an advertiser, relevant to the request, the advertisement is identified based in part on a determined geographic area associated with the advertisement that corresponds to the detected geolocation of the mobile device;

providing with an advertisement engine, by the server processing the advertiser engine, visual content of the advertisement to display on a user interface of a display device of the mobile device, for user interaction with the visual content by the user, via a data communication link that is different from the audio communication link, wherein the server provides the visual content of the advertisement encoded with a selectable communication reference for presentation during the audio communication session, receiving the visual content of the advertisement encoded with the communication reference at the user interface operating on the mobile device where the communication reference is encoded with information relating to a target phone number of the advertiser stored in a target phone number database, and where the advertisement is being displayed by the user interface operating on the mobile device including displaying the communication reference that is selectable by the mobile device to request a communication connection with a call routing engine having logic to route a call for a communication, with a communication device of the advertiser, comprising multiple content types comprising the visual content of the advertisement and real time two-way audio content of the advertisement;

responsive to a detection of a selection of the communication reference, selected from the visual content of the advertisement via the user interface, to request the communication connection, establishing a real time communication connection by routing with a call routing engine, by the server processing the call routing engine, a telephone call, by a Voice over Internet Protocol with voice over IP logic being processed by the server and using a Session Initiation Protocol connection, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser based on decoding of the encoded communication reference to thereby associate with the target phone number of the advertiser at the target phone number database, the telephone call comprising the multiple content types at least in part by bridging the real time two-way audio content to the mobile device using the audio communication link, and bridging the visual content to the mobile device using a second communication link, the audio communication link being separate from the second communication link; and

billing the advertiser for providing the advertisement to the mobile device of the user in response to initiation of the telephone call, comprising the multiple content types comprising the visual content of the advertisement and the real time two-way audio content comprising audio pertaining to the advertisement itself, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser, where billing the advertiser is performed by the server transmitting a bill and presenting the bill at the advertiser.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received by a telephone-based directory.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the visual content is via text.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the visual content is through at least one of a wireless application protocol and/or a short message service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual content further comprises at least one of video, image, text, text message, instant message, multimedia message, email, web television, interactive television, document sharing, screen sharing, and/or common white boarding.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio communication link and the second communication link are used in parallel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual content is transmitted over the second communication link after the audio communication link for the audio content is disconnected.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the visual content further comprises at least one of a conditional promotion, an electronic coupon, and/or information supplemental to the audio content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the real time two-way audio content of the advertisement comprises voice conversation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication reference comprises a first reference for initiation of the audio communication link for the real time two-way audio content and a second reference for initiation of the second communication link for the video data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing, by the server, the advertisement to the mobile device further comprises:

providing, to the mobile device, an audio advertisement via the audio communication link, wherein the audio advertisement and the advertisement correspond to the same advertiser, and wherein the audio advertisement is separate from the advertisement.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the real time two-way audio content of the advertisement further comprises voice content of the user of the mobile device and another user of the communication device of the advertiser.

13. A system comprising:

one or more network interfaces configured to facilitate access to one or more networks;

one or more servers coupled to the one or more network interfaces;

one or more storage media coupled to the one or more servers to retain instructions, the one or more servers to execute the instructions to;

process a transmission from a mobile device of a user, the transmission corresponding to a request made during an audio communication session via an audio communication link, where said request transmitted is data representative of the user'"'"'s search request which is processed by a search engine processing on the mobile device where said search engine has a function to receive input of the user'"'"'s search request and output the data representative of the search request for transmission;

detect a geolocation of the mobile device by receiving transmission of location information from a GPS transmitting from the mobile device;

search with a search engine module instructions an advertisement database communicable with the server and said advertisement database having various advertisements stored thereon encoded with an associated determined geographic area, thereby to identify from among the various advertisements an advertisement, of an advertiser, relevant to the request, the advertisement is identified based in part on a determined geographic area associated with the advertisement that corresponds to the detected geolocation of the mobile device;

provide with advertisement engine instructions visual content of the advertisement to display a user interface of a display device of the mobile device, for user interaction with the visual content by the user, via a data communication link that is different from the audio communication link, wherein at least one server of the one or more servers provides the visual content of the advertisement encoded with a selectable communication reference for visual presentation during the audio communication session, receiving the visual content of the advertisement encoded with the communication reference at the user interface operating on the mobile device where the communication reference is encoded with information relating to a target phone number of the advertiser stored in a target phone number database, and where the advertisement is being displayed by the user interface operating on the mobile device, including a displayed communication reference that is a selectable link to be used by the mobile device to request a communication connection with call routing engine instructions for a communication, with a communication device of the advertiser, comprising the visual content of the advertisement and real time two-way audio content of the advertisement;

responsive to a detection of a selection of the communication reference, selected from the visual content of the advertisement via the user interface, to request the communication connection, establishing a real time communication connection by routing with the call routing engine instructions a telephone call, by a Voice over Internet Protocol with Voice over Internet Protocol instructions using a Session Initiation Protocol connection, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser based on decoding of the encoded communication reference to thereby associate with the target phone number of the advertiser at the target phone number database, the telephone call comprising the multiple content types at least in part by bridging the real time two-way audio content to the mobile device using the audio communication link, and bridging the visual content to the receiving device using a second communication link, the audio communication link being separate from the second communication link; and

bill the advertiser for providing the advertisement to the mobile device of the user in response to initiation of the telephone call, comprising the multiple content types comprising the visual content of the advertisement and the real time two-way audio content comprising audio pertaining to the advertisement itself, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser, where billing the advertiser is performed by the server transmitting a bill and presenting the bill at the advertiser.

14. The method system of claim 13, wherein the providing the advertisement to the mobile device comprises a telephone-based directory providing the advertisement to the mobile device via a wireless media.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the request is received by a telephone-based directory.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein at least a portion of the visual content is via text.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the visual content further comprises at least one of video, image, text, text message, instant message, multimedia message, email, web television, interactive television, document sharing, screen sharing, and/or common white boarding.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the real time two-way audio content of the advertisement further comprises voice content of the user of the mobile device and another user of the communication device of the advertiser.

19. One or more non-transitory, machine-readable media having machine-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computers or other processing devices, causes the one or more computers or other processing devices to:

process a transmission from a mobile device of a user, the transmission corresponding to a request made during an audio communication session via an audio communication link, where said request transmitted is data representative of the user'"'"'s search request which is processed by a search engine processing on the mobile device where said search engine has a function to receive input of the user'"'"'s search request and output the data representative of the search request for transmission;

detect a geolocation of the mobile device by receiving transmission of location information from a GPS transmitting from the mobile device;

search with a search engine module instructions an advertisement database communicable with the server and said advertisement database having various advertisements stored thereon encoded with an associated determined geographic area, thereby to identify from among the various advertisements an advertisement, of an advertiser, relevant to the request, the advertisement is identified based in part on a determined geographic area associated with the advertisement that corresponds to the detected geolocation of the mobile device;

providing with advertisement engine instructions visual content of the advertisement to display a user interface of a display device of the mobile device, for user interaction with the visual content by the user, via a data communication link that is different from the audio communication link, wherein the visual content of the advertisement encoded with a selectable communication reference is provided for visual presentation during the audio communication session, receiving the visual content of the advertisement encoded with the communication reference at the user interface operating on the mobile device where the communication reference is encoded with information relating to a target phone number of the advertiser stored in a target phone number database, and where the advertisement is being displayed by the user interface operating on the mobile device, including a displayed communication reference that is a selectable link useable by the mobile device to request a communication connection with call routing engine instructions for a communication, with a communication device of the advertiser, comprising multiple content types comprising the visual content of the advertisement and real time two-way audio content of the advertisement;

responsive to a detection of a selection of the communication reference, selected from the user interface, to request the communication connection, establishing a real time communication connection by routing with the call routing engine instructions a telephone call, by a Voice over Internet Protocol with Voice over Internet Protocol instructions using a Session Initiation Protocol connection, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser based on decoding of the encoded communication reference to thereby associate with the target phone number of the advertiser at the target phone number database, the telephone call comprising the multiple content types at least in part by bridging the real time two-way audio content to the mobile phone using the audio communication link, and bridging the visual content to the mobile phone using a second communication link, the audio communication link being separate from the second communication link; and

bill the advertiser for providing the advertisement to the mobile device of the user in response to initiation of the telephone call, comprising the multiple content types comprising the visual content of the advertisement and the real time two-way audio content comprising audio pertaining to the advertisement itself, between the mobile device of the user and the communication device of the advertiser, where billing the advertiser is performed by the server transmitting a bill and presenting the bill at the advertiser.

20. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 19, wherein the request is received by a telephone-based directory.

21. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 19, wherein at least a portion of the visual content is via text.

22. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 19, wherein the visual content further comprises at least one of video, image, text, text message, instant message, multimedia message, email, web television, interactive television, document sharing, screen sharing, and/or common white boarding.

23. The one or more non-transitory, machine-readable media of claim 19, wherein:

the real time two-way audio content of the advertisement further comprises voice content of the user of the mobile device and another user of the communication device of the advertiser.