Methods and apparatuses to access advertisements through voice over internet protocol (VoIP) applications

• US 20070081662A1
• Filed: 11/14/2005
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Van der Linden, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/355.30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) terminals with integrated user interface for accessing and/or managing advertisements that provide telephonic contact information. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving a user input in a user interface of a VoIP telephonic apparatus to specify one or more search terms; submitting the one or more search terms from the telephonic apparatus to a server; receiving one or more advertisements containing one or more references to telephonic contact information as a result of a search performed using the one or more search terms; displaying the one or more advertisements in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus; receiving a user indication in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus to call an advertiser of the one or more advertisements; and initiating a telephonic call to the advertiser according to the one or more advertisements using the VoIP telephonic apparatus.

Claims

1. A telephonic apparatus, comprising:

a module to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls; and

a user interface of the telephonic apparatus to display an advertisement, the

advertisement containing a reference to telephonic contact information of

an advertiser of the advertisement, the module to make a VoIP call to the

advertiser based on the reference to the telephonic contact information of

the advertiser in response to a user request received in the user interface of

the telephonic apparatus.

2. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is charged for based on a price specified by the advertiser and based on successful telephonic connection from the telephonic apparatus to the advertiser.

3. The telephonic apparatus of claim 2, wherein the advertisement is charged for

based on one of:

a per phone lead basis;

a per phone call basis; and

a duration of a telephonic connection; and

wherein a fee is collected from the advertiser or a user of the telephonic apparatus.

4. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user request does not include the telephonic contact information of the advertiser;

and the user interface of the telephonic apparatus does not display the telephonic contact information of the advertiser.

5. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reference to telephonic contact information of the advertiser comprises one of:

a telephone number of a routing server, the telephone number being assigned to the advertiser;

a telephone number of the advertiser;

a VoIP user ID of a routing server, the VoIP user ID being assigned to the advertiser;

a VoIP user ID of the advertiser;

an identifier of the advertiser; and

an identifier of the advertisement; and

wherein the reference to the telephonic contact information is used automatically

by the telephonic apparatus to make the VoIP call, in response to the user request.

6. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the telephonic apparatus is one of:

a wireless mobile phone;

a cellular phone;

a VoIP phone;

a Bluetooth phone;

a Universal Serial Bus (USB) phone;

a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA); and

a handheld computer.

7. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is displayed in response to at least one search term submitted from the user interface to search yellow page information or to search listings of services provided over telephonic connections.

8. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a module to store the reference to the telephonic contact information as telephonic contact information of the advertiser;

wherein the reference to the telephonic contact information stored by the module is used to retrieve a current version of the advertisement for display in the user interface of the telephonic apparatus, in response to a user request to view contact information of the advertiser.

9. The telephonic apparatus of claim 1, wherein the user interface of the telephonic apparatus further comprises an interface to manage an advertisement of the user of the telephonic apparatus, the advertisement of the user to be distributed by a server, the advertisement of the user including telephonic contact information of the telephonic apparatus for the user as an advertiser.

10. The telephonic apparatus of claim 9, wherein the telephonic apparatus communicates with the server through an Application Program Interface (API) of the server to retrieve the advertisement of the user and to submit updated information of the advertisement of the user.

11. The telephonic apparatus of claim 10, wherein the updated information comprises a price based on which the advertisement of the user is charged for when a telephonic connection is successfully made between a caller and the user.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving a user input in a user interface of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephonic apparatus, the user input specifying one or more search terms;

submitting the one or more search terms from the telephonic apparatus to a server;

receiving one or more advertisements as a result of a search performed using the one or more search terms, the one or more advertisements containing one or more references to telephonic contact information;

displaying the one or more advertisements in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus;

receiving a user indication in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus to call an advertiser of the one or more advertisements; and

initiating a telephonic call to the advertiser according to the one or more advertisements using the VoIP telephonic apparatus.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing a reference to telephonic contact information contained in an advertisement of an advertiser on the VoIP telephonic apparatus; and

displaying a current version of the advertisement when the reference to the telephonic contact information is retrieved for contact information of the advertiser.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

retrieving the current version of the advertisement from a server when contact information of the advertiser is requested by a user of the VoIP telephonic apparatus.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving user input in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus to manage an advertisement of a user of the VoIP telephonic apparatus;

wherein an advertisement account of the user on a server is identified by an identifier of the VoIP telephonic apparatus.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

transmitting a reference to telephonic contact information of an advertisement to a server to determine an online presence information of the advertiser for the telephone call.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

transmitting information about the telephonic call to the advertiser to a remote server after a successful connection between the VoIP telephonic apparatus and a phone of the advertiser.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

transmitting a reference to telephonic contact information of an advertisement to a server which makes separate calls to the VoIP telephonic apparatus and a phone of the advertiser and joins the separate calls to connect the VoIP telephonic apparatus and the phone the advertiser.

19. A machine readable media embodying instructions, the instructions causing a

machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a user input in a user interface of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephonic apparatus, the user input specifying one or more search terms;

submitting the one or more search terms from the telephonic apparatus to a server;

receiving one or more advertisements as a result of a search performed using the one or more search terms, the one or more advertisements containing one or more references to telephonic contact information;

displaying the one or more advertisements in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus;

receiving a user indication in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus to call an advertiser of the one or more advertisements; and

initiating a telephonic call to the advertiser according to the one or more advertisements using the VoIP telephonic apparatus.

20. A Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephonic apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving a user input in a user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus, the user input specifying one or more search terms;

means for submitting the one or more search terms from the telephonic apparatus to a server;

means for receiving one or more advertisements as a result of a search performed using the one or more search terms, the one or more advertisements containing one or more references to telephonic contact information;

means for displaying the one or more advertisements in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus;

means for receiving a user indication in the user interface of the VoIP telephonic apparatus to call an advertiser of the one or more advertisements; and

means for initiating a telephonic call to the advertiser according to the one or more advertisements using the VoIP telephonic apparatus.