Systems and Methods to Provide a Communication Reference in a Representation of a Geographical Region

• US 20070083408A1
• Filed: 11/10/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: HIRSON, Ron, FABER, Scott, ALTBERG, Ebbe, VAN DER LINDEN, Sean, YEVDAYEV, Dmitry, LYON, Ben, MANCA, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,208,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• 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

Systems and methods to provide a reference for communication with a business is disclosed here. One embodiment includes providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location within the representation corresponding to a location of the business, tracking usage of the reference, and billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location corresponding to a location of the business within the representation;

tracking usage of the reference; and

billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the quantitative usage of the reference comprises establishing a connection for real-time communication with the business via the reference.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the connection for real-time communication comprises a connection for communication in one or more of audio, voice, text, and video.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing an instant messaging connection provided via the reference to facilitate real-time communication with the business.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference includes one or more of a telephone number, a toll free telephone number, a local number, a vanity number, a number without an extension, a number with an extension, a click-to-call reference, a reference to request a connection via callback, a click-to-reveal reference, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) identifier, an online chat identifier, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) address, and a universal resource identifier (URI).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference is selectable in a user interface to initiate real-time communication with the business.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reference includes a logo, tradename, trademark name, or a representation of a product of the business.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the reference further comprises providing the reference to a requesting device based on hardware or software capability of the requesting device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining whether the requesting device is VoIP-enabled;

wherein the reference includes a VoIP identifier when the requesting device is VoIP-enabled.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining whether the requesting device has a capability to place a telephone call;

wherein the reference is selectable to place a telephone call when the requesting device has the capability to place a telephone call.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the requesting device comprises one of a VoIP client, a wireless phone, a Bluetooth phone, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and a handheld computing device, a computing device, a portable device, a telephone, and a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising providing the reference via emailing or text messaging to a portable device.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the reference is based on a geographical location of the requesting device.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating an interactive document including the reference and the representation of the geographical region based on a geographical location of the requesting device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the geographic region is a representation of at least a portion of earth'"'"'s surface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the representation of the geographic region includes any of a diagrammatic map, a street map, a virtual map, a satellite transmitted depiction, a photographic depiction, a video depiction, an audio description, a survey, an atlas, a contour map, a 2D representation of landmarks, a 3D representation of landmarks, a 2D representation of geographical features, a 3D representation of geographical features, a 2D representation of structures, a 3D representation of structures.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the reference further comprises providing the reference in response to a selection of a representation of the business on the representation of the geographical region.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference is provided via one or more of a broadcasting media, a television media, a radio media, a web interface, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), short message service (SMS), instant messaging, and a printed media.

19. A machine readable media embodying instructions, the instructions causing a machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location corresponding to a location of the business within the representation;

tracking usage of the reference; and

billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.

20. A system, comprising:

means for providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location corresponding to a location of the business within the representation;

means for tracking usage of the reference; and

means for billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.

21. A method, comprising:

providing an advertisement to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location corresponding to a location of a business within the representation, the advertisement including a reference for real-time communication with the business;

tracking usage of the reference; and

billing the business an advertisement fee based on quantitative usage of the reference.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

identifying a display characteristics of a device; and

selecting, according to the display characteristics, a level of details for displaying the advertisement on the device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the identifying the display characteristics of the device is based on a request received from the device.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the providing the advertisements further comprises:

identifying a plurality of advertisements in response to a request;

ranking the plurality of advertisements according to price bids on the advertisement fee; and

selecting one or more advertisements for display based on the ranking of the plurality of advertisements.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the selecting the one or more advertisement comprises selecting a first subset for display in a first size, and selecting a second subset for display in a second size smaller than the first size.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving a selection of an advertisement of the second subset; and

displaying the advertisement in a size larger than the second size.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a representation of the advertisement that is placed in the representation of the geographical region; and

displaying the advertisement in an increased detail level.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the displaying the advertisement in the increased detail level comprises displaying the advertisement in a pop up window, a panel or a layer separate from the representation of the geographical region.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the representation of the geographical region comprises a 3D representation of a structure in the geographical region;

and the advertisement is presented on a virtual representation of a surface of the structure.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the representation of the geographical region comprises a 3D representation of a virtual structure inserted in the geographical region;

and the advertisement is presented on a surface of the virtual structure.