Methods and Apparatuses to Provide Application Programming Interface for Retrieving Pay Per Call Advertisements

• US 20070143182A1
• Filed: 11/27/2006
• Published: 06/21/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: FABER, Scott, HALSTEAD, Mark, ALTBERG, Ebbe, YANG, Virginia, SLEMMER, Katherine, AKHOURI, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 9,202,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.710
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to provide access to advertisement database through an application programming interface. One embodiment includes receiving a request according to an application program interface over a network connection; and in response to the request, providing at least a portion of an advertisement according to the application programming interface. The advertisement is designed to generate communication leads for a party; and the party is to be charged for the advertisement according to a count of communication leads generated for the party via the advertisement.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request according to an application program interface over a network connection; and

in response to the request, providing at least a portion of an advertisement according to the application programming interface, the advertisement to generate communication leads for a party, the party to be charged for the advertisement according to a count of communication leads generated for the party via the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement comprises a communication reference;

and the method further comprises;

counting communication leads generated from the advertisement via the communication reference.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication reference comprises a phone number.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the phone number comprises a country code, an area code, an extension, or a session initiation protocol (SIP) uniform resource identifier (URI).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching an advertisement database according to the request to identify the advertisement.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the request comprises at least one of a keyword, a category, and a geographic location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the request is received from a partner on behalf a customer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein and the request further comprises an identifier associated with the partner and an identification representing the customer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the identification representing the customer comprises a phone number of the customer, an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the customer, or a user identifier of the customer.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the keyword is specified by the customer and the category is specified by the partner.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said searching comprises searching for cross selling or pitch switching based on a directory assistance request of the customer.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing a portion of the advertisement to the customer via a text message.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the text message is sent via a short message service (SMS).

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the advertisement provided to the customer includes one or more of a phone number, a description of an advertisement, an electronic coupon, and a link.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein the request further specifies a filter that is based on at least one of content of advertisements, advertisers, economical level, and quality level.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein said searching comprises identifying the advertisement based at least in part on bid price for communication leads and yield of advertisements.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the advertisement includes a name of the party, a street address of the party, a description of the advertisement, a bid price for communication leads for the advertisement, a link to an audio component, a link to a video component and a default display of the advertisement.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the request includes an identification of the advertisement.

19. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed on a data processing system cause the system to perform a method, comprising:

receiving a request according to an application program interface over a network connection;

and providing at least a portion of an advertisement according to the application programming interface in response to the request, the advertisement to generate communication leads for a party, the party to be charged for the advertisement according to a count of communication leads generated for the party via the advertisement.

20. A data processing system, comprising:

means for receiving a request according to an application program interface over a network connection; and

means for providing at least a portion of an advertisement according to the application programming interface in response to the request, the advertisement to generate communication leads for a party, the party to be charged for the advertisement according to a count of communication leads generated for the party via the advertisement.