Systems and Methods to Dynamically Generate Listings to Selectively Track User Responses

• US 20090030755A1
• Filed: 12/19/2007
• Published: 01/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: CHANG, Jonathan, ALTBERG, Ebbe, VAN DER LINDEN, Sean, HIRSON, Ron, FABER, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 10,147,099 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 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to dynamically customize a listing to track a selected type of responses to be generated from a presentation of the customized listing, where the selection of the type of responses is based at least in part on one or more characteristics of the request for the listing. One embodiment includes receiving a request for a listing of an entity; determining a characteristic of the request; selecting a type of responses for the listing based on the determined characteristic; generating a version of the listing to track the type of responses that are responsive to a presentation of the listing; and providing the version of the listing in response to the request.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a request for a listing of an entity;

determining a characteristic of the request;

selecting a type of responses for the listing based on the determined characteristic;

generating a version of the listing to track the type of responses that are responsive to a presentation of the listing; and

providing the version of the listing in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the request comprises a time of a day of the request, a day of a week of the request, or a characteristic of a requester of the request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the characteristic of the requester comprises an internet address of the requester, a phone number of the request, a user identifier of the requester, or a communication service provider of the requester.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the request is based at least on when the request is made, how the request is made, who made the request, or from where the request is received.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of responses are via telephone, instant messaging, email, web request, short text message, or multimedia messaging service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of responses are real time communications between people.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an availability status of the entity for receiving one or more types of responses;

wherein the type of responses is selected further based on the availability status of the entity.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the availability status is based on a scheduled time duration of the entity to receive telephone calls to the listing.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a response of the selected type via a presentation of the generated version of the listing;

directing the response to the entity; and

charging the entity an advertisement fee per directing the response to the entity.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein generating the version of the listing comprises embedding a telephonic reference in the listing;

and the response comprises a telephone call made via the telephonic reference.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

selecting a mechanism to track telephone calls to the listing; and

generating the telephonic reference according to the selected mechanism.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the telephonic reference comprises a telephone number without an extension, a telephone number with an extension, a session initiation protocol (SIP) uniform resource identifier (URI), a user identifier of an instant messaging network, or a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) user identifier.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein when the characteristic of the request indicates that the request is from a software robot of a search engine, the generated version includes no dynamically assigned references to the listing.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein when the characteristic of the request indicates that the request is not from a software robot of a search engine, the method further comprises:

dynamically assigning a reference to the listing, the reference to be used to receive the type of responses, wherein the generated version of the listing includes the reference dynamically assigned to the listing in response to the received request.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein when a time of the request is within a scheduled time period of the entity for real time communications, the version of the listing is generated to include a reference to be used to request a connection to the entity for real time communications in person.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein when a time of the request is outside a scheduled time period of the entity for real time communications, the version of the listing is generated to include a reference to be used to send a message to the entity.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein when the request is from a user terminal capable of making a telephonic connection, the version of the listing is generated to include a reference selectable to initiate a telephonic connection to the entity.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining likelihoods of receiving different types of responses from a presentation of the listing based at least in part on statistical data and the determined characteristic;

wherein the type of responses is selected according to the likelihoods.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the version of the listing is provided via Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the type of responses is selected based on a plurality of schedules of the entity to receive different types of real time communications.

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

receiving a request for a listing of an entity;

determining a characteristic of the request;

selecting a type of responses for the listing based on the determined characteristic;

generating a version of the listing to track the type of responses that are responsive to a presentation of the listing; and

providing the version of the listing in response to the request.

22. A system, comprising:

means for receiving a request for a listing of an entity;

means for determining a characteristic of the request;

means for selecting a type of responses for the listing based on the determined characteristic;

means for generating a version of the listing to track the type of responses that are responsive to a presentation of the listing; and

means for providing the version of the listing in response to the request.