Systems and Methods to Connect People for Real Time Communications via Directory Assistance

• US 20090041227A1
• Filed: 05/28/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: LYON, Ben Harris, HIRSON, Ron, FABER, Scott, ALTBERG, Ebbe, VAN DER LINDEN, Sean
• Granted Patent: US 8,724,789 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/265.10
• 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 connect people for real time communications via optional advertisements presented via directory assistance. One embodiment includes: receiving a directory assistance request from a user over a telephonic connection with the user; providing directory assistance information responsive to the directory assistance request; presenting an option related to an advertisement to the user; if the user declines the option, charging the user a fee for providing the directory assistance information; and if the user accepts the option, reducing the fee for providing the directory assistance information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a directory assistance request from a user over a telephonic connection with the user;

providing directory assistance information responsive to the directory assistance request;

presenting an option related to an advertisement to the user;

if the user declines the option, charging the user a fee for providing the directory assistance information; and

if the user accepts the option, reducing the fee for providing the directory assistance information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting the advertisement based on the directory assistance request; and

if the user accepts the option, presenting the advertisement to the user over the telephonic connection with the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the fee comprises waiving the fee associated with providing the directory assistance information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the user over the telephonic connection; and

determining whether the user declines or accepts the option based on a preference of the user stored in an account of the user.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

identifying the user via an automatic number identification service.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the option is presented to the user over the telephonic connection;

and the method further comprising;

receiving an input from the user over the telephonic connection to decline or accept the option.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the advertisement to the user over the telephonic connection prior to providing the directory assistance information;

wherein the option comprises an offer to connect the telephonic connection with the user to an advertiser of the advertisement.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the advertisement for a visual presentation to the user, the advertisement including a telephonic reference usable to request a connection to an advertiser of the advertisement;

wherein the option comprises calling the advertiser using the telephonic reference.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

responsive to the user calling the advertiser using the telephonic reference, charging the advertiser an advertisement fee for the advertisement presented to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the advertisement is transmitted to a user terminal of the user via short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), electronic mail, or instant messaging.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the directory assistance information is provided with the advertisement.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the user terminal comprises a cellular phone.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

compensating the user using a portion of the advertisement fee.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the telephonic reference includes a telephone number of a connection server without an extension, a telephone number of the connection server with an extension, a session initiation protocol (SIP) uniform resource identifier (URI), or a user identifier.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the telephonic reference includes a reference selectable to request a connection server to call back to the user for a connection to the advertiser.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an address of the user; and

transmitting a message to the user according to the address.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the option comprises the user interacting with the message to receive the advertisement.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the message includes the advertisement;

and the option comprises the user interacting with the advertisement to communicate with the advertiser.

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

receiving a directory assistance request from a user over a telephonic connection with the user;

providing directory assistance information responsive to the directory assistance request;

presenting an option related to an advertisement to the user;

if the user declines the option, charging the user a fee for providing the directory assistance information; and

if the user accepts the option, reducing the fee for providing the directory assistance information.

20. A system, comprising:

means for receiving a directory assistance request from a user over a telephonic connection with the user;

means for providing directory assistance information responsive to the directory assistance request;

means for presenting an option related to an advertisement to the user;

means for charging the user a fee for providing the directory assistance information if the user declines the option; and

means for reducing the fee for providing the directory assistance information if the user accepts the option.