SYSTEM, APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GENERATING AND RANKING CONTACT INFORMATION AND RELATED ADVERTISEMENTS IN RESPONSE TO QUERY ON COMMUNICATION DEVICE

• US 20090300010A1
• Filed: 07/23/2009
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novation Science Holding LLC
• Original Assignee: Novation Science Holding LLC
• Inventors: Ratnakar, Nitesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,331,915 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, system, and apparatus to download contact information of one or more entities in one or more geographic areas from remote server into die contact list of a communication device. Communication network between remote server and communication device; and contact information databases having identical data fields is provided in remote server and communication device. According to another aspect, communication device application having means to determine communication device location; and having means to retrieve contact information from communication device contact list in response to user query; and sort retrieved contact information in order of their proximity to communication device location is provided. According to another aspect of the invention; apparatus, method, and system for advertising on communication devices in conjunction with contact information of entities is provided. According to yet another aspect of the invention; means to determine popularity and ranking of contact information of entities is provided.

Claims

1. A method of determining ranking of contact information comprising;

database in central server containing a plurality of contact information for a plurality of entities and associated with a plurality of geographical locations;

a communications network that facilitates downloading contact information into internal memory of a remote communication device; and

application in central server determining instances of download of each contact information from the database in central server into internal memory of remote communication device.

2. The central server application of claim 1 ranking contact information according to instances of download into remote communication device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication device is one of a cellular phone, a PDA, a computer, and a landline telephone.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein contact information includes one of name, address, telephone number, hours of operation, directions, and category.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein contact information is an advertisement.

6. A method of determining ranking of contact information comprising:

contact information database in internal memory of a communication device;

application in communication device determining instances of retrieval of contact information from internal memory of communication device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein contact information database is transmitted from remote server to the internal memory of the communication device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein one or more advertisements are paired with contact information contained in contact information database.

9. The communication device application of claim 6 ranking contact information according to instances of retrieval of contact information from the internal memory of communication device.

10. The communication device application of claim 6 communicating the instances of retrieval of contact information from within contact list of communication device to remote server application via a communications network.

11. The method of claim 10 comprising remote server application ranking contact information according to instances of user retrieval of contact information in one or more remote communication device.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein contact information is an advertisement.

13. A method comprising:

providing a first centralized database having data fields for input of contact information;

contact information having link attached thereto responsive to corresponding advertisement;

providing a second centralized database having data fields for input of advertisements;

capturing contact information from the first centralized database for one or more contacts;

capturing advertisements from the second centralized database;

downloading and storing the captured contact information, link and advertisements into internal memory of the communication device;

receiving an input selecting a contact contained in the internal memory of the communication device;

linking contact information and corresponding advertisement responsive to the link within communication device; and

displaying the contact information and the advertisement on the communication device.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the first centralized database is populated by contacts who desire to make their contact information available for downloading to the communication and the second centralized database is populated by contacts who desire to have advertisements downloaded to the communication device together with their contact information.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising associating a category with each of the contacts and displaying the contact list on the communication device with the corresponding contacts for the geographical location grouped by their category.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the contacts are businesses offering services in the geographical location and wherein the advertisements include at least one of images, audio, and video.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the contact information includes phone numbers and wherein the contact information is stored in memory of the communication device in such a manner that allows an operator to use the quick-dialing functionality of the communication device to dial a phone number of a given contact without requiring the operator to manually input the phone number into the dialing pad of the communication device.