METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR DELIVERY OF ADVICE TO MOBILE/WIRELESS DEVICES
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- providing a list of experts of diverse advice sources to a mobile device via a wireless media channel for presentation to a consumer, the list comprising;
information to indicate whether one or more of the experts are individually available to telephonically communicate with the consumer at a time when the list is provided to the consumer, andtelephonic references of a phone router assigned to the experts, the telephonic references selectable to cause the mobile device to call the phone router using the telephonic references; and
responsive to receiving a phone call from the mobile device using one telephonic reference of the telephonic references of the phone router assigned to an expert selected from the list of experts, determining a telephonic reference of the expert and initiating a telephonic connection to the expert by the phone router using the telephonic reference of the expert to connect the phone call from the consumer to the expert.
17 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses to connect consumers to diverse advice sources of experts. In one embodiment, a method includes: providing a list of experts to a mobile device via a wireless media channel for presentation to a consumer; responsive to receiving from the mobile device a selection of one expert from the list of experts, initiating a telephonic connection between the expert and the consumer prior to the consumer submitting a question for advice. In one example, the list includes information to indicate whether one or more of the experts are individually available to telephonically communicate with the consumer at a time when the list is provided to the consumer. In one example, initiating the telephonic connection includes: initiating a first call to the consumer; initiating a second call to the expert; and joining the first and second calls to make the telephonic connection between the expert and the consumer.
65 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A method, comprising:
-
providing a list of experts of diverse advice sources to a mobile device via a wireless media channel for presentation to a consumer, the list comprising; information to indicate whether one or more of the experts are individually available to telephonically communicate with the consumer at a time when the list is provided to the consumer, and telephonic references of a phone router assigned to the experts, the telephonic references selectable to cause the mobile device to call the phone router using the telephonic references; and responsive to receiving a phone call from the mobile device using one telephonic reference of the telephonic references of the phone router assigned to an expert selected from the list of experts, determining a telephonic reference of the expert and initiating a telephonic connection to the expert by the phone router using the telephonic reference of the expert to connect the phone call from the consumer to the expert. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform a method, comprising:
-
providing a list of experts of diverse advice sources to a mobile device via a media channel for presentation to a consumer, the list comprising at least one telephonic reference of a phone router, the telephonic reference being assigned by the phone router to one expert of the experts, and the telephonic reference being selectable to cause the mobile device to call the phone router using the telephonic reference; and responsive to receiving a first telephone call from the mobile device using the telephonic reference; determining a telephone number of the expert using the telephonic reference used to receive the first telephone call at the phone router; initiating a second telephone call to the expert using the telephone number of the expert; and joining the first and second telephone calls to provide a telephonic connection between the expert and the consumer.
-
-
19. A system, comprising:
-
a phone router; a computer server to provide a list of experts of diverse advice sources to a mobile device via a media channel for presentation to a consumer, the list comprising at least one telephonic reference of the phone router, the telephonic reference being assigned by the phone router to one expert of the experts, and the telephonic reference being selectable to cause the mobile device to call the phone router using the telephonic reference; and wherein the phone router is configured to, responsive to receiving a first telephone call from the mobile device using the telephonic reference, determine a telephone number of the expert using the telephonic reference used to receive the first telephone call, initiate a second telephone call to the expert using the telephone number of the expert, and join the first and second telephone calls to provide a telephonic connection between the expert and the consumer.
-
Specification