CONTEXTUALIZED WORD TO TELEPHONE NUMBER MAPPING

• US 20150181036A1
• Filed: 05/29/2013
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: WUEST, Brandon Stephen
• Application Number:
  US13/904,982
• Publication Number:
  US 20150181036A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services

Abstract

A contextualized word to telephone number mapping system may include one or more computing devices and a memory. The one or more computing devices may receive a telephone number of a business and terms related to the business. The one or more computing devices may determine whether at least one of the terms can be mapped to the telephone number of the business based at least in part on an alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping. The one or more computing devices may provide at least one of the terms when at least one of the terms can be mapped to the telephone number of the business using the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping, otherwise the one or more computing devices may provide an available telephone number to which at least one of the terms can be mapped using the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining contextually relevant terms that can be mapped to a telephone number of a business, the method comprising:

retrieving, using one or more computing devices, telephone numbers of businesses, each business being associated with a business category;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a keyword that is associated with the business category, the keyword being distinct from names of the businesses;

determining, using the one or more computing devices and for each business, whether the keyword can be mapped to at least a portion of the telephone number of the business based at least in part on an alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping;

generating, using the one or more computing devices and for each business for which the keyword can be mapped to the at least the portion of the telephone number of the business, a phoneword for the business by replacing the at least the portion of telephone number of the business with the keyword; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices and to each business for which the keyword can be mapped to at least the portion of the telephone number of the business, the phoneword for the business.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, using the one or more computing devices, an advertisement that comprises the telephone number of one of the businesses;

replacing, using the one or more computing devices, the telephone number of the one of the businesses in the advertisement with the phoneword for the one of the businesses; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the advertisement including the phoneword to a device of a user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the keyword comprises at least one of an acronym, an abbreviation, an alphanumeric combination, or at least a portion of a word.

4. A computer-implemented method for mapping a contextually relevant term to a telephone number, the method comprising:

receiving, using one or more computing devices, an ordered plurality of numbers that are associated with a business;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a first category that is associated with the business;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a first ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters that are related to the first category and that can be mapped to at least a first portion of the ordered plurality of numbers based at least in part on an alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the first ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a second category that is associated with the business;

determining, using the one or more computing devices, a second ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters that are related to the second category and that can be mapped to at least a second portion of the ordered plurality of numbers based at least in part on the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the second ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating, using the one or more computing devices, a first phoneword based at least in part on the ordered plurality of numbers by replacing the at least the first portion of the ordered plurality of numbers with the first ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters based at least in part on the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping;

generating, using the one or more computing devices, a second phoneword based at least in part on the ordered plurality of numbers by replacing the at least the second portion of the ordered plurality of numbers with the second ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters based at least in part on the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the first phoneword and the second phoneword.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ordered plurality of numbers that are associated with the business comprises a telephone number that is associated with the business.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving, using the one or more computing devices, a request for an advertisement, wherein the request comprises a third category;

retrieving, using the one or more computing devices and based at least in part on the request, an advertisement for the business that comprises the telephone number that is associated with the business;

replacing, using the one or more computing devices, the telephone number in the advertisement with the first phoneword when the third category of the request comprises the first category and replacing the telephone number in the advertisement with the second phoneword when the third category of the request comprises the second category; and

providing, using the one or more computing devices, the advertisement.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first portion of the ordered plurality of numbers shares at least one number in common with the second portion of the ordered plurality of numbers.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping is based at least in part on a mapping of alphanumeric characters to numbers on a telephone keypad used in a geographic region that is associated with at least one of the request or the telephone number of the business.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the ordered plurality of alphanumeric characters comprises at least one of a keyword, an acronym, an abbreviation, or an alphanumeric combination.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium embodying instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for determining contextually relevant terms that can be mapped to a telephone number of a business, the method comprising:

determining a telephone number of a business and a plurality of candidate terms that are contextually relevant to the business, wherein the telephone number comprises an ordered plurality of numbers;

determining a plurality of terms of the plurality of candidate terms that can be mapped to at least a portion of the ordered plurality of numbers of the telephone number based at least in part on an alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping;

generating a plurality of phonewords using the plurality of terms and the telephone number, wherein each of the plurality of phonewords comprises the telephone number with the at least the portion of the ordered plurality of numbers being replaced with one of the plurality of terms; and

providing the plurality of phonewords to a device of a user associated with the business.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein a first term of the plurality of terms is mapped to a first portion of the ordered plurality of numbers and a second term of the plurality of terms is mapped to a second portion of the ordered plurality of numbers, the first term being distinct from the second term.

14. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first portion of the ordered plurality of numbers is distinct from the second portion of the ordered plurality of numbers.

15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

determining the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping based at least in part on a geographic region associated with the telephone number.

16. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a search query;

retrieving, based at least in part on the search query, an advertisement for the business that comprises the telephone number of the business;

replacing the telephone number in the advertisement with one of the plurality of phonewords; and

providing the advertisement including the one of the plurality of phonewords.

17. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein at least one of the plurality of terms comprises an acronym, an abbreviation, an alphanumeric combination, or at least a portion of a word.

18. A system, comprising:

one or more computing devices; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to;

receive a telephone number of a business and a plurality of terms related to the business;

determine whether at least one of the plurality of terms can be mapped to the telephone number of the business based at least in part on an alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping; and

provide the at least one of the plurality of terms when the at least one of the plurality of terms can be mapped to the telephone number of the business, otherwise provide an available telephone number to which the at least one of the plurality of terms can be mapped using the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the available telephone number comprises a common area code as the telephone number or an area code that is associated with a geographic region that is associated with the telephone number.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to:

determine the alphanumeric-to-numeric mapping based at least in part on a geographic region associated with the telephone number.