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, each of the telephonic references comprising an encoded target phone number associated with additional information that includes an identification of the wireless media channel used to deliver the list of experts to the mobile device; and
responsive to the phone router 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, decoding, by the phone router, the encoded target phone number to retrieve a target phone number 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 target phone number of the expert.
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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.
410 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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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, each of the telephonic references comprising an encoded target phone number associated with additional information that includes an identification of the wireless media channel used to deliver the list of experts to the mobile device; and responsive to the phone router 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, decoding, by the phone router, the encoded target phone number to retrieve a target phone number 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 target phone number of the expert. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a processor computer system, cause the computer system to:
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provide 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, each of the telephonic references comprising an encoded target phone number associated with additional information that includes an identification of the wireless media channel used to deliver the list of experts to the mobile device; and responsive to the phone router 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, decoding, by the phone router, the encoded target phone number to retrieve a target phone number 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 target phone number of the expert.
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19. A system, comprising:
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a phone router; and a computer server to provide 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; 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, each of the telephonic references comprising an encoded target phone number associated with additional information that includes an identification of the wireless media channel used to deliver the list of experts to the mobile device; and the phone router configured to, 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, determine a telephonic reference of the expert, decode the encoded target phone number to retrieve a target phone number of the expert, and initiate a telephonic connection to the expert using the telephonic reference of the expert to connect the phone call from the consumer to the target phone number of the expert.
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Specification