Systems and methods to provide advertisements for real time communications

• US 9,105,032 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2008
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Van Der Linden, Sean, Manca, Paul G.
• Primary Examiner(s): VANDERHORST, MARIA VICTORIA
• Application Number:
  US12/114,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20080275785A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,657 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide advertisements based on the content of documents in which the advertisements are presented. One embodiment includes: a web server to receive a request for an advertisement in reference to a document provided to a user by a content provider; a backend server to identify the advertisement based on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document and to associate a communication reference with the advertisement and the content provider, the web server to provide the advertisement and the reference for inclusion in the document; and a telecommunication server coupled to a session border controller and the backend server to receive a connection request via the reference, to determine contact information of the advertiser and identify the content provider based on the reference, and to establish the connection between the user and the advertiser using the determined contact information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

processing, by a web server, a request for an advertisement in reference to a document provided to a client system by a content server, the request received from the client system or the content server;

responsive to the processing the request, determining, by an advertisement server coupled to the web server, a set of keywords representing content of the document;

based at least in part on the set of keywords, searching, by the advertisement server, an advertisement database coupled to the advertisement server to identify an advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document;

selecting, by the advertisement server, a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are dynamically recycled based on a predetermined set of allocation rules;

storing in the advertisement database a set of parameters in association with the advertisement, the set of parameters specifying the communication reference allocated to the advertisement and associated with a content provider for a first predefined period of time, the communication reference useable to request a telecommunication server to establish a connection for real time communications between a user of the client system and an advertiser of the advertisement;

generating, by the web server, a second document at least in part by adding the advertisement and the communication reference to the document;

transmitting, by the web server, the second document for presentation via the client system to the user of the client system;

processing, by at least one telecommunication server coupled to a session border controller configured to interface with a packet switched network, a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference;

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, causing, by the at least one telecommunication server, the set of parameters stored in the advertisement database to be modified to extend the association of the communication reference with the advertisement for a second period of time and determining contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to transmit the connection request;

establishing, by the at least one telecommunication server, the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser using the contact information determined from the communication reference; and

identifying, by the at least one telecommunication server, the content provider based on the communication reference used to transmit the connection request, wherein the content provider is compensated for the connection based at least in part on the establishing of the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication reference comprises one of a telephone number of a connection provider without an extension, a telephone number of the connection provider with an extension, a session initiation protocol uniform resource identifier, or a voice over Internet protocol user identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

charging the advertiser an advertisement fee for establishing of the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication reference comprises a link which when selected by the user causes a telephonic application to initiate a telephone call.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser includes a connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser in at least one of text, voice, and/or video.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser includes a telephonic connection.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving the connection request from the user, where the receiving includes the connection provider receiving a telephone call from the user; and

the establishing the connection for real time communications includes the connection provider placing a separate telephone call to the advertiser and bridging the telephone call received from the user and the separate telephone call placed to the advertiser.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the establishing of the connection for real time communications includes:

the connection provider establishing a first voice over Internet protocol connection with a telecommunication carrier which bridges the first voice over Internet protocol connection to a switch in a public switched telephone network to the user;

the connection provider establishing a second voice over Internet protocol connection with a telecommunication carrier which bridges the second voice over Internet protocol connection to a switch in the public switched telephone network to the advertiser; and

connecting the first voice over Internet protocol connection and the second voice over Internet protocol connection.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein connecting the first voice over Internet protocol connection and second voice over Internet protocol connection comprises establishing a media connection that does not go through the connection provider to connect the user and the advertiser.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the adding the advertisement and the communication reference to the document comprises:

providing the content provider with a code to be embedded in the document, when loaded into a browser, the code generating a request from the browser in reference to the document; and

providing the advertisement and the communication reference to the browser in response to the request from the browser.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the advertisement is identified in response to the request from the browser.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein

the document is received from the content provider.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying the advertisement further comprises:

sorting a plurality of candidate advertisements found resulting from searching the advertisement database; and

based on a result of the sorting the plurality of candidates, selecting at least one advertisement from the candidates for inclusion in the document.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the searching includes searching with a criterion based on availability of an advertiser to communicate with the user in real time according to a schedule of the advertiser.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the searching includes searching with a criterion to filter out advertisements of competitors of the content provider.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the sorting includes sorting according to bid prices of advertisers of the candidate advertisements;

wherein the bid prices are charged in response to the connection provider connecting the user to an advertiser.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining an earning potential of presenting a respective candidate advertisement of the candidate advertisements;

wherein the sorting includes sorting the candidate advertisements according to respective earning potentials; and

wherein each respective earning potential includes an advertisement fee charged for establishing a real time communication connection from a customer to the advertiser of the candidate advertisement and a commission fee charged based on a customer purchase resulting from the real time communication connection between the customer and the advertiser of the candidate.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of the document comprises at least one of a blog, a profile page of a member of an online social network, an email message accessed via a web site, a news article, an electronic book, and/or an electronic magazine.

19. One or more non-transitory, machine-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a server system, cause the server system to perform a method, the method comprising:

processing a request for an advertisement in reference to a document provided to a client system by a content server, the request received from the client system or the content server;

responsive to the processing the request, determining a set of keywords representing content of the document;

based at least in part on the set of keywords, searching an advertisement database to identify an advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document;

selecting a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are dynamically recycled based on a predetermined set of allocation rules;

storing in the advertisement database a set of parameters in association with the advertisement, the set of parameters specifying the communication reference allocated to the advertisement and associated with a content provider for a first predefined period of time, the communication reference to be used to request a telecommunication server to establish a connection for real time communications between a user of the client system user and an advertiser of the advertisement;

generating a second document at least in part by adding the advertisement and the communication reference to the document;

transmitting the second document for presentation via the client system to the user of the client system;

processing a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference;

in response to the connection request received from the client system via the communication reference, causing, by the at least one telecommunication server, the set of parameters stored in the advertisement database to be modified to extend the association of the communication reference with the advertisement for a second period of time and determining contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to receive the connection request;

establishing the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser using the contact information determined from the communication reference;

identifying the content provider based on the communication reference used to receive the connection request; and

compensating the content provider per the establishing of the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser.

20. A server system, comprising:

a web server configured to;

process a request for an advertisement in reference to a document provided to a client system by a content server, the request received from the client system or the content server;

transmit the advertisement and a communication reference for inclusion in the document for presentation via the client system to a user of the client system, the communication reference to be used to request a telecommunication server to establish a connection for real time communications between the user and an advertiser of the advertisement;

an advertisement server coupled to the web server and configured to;

determine a set of keywords representing content of the document;

based at least in part on the set of keywords, search an advertisement database coupled to the advertisement server to identify the advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the documents; and

select a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are dynamically recycled based on a predetermined set of allocation rules;

store in the advertisement database a set of parameters in association with the advertisement, the set of parameters specifying the communication reference allocated to the advertisement and associated with a content provider for a first predefined period of time;

a session border controller configured to interface with a packet switched network; and

at least one telecommunication server coupled to the session border controller and the advertisement server, the at least one telecommunication server configured to;

process a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference;

determine contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to receive the connection request;

cause the set of parameters stored in the advertisement database to be modified to extend the association of the communication reference with the advertisement for a second period of time upon receipt of the connection request;

identify the content provider based on the communication reference used to receive the connection request; and

establish the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser using the contact information determined from the communication reference;

wherein the content provider is compensated for the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser being established; and

wherein the advertiser is charged an advertisement fee for the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser being established.