Systems and methods to provide a communication reference in a representation of a geographical region
View Patent ↗Systems and methods to provide a reference for communication with a business is disclosed here. One embodiment includes providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location within the representation corresponding to a location of the business, tracking usage of the reference, and billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.
1. A method, comprising:
providing, by a server system to a customer's user device, indication of a map of a geographical region, the map comprising:
a first representation of a location of a business that corresponds to an actual geographical location of the business within the geographical region; and
a second representation of a reference for real-time communication assigned to a group of businesses that share a common category, the second representation disposed in a vicinity of the first representation in relation to the map;
receiving, via the server system, from the customer's user device, an indication of a selection of the second representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses;
in response to receiving the indication of the selection of the second representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses, dynamically assigning, by the server system, a second reference for real-time communication with the business to the business;
providing, by the server system, the second reference for real-time communication to the customer's user device;
consequent to the providing the second reference, establishing a connection to facilitate real-time communication with the business, the connection based at least in part on voice over Internet protocol;
tracking usage of the second reference for real-time communication; and
billing the business consequent to the providing the second reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the second reference.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing an instant messaging connection provided via the second reference to facilitate real-time communication with the business;
wherein the connection for real-time communication comprises a connection for communication in one or more of audio, voice, text, and/or video; and
wherein the quantitative usage of the second reference is based at least in part on the establishing the connection for real-time communication with the business via the second reference.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second reference includes at least one of a telephone number, a toll free telephone number, a local number, a vanity number, a number without an extension, a number with an extension, a click-to-call reference, a reference to request a connection via callback, a click-to-reveal reference, a voice over Internet protocol identifier, an online chat identifier, a session initiation protocol address, and/or a universal resource identifier.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the reference is selectable in a user interface to initiate real-time communication with the business; and
the reference includes at least one of a logo, tradename, trademark name, and/or a representation of a product of the business.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing the second reference further comprises providing the second reference to the customer's user device based on hardware and software capability of the customer's user device.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining whether the customer's user device is voice over Internet protocol enabled;
wherein the second reference includes a voice over Internet protocol identifier when the customer's user device is voice over Internet protocol enabled.
7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining whether the customer's user device has a capability to place a telephone call;
wherein the reference is selectable to place a telephone call when the customer's user device has the capability to place a telephone call.
8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
providing the second reference via one of emailing and text messaging to a portable device;
wherein the customer's user device comprises at least one of a voice over Internet protocol client, a wireless phone, a Bluetooth phone, a universal serial bus phone, a personal digital assistant, a handheld computing device, a computing device, a portable device, a telephone, and/or a global positioning system unit.
9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the reference is based on a geographical location of the customer's user device.
10. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
generating an interactive document including the reference and the map of the geographical region based on a geographical location of the customer's user device.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the map of the geographic region is a representation of at least a portion of earth's surface; and
wherein the representation includes any one or combination of a diagrammatic map, a street map, a virtual map, a satellite transmitted depiction, a photographic depiction, a video depiction, an audio description, a survey, an atlas, a contour map, a 2D representation of landmarks, a 3D representation of landmarks, a 2D representation of geographical features, a 3D representation of geographical features, a 2D representation of structures, and/or a 3D representation of structures.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second reference is provided via at least one of a broadcasting media, a television media, a radio media, a web interface, wireless application protocol, short message service, instant messaging, and/or a printed media.
13. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a computing device of a server system, cause the computing device to:
provide, to a customer's user device, information to cause indication of a map of a geographical region, the map comprising:
a first representation of a location of a business that corresponds to an actual geographical location of the business within the geographical region; and
a second representation of a reference for real-time communication assigned to a group of businesses that share a common category, the second representation disposed in a vicinity of the first representation in relation to the map;
receive, from the customer's user device, an indication of a selection of the representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses;
in response to receiving the indication of the selection of the second representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses, dynamically assign a second reference for real-time communication with the business to the business;
provide the second reference for real-time communication to the customer's user device;
consequent to the providing the second reference, establish a connection to facilitate real-time communication with the business, the connection based at least in part on voice over Internet protocol;
track usage of the second reference; and
bill the business consequent to the providing the second reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the second reference.
14. A system, comprising:
a server system comprising a connection server, a database server, at least one processor, and memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions, that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the server system to:
provide, to a customer's user device, indication of a map of a geographical region, the map comprising:
a first representation of a location of a business that corresponds to an actual geographical location of the business within the geographical region; and
a second representation of a reference for real-time communication assigned to a group of businesses that share a common category, the second representation disposed in a vicinity of the first representation in relation to the map;
receive, from the customer's user device, an indication of a selection of the second representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses;
in response to receiving the indication of the selection of the second representation of the reference for real-time communication assigned to the group of businesses, dynamically assign a second reference for real-time communication with the business to the business;
provide the second reference for real-time communication to the customer's user device;
consequent to the providing the second reference, establishing a connection to facilitate real-time communication with the business, the connection based at least in part on voice over Internet protocol;
track usage of the second reference; and
bill the business consequent to the providing the second reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the second reference.