IP Library Granted Patent US 10,380,631
Granted Patent B2
US 10,380,631 · App. 14/753,996 · Granted Aug 13, 2019

Systems and methods to provide advertisements for real time communications

Inventors: Ebbe Altberg (Mill Valley, CA); Scott Faber (San Francisco, CA); Ron Hirson (San Francisco, CA); Sean Van Der Linden (Berkeley, CA); Paul G. Manca (Oakland, CA)
Assignee: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
G06Q30/0251G06Q30/02G06Q30/0256G06Q30/0264G06Q30/0275G06Q30/0277
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,380,631
App. No.
14/753,996
Granted
Aug 13, 2019
Kind
B2
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 (84)

1. A method for facilitating real time communications using a dynamically allocated communication reference, comprising:

processing a first transmission received via a web based network by an advertisement creation module processing at a content server system using a keyword association logic of the advertisement creation module, thereby responsive to the first transmission retrieving of content from a content database based on keyword association with the content as performed by the keyword association logic and thereby provisioning content from the content database with the advertisement creation module to a client system;

based at least in part on processing the first transmission and the key word association with the content, retrieving, from a contact server by the advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are recycled by the contact server based on a predetermined set of allocation rules including whether the communication reference has been presented within a first predefined period of time and whether the communication reference has been used a connection request within a second predefined period of time as determined by a tracking mechanism of the advertisement creation module;

encoding, with the advertising creation module, the communication reference with information mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser, and mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser using a mapping algorithm of the advertisement creation module;

storing, by the content server system, the communication reference to the content or an advertiser associated with the content;

transmitting, at the client system by advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, the communication reference via the network, and presenting with a user interface module of the advertisement creation module the communication reference, wherein the communication reference is useable to request a connection for real time communications between a user of the client system and the advertiser, wherein the communication reference via the client system is presented concurrently with the providing of the content to the user by the client system;

processing, by the advertisement creation module at the content server system with a call management module, a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, facilitating, by the content server system with the call management module, the connection for real time non-web based communications between the user and the advertiser.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

analyzing, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

processing, by the content server system, a result of a content analysis, the result of the content analysis received from a source remote from the content server system; and

determining, by the content server system, a relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis;

wherein the server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request relating to provisioning the content to the client system is received from the client system and comprises a reference to the content, and the method further comprises:

based at least in part on the reference, retrieving, by the content server system, the content from a content database remote from the content server system; and

analyzing, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the content server system, the content with the communication reference embedded in the content via the network to the client system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

based at least in part on the content, searching, by the content server system, an advertisement database to identify an advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document, wherein the advertiser is associated with the advertisement;

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; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, causing, by the server system, 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 period of time and determining contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to transmit the connection request, wherein the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser is established using the contact information determined from the communication reference.

7. The method of claim 1 , 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;

the content of corresponds at least in part to one or more of a blog, webpage, 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; and

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.

8. One or more non-transitory, processor-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a server system, cause the server system to:

process a first transmission received via a web based network by an advertisement creation module processing at a content server system using a keyword association logic of the advertisement creation module, thereby responsive to the first transmission retrieving of content from a content database based on keyword association with the content as performed by the keyword association logic and thereby provisioning content from the content database with the advertisement creation module to a client system;

based at least in part on processing the first transmission and the key word association with the content, retrieve, from a contact server by the advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are recycled by the contact server based on a predetermined set of allocation rules including whether the communication reference has been presented within a first predefined period of time and whether the communication reference has been used a connection request within a second predefined period of time as determined by a tracking mechanism of the advertisement creation module;

encoding, with the advertising creation module, the communication reference with information mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser, and mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser using a mapping algorithm of the advertisement creation module;

store, by the content server system, the communication reference to the content or an advertiser associated with the content;

transmit, at the client system by advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, the communication reference via the network, and presenting with a user interface module of the advertisement creation module the communication reference, wherein the communication reference is useable to request a connection for real time communications between a user of the client system and the advertiser, wherein the communication reference via the client system is presented concurrently with the providing of the content to the user by the client system;

process by the advertisement creation module at the content server system with a call management module, a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, facilitate by the content server system with the call management module, the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser.

9. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

analyze, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

10. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

process, by the content server system, a result of a content analysis, the result of the content analysis received from a source remote from the content server system; and

determine, by the content server system, a relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis;

wherein the server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis.

11. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the request relating to provisioning the content to the client system is received from the client system and comprises a reference to the content, and the instructions further cause the server system to:

based at least in part on the reference, retrieve, by the content server system, the content from a content database remote from the content server system; and

analyze, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

12. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

transmit, by the content server system, the content with the communication reference embedded in the content via the network to the client system.

13. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

based at least in part on the content, search, by the content server system, an advertisement database to identify an advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document, wherein the advertiser is associated with the advertisement;

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; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, 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 period of time and determining contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to transmit the connection request, wherein the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser is established using the contact information determined from the communication reference.

14. The one or more non-transitory, processor-readable media of claim 8 , 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;

the content of corresponds at least in part to one or more of a blog, webpage, 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; and

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.

15. A system comprising:

a server system comprising one or more servers communicatively coupled to a data store, the server system further comprising memory coupled to the one or more servers and storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more servers, cause the server system to:

process a first transmission received via a web based network by an advertisement creation module processing at a content server system using a keyword association logic of the advertisement creation module, thereby responsive to the first transmission retrieving of content from a content database based on keyword association with the content as performed by the keyword association logic and thereby provisioning content from the content database with the advertisement creation module to a client system;

based at least in part on processing the first transmission and the key word association with the content, retrieve, from a contact server by the advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, a communication reference from a pool of communication references that are recycled by the contact server based on a predetermined set of allocation rules including whether the communication reference has been presented within a first predefined period of time and whether the communication reference has been used a connection request within a second predefined period of time as determined by a tracking mechanism of the advertisement creation module;

encoding, with the advertising creation module, the communication reference with information mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser, and mapping the communication reference to the content and the advertiser using a mapping algorithm of the advertisement creation module;

store, by the content server system, the communication reference to the content or an advertiser associated with the content;

transmit, at the client system by advertisement creation module processing at the content server system, the communication reference via the network, and presenting with a user interface module of the advertisement creation module the communication reference, wherein the communication reference is useable to request a connection for real time communications between a user of the client system and the advertiser, wherein the communication reference via the client system is presented concurrently with the providing of the content to the user by the client system;

process by the advertisement creation module at the content server system with a call management module, a connection request received from the client system utilizing the communication reference; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, facilitate, by the content server system with the call management module, the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

analyze, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

process, by the content server system, a result of a content analysis, the result of the content analysis received from a source remote from the content server system; and

determine, by the content server system, a relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis;

wherein the server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the result of the content analysis.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the request relating to provisioning the content to the client system is received from the client system and comprises a reference to the content, and the instructions further cause the server system to:

based at least in part on the reference, retrieve, by the content server system, the content from a content database remote from the content server system; and

analyze, by the content server system, the content to determine a relevancy of the advertiser to the content;

wherein the content server system selects the communication reference based at least in part on the determined relevancy of the advertiser to the content.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

transmit, by the content server system, the content with the communication reference embedded in the content via the network to the client system.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the server system to:

based at least in part on the content, search, by the content server system, an advertisement database to identify an advertisement based at least in part on relevancy of the advertisement to the content of the document, wherein the advertiser is associated with the advertisement;

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; and

in response to the connection request from the client system using the communication reference, 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 period of time and determining contact information of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to transmit the connection request, wherein the connection for real time communications between the user and the advertiser is established using the contact information determined from the communication reference.

Assignments (13)
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jan 7, 2025
From: PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS AGENT
To: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
Reel/Frame 069830/0618 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 10, 2024
From: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: PRINT MEDIA LLC; DEX MEDIA, INC.; YP LLC; YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC; YP ADVERTISING & PUBLISHING LLC; CERBERUS YP DIGITAL BLOCKER LLC; CERBERUS YP BLOCKER LLC; YP HOLDINGS LLC; PRINT MEDIA HOLDINGS LLC; YP INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS CORP.; YP WESTERN HOLDINGS CORP.; YP SOUTHEAST HOLDINGS CORP.; YP MIDWEST HOLDINGS CORP.; YP CONNECTICUT HOLDINGS CORP.; PLUSMO HOLDINGS CORP.; INGENIO HOLDINGS CORP.
Reel/Frame 067381/0745 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 7, 2024
From: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: THRYV, INC.
Reel/Frame 067341/0434 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 3, 2024
From: THRYV, INC.
To: CITIZENS BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 067310/0627 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 1, 2024
From: THRYV, INC.
To: CITIZENS BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 067287/0759 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Recorded Mar 2, 2021
From: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
To: THRYV, INC. (FORMERLY KNOWN AS DEX MEDIA, INC.); THRYV HOLDINGS, INC. (FORMERLY KNOWN AS DEX MEDIA HOLDINGS, INC.)
Reel/Frame 055472/0592 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Mar 1, 2021
From: THRYV, INC.
To: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 055452/0258 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 25, 2020
From: YELLOWPAGES.COM, LLC
To: THRYV, INC.
Reel/Frame 052071/0589 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE NATURE OF CONVEYANCE PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 043183 FRAME: 0734. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST. Recorded Aug 9, 2017
From: PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
Reel/Frame 043493/0648 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jul 28, 2017
From: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Reel/Frame 043363/0518 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Jul 13, 2017
From: PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
Reel/Frame 043183/0734 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Jul 3, 2017
From: YP LLC; YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC; YP ADVERTISING & PUBLISHING LLC; PRINT MEDIA LLC; DEX MEDIA HOLDINGS, INC.; CERBERUS YP DIGITAL BLOCKER LLC; CERBERUS YP BLOCKER LLC; YP HOLDINGS LLC; PRINT MEDIA HOLDINGS LLC; YP INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS CORP.; YP WESTERN HOLDINGS CORP.; YP SOUTHEAST HOLDINGS CORP.; YP MIDWEST HOLDINGS CORP.; YP CONNECTICUT HOLDINGS CORP.; PLUSMO HOLDINGS CORP.; INGENIO HOLDINGS CORP.
To: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Reel/Frame 043074/0794 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Dec 1, 2016
From: YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC
To: PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS AGENT
Reel/Frame 040540/0948 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation 12114556 · May 2, 2008
Provisional Application 60915913 · May 3, 2007
Related Publication 20160012476A1 · Jan 14, 2016