Patent Grant
7533343
The present invention relates to management of contact information; more specifically to method and means of sending contact information published in a web page directly to one or more communication devices such as cellular phones.
It is a common practice for businesses to have presence on the internet via a web site. This practice enables businesses to reach out to an ever growing base of customers who do commerce on the internet. It is also a common practice for businesses to publish their contact information on their web pages. The published contact information usually contains business name, phone number, fax number, email and street address. This gives customers the means to contact the said businesses by multiple means including email, phone, fax, mail and in person. It is a common practice in web commerce for customers to look for a product online and then subsequently purchase the said product by another means such as by making a phone call, faxing or mailing an order form or by visiting a retail outlet in person. In order to remember the contact information of a business published on a web page, a customer has to either 1) print the web page containing the said business's contact information; 2) write it manually on a piece of paper or; 3) enter it manually into a communication device such as a cellular phone. This is a cumbersome and time consuming way to remember contact information; especially when a customer has to remember contact information of multiple businesses. There is no invention in the prior art that enables customers to send a contact information published on a web page directly to communication devices such as cellular phones; and thereafter integrate the said contact information into the contact list of the said communication device without requiring the customer to enter the said contact information manually into the communication device.
Accordingly, the primary objects of the present invention are; 1) to provide means to send contact information published on a web page directly to communication devices such as a cellular phone; and 2) to provide means for the communication device to integrate and save the said contact information into its contact list. Additional objects of the present invention are 1) to provide means to attach advertisements containing data, voice, image and/or video files to contact information published on a web page, and subsequently send the said advertisement along with the corresponding contact information to communication devices such as a cellular phone; and 2) to provide means in the communication device to save and/or display the said advertisement.
The present invention provides means to send contact information published on a web page directly to communication devices such as a cellular phone. Means are also provided in the communication device to integrate and save the said contact information into its contact list. According to another aspect of the invention, means are provided to attach advertisements containing data, voice, image and/or video files to contact information published on a web page; and thereafter transmit the said advertisement to communication devices such as a cellular phone. Means are provided in the communication device to save and/or display the said advertisement and the corresponding contact information.
In this respect; before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail; it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out one or several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is a common practice for businesses to publish their contact information on one or more web sites. The purpose of this practice is to enable customers to easily contact them. The published contact information usually contains name, phone number, fax number, email and street address of the business. At the present time, contact information is published on a web page using free text, usually using HTML programming language. There is no standard format for publishing contact information; consequently each web page has its unique format and style for publishing contact information. Presently, customers are required to manually write down the contact information on paper, print the web page containing the contact information or manually enter the contact information into an electronic device if they wish to remember the said contact information for future reference and use.
In the preferred embodiment; a standard template, hereby referred to as ‘web contact information template’ is provided to publish contact information on a web page and is shown in
A contact information template is also provided for communication devices, such as cellular phones, hereafter referred to as ‘communication device contact information template’ and is shown in
Means is provided in the communication device to execute meaningful applications based on the contact information contained in the ‘communication device contact information template’. One example of such meaningful application is auto dialing of a phone number contained in a contact information. Another example of such meaningful application is to establish connection to a web page URL contained in a contact information without requiring the caller to type the said URL into a web browser on his/her communication device.
In addition to data, means is provided to attach voice, images and video files to the ‘web contact information template’. This can be done using existing programming tools and formats such as windows media audio for voice; jpg, gif or tiff for images; and windows media & real for video. The software used to create an advertisement should not be considered limiting as other available software can also be used to create an advertisement. This feature of the invention can be used to advertise products and services of businesses in conjunction with contact information published on web sites. For example, an advertisement comprising of data, voice and/or video files can be attached to contact information in the ‘web contact information template’ published in a web page. When the said contact information is sent to a communication device, the advertisement attached thereto is also sent. Means is provided in the communication device to save and/or display the said advertisement. The said advertisement is displayed when a caller selects or uses the corresponding contact information; as for example when auto dialing a phone number contained therein.
According to one method of the invention; advertisement containing data, voice, image and/or video files is attached to contact information published in a web page at the point of publication of the said contact information. The said advertisement is sent to a communication device when the corresponding contact information is. Means is provided in the communication device to save and/or display the said advertisement. The said advertisement is displayed when the caller selects or uses the said contact information such said when auto dialing a phone number contained therein. Means is provided to update advertisements already saved in a communication device as a result. When a contact information with an attached advertisement is transmitted to a communication device, the identity of the said communication device is saved at a central location, such as a server. A new or revised version of the said advertisement is created and sent to all such communication devices where the said contact information has been previously saved. Appropriate software is provided in the communication devices to integrate the new or revised advertisement with the corresponding contact information saved therein. Such software can either be pre loaded into the communication devices or can be sent to communication devices separately, such as when the new or revised advertisement is sent. This feature, for example, can be used to send a new version an advertisement to communication devices having a particular contact information saved in their contact list. An example of this method is shown in
According to another method; advertisement comprising of data, voice, image and/or video files is attached to contact information while the said contact information is in transit to a communication device. This method enables more customization of the advertisement that is sent to a communication device. For example, an advertiser can attach golf advertisements to a contact information in transit to the communication device of a caller who is a golf player; and attach tennis advertisements when the said contact information is in transit to a caller who is a tennis player. An example of this method is shown in
According to yet another method, a package of advertisements comprising of data, voice, image and/or video files are pre loaded or downloaded into the communication devices. Said communication devices are programmed to play selected advertisements when a caller selects/uses selected contact information or selected category of contact information saved in the communication device. Alternatively, an .exe type file can be attached to the contact information contained in the ‘web contact information template’; wherein the said .exe type file has means to program a communication device to play select advertisements or category of advertisements saved therein; when a caller selects/uses the said contact information or selected category of contact information. Means is provided to change and update the association between an advertisement and contact information. For example, a package of multiple advertisements containing an advertisement of Dell Computers is pre loaded or downloaded into a communication device. When a caller saves the contact information of Dell Computers in the said communication device, it is programmed to display Dell Computers' advertisement when the contact information of Dell Computers is selected/used by the caller. Alternatively, the communication device can be programmed to display Dell's advertisement when the caller selects a different contact information.
These methods of advertisement of the present invention serve as a powerful means of targeted advertising; as the product and services is advertised to a select and targeted customer base. In the illustrated examples shown in
The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out one or several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Some variations of the present inventions are: 1) Although the present invention relates to transmission of contact information from a web page to communication devices; contact information from other sources like MS Outlook, Palm address book and the like can also be sent to one or more communication devices. 2) The present invention relates to methods and means of sending contact information published in a web page to communication devices. However, contact information published on a web page can also be sent to contact management programs such as MS Outlook. 3) In addition to contact information, other types of information can be sent to communication devices similarly. For example, means and methods of the present invention can be used to send data, image, voice and video files published on a web page to one or more communication devices. As shown in
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