Methods and apparatuses to connect users of mobile devices to advertisers

摘要

Methods and apparatuses to connect a user of a telephony device to a selected one of service providers of a predefined category. One embodiment includes: providing a user interface element on a dial interface of a telephonic device to represent a communication reference associated with a pre-defined category of services; and responsive to a user selection of the user interface element, initiating a request from the telephonic device using the communication reference for a telephone connection to a service provider of the pre-defined category; where the service provider is to be selected from a plurality of service providers of the pre-defined category in response to the request and to be charged in response to a telephone lead connected to the service provider.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
providing, by a connection server, a user interface element to a mobile communication device, the user interface element for display on a user interface of the mobile communication device, wherein the user interface element represents a communication reference associated with a predefined category of services; receiving, from the mobile communication device, a communication request associated with the communication reference; in response to the communication request, selecting, by the connection server, a service provider from a plurality of service providers for the predefined category of services, wherein the selected service provider has offered a highest bid to handle the communication request; connecting the mobile communication device to the selected service provider; and charging the selected service provider for the connection based on the selected service provider's bid.