Patent ID: 7257390

Claim:
A method for providing an information assistance service, comprising: receiving, by an information assistance provider, a call from a caller, the call including at least one criterion and a request that the information assistance provider identify one or more entities satisfying the at least one criterion; conducting a data search, based on the at least one criterion, in response to the information assistance request; generating a record which contains a plurality of telephone numbers resulting from the data search, the telephone numbers being associated with a plurality of entities, respectively; and repeating the following (a) through (e) one or more times before the caller's call is terminated: (a) selecting a first telephone number from the record; (b) establishing a first communication by connecting the caller's call to the first telephone number; (c) detecting a predetermined call status condition relating to the first communication; (d) in response to the predetermined call status condition, selecting a second telephone number from the record different from the first telephone number; and (e) establishing a second communication by connecting the caller's call to the second telephone number.