Patent ID: 8374915

Claim:
A system comprised of: a memory; and a processor, said processor configured to execute computer-executable code stored in the memory, said computer-executable code comprising: a communications module, wherein said communications module is configured to establish and control communication between a consumer device and a merchant representative device; an availability monitoring module, wherein said availability monitoring module is configured to: monitor availability status data relevant to a particular merchant, wherein the particular merchant comprises one or more merchant representatives, wherein the availability status data for each of the one or more merchant representatives comprises current log-in status and busy status, and wherein the current log-in status and the busy status are actively monitored in real-time; evaluate the availability status data to determine availability of the one or more merchant representatives to provide a real time two way communication session to a consumer, each merchant representative associated with a merchant device and each consumer associated with a consumer device; determine, that at least one of the one or more merchant representatives of the particular merchant is currently available for the real-time two way communication session based on the availability status data; a publication module, wherein prior to receiving a request for the real-time two way communication session from the consumer device, the publication module is configured to: issue a publication command based upon the availability of the one or more merchant representatives, wherein said publication command is based upon availability status data for the determined at least one merchant representative, said publication command providing instructions to publish an online presence indicator in conjunction with an advertisement relating to the particular merchant, wherein the online presence indicator is only published in conjunction with the advertisement when the determined at least one merchant representative is available; publish in response to the publication command issued prior to receiving the request for the real-time two way communication session from the consumer device, the advertisement and the online presence indicator to the consumer device.