Patent ID: 8452658

Claim:
A consumer/product or service provider matching server that matches consumers with product or service providers, comprising: a memory containing a consumer/product or service provider profile database; a communication interface that facilitates the sending and receiving of communications to and from consumers and product or service providers; and a consumer/product or service provider matching unit that establishes one or more profiles from one or more product or service providers, establishes one or more profiles from one or more consumers, receives a user's subject matter request through the communication interface, matches the consumer with one or more products or service providers based on at least one of the consumer's profile and subject matter request, and provides information from the consumer's subject matter request and profile without contact information to the matched one or more products or service providers through the communication interface, wherein the established product or service provider profiles and the established consumers profiles are one of received through the communication interface and created by the consumer/product or service provider matching unit, and wherein the matching unit provides the one of a product provider and a service provider with the at least one consumers' contact information based on payment of a fee for access to the consumer's contact information, the fee depending on general and specific criteria estimating the market value of the consumer's contact information and whether or not the one of a product provider and a service provider is permitted exclusive access to the consumer's contact information.