Connecting Consumers with Service Providers

Abstract

A request is received from a consumer of services to consult with a service provider having a service provider profile that satisfies at least some attributes in a set of attributes that define a suitable service provider; an available service provider satisfying at least some of the attributes in the set of attributes is identified; and a communication channel is provided to establish a communication between the consumer of services and the identified service provider.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for facilitating a connection between two terminal devices, with facilitating being at least partly based on identifying, in accordance with an implementation of one or more presence protocols, a state of a terminal device, comprising:
 a presence tracking module that: identifies a communication mode by which a first terminal device is enabled for communication, wherein the communication mode comprises one or more of a text mode, a voice mode, or a video mode; and
 identifies, in accordance with an implementation of one or more presence protocols, a state of the first terminal device and updates memory with data indicative of the state of the first terminal device, wherein a state comprises (i) on-line without a communication channel to another terminal device facilitated by the system, (ii) on-line with a communication channel to another terminal device facilitated by the system in the communication mode, or (iii) offline; and 
   a scheduling module that receives, from the presence tracking module, data indicative of the identified communication mode and the identified state and that facilitates, based on the identified communication mode and the identified state, a real-time connection between the first terminal device and a second terminal device that initiates a request for the real-time connection, wherein, prior to the request, the first remote terminal device and its one or more communication capabilities and real-time connection status are unknown to the second terminal device.