Abstract: Directory assistance provides telephone number look up services to callers based on the business or caller name as listed in a telephone directory. In the prior art, directory assistance provides a value-added service to telephone users and an expense that must be charged back to telephone callers or absorbed by telephone carriers. In enhanced directory assistance (EDA) services as described in the disclosure, EDA is further developed to deliver a keyword targeted advertising service to telephone listing owners and advertisers. The present invention provides a method and system to extend EDA services to the wireless messaging systems used by telecommunications operators. The invention further discloses methods to support both one-way and two-way communications on these devices, as well as systems to support the distributed EDA Transaction business model.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides systems and methods, which allow a more efficient shopping experience. A cascading commerce menu provides access to a plurality of product, service, and/or content categories. In one embodiment, the cascading commerce menu is stored on a client computer, thereby providing quick access to the menu.