Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080200252 | PROMOTIONAL GAMES ARCHITECTURE - The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate promotion of an online service. The architecture can provide for a games platform that can host a variety of games. The hosted games can be designed such that a user's experiences can be enhanced by game cards that can be discovered and retrieved while using the online service being promoted. Accordingly, the user's experiences can be enhanced as a function of the usage of the online service being promoted. | 08-21-2008 |
20080291834 | System and Method for Efficient Broadcast of Information Over a Network - A system and method that can receive, buffer, and asynchronously combine data from various incoming data packets is disclosed. The system and method can do so by, first, receiving incoming packets of one or multiple generations that have incoming data and incoming metadata, with the incoming data of each of the incoming packets that are of a first generation being a combination of a first, original set of data vectors, and the incoming metadata of each of the first generation of incoming packets including an indicator for the first generation. Second, once these incoming packets are received, the system and method can buffer them based on the indicator and, asynchronously from the receiving and buffering, combine the incoming data in the buffered, first generation incoming packets into outgoing data in an outgoing packet. | 11-27-2008 |
20080301055 | UNIFIED PLATFORM FOR REPUTATION AND SECURE TRANSACTIONS - The claimed subject matter provides a unified platform system and/or a method that facilitates optimizing an online transaction. The unified platform system can include a secured transaction component that can secure a portion of transactional data related to an online transaction between at least one buyer and at least one merchant utilizing a secure transaction technique. The unified platform system can include a reputation assessment component that can receive a portion of reputation data related to at least one of the buyer or the merchant based at least in part upon verifying completion of the online transaction between such buyer and merchant. The unified platform system can publish the portion of reputation data coupled with a portion of non-private transactional data to provide context for the reputation data. | 12-04-2008 |
20080301236 | CONTEXTUAL SOCIAL LANGUAGE - Systems and methods that enrich interaction of users in a written communication environment by providing a contextual language component that points to a designated data source (e.g., an object) and pulls data from such designated source, to perform predetermined function(s) thereupon. Users who communicate in the written environment can type an intuitive or customized operator, to engage in a predetermined functionality (e.g., playing a video). Accordingly, the operator can readily be interpreted by applications associated with the written communication environment. | 12-04-2008 |
20080301448 | Security Against Corruption for Networked Storage - Systems and methods for security against corruption for networked storage are described. In one aspect, a destination device receives a linear combination of packets. The linear combination of packets represents digitally signed blocks of content and public information used to digitally sign segmented blocks of content. The destination device recombines the linear combination of packets to compute new valid signatures as linear combinations of received homomorphic digital signatures. The new valid signatures are for verifying by a requesting computing device recovering data associated with at least a subset of the linear combination of packets, integrity of the at least a subset. This provides the requesting node with security against corruption of data in networked storage. | 12-04-2008 |
20080301815 | Detecting Unauthorized Changes to Printed Documents - Systems and methods to detect unauthorized changes to a printed document are described. In one aspect, a digital signature of original content associated with electronic document is embedded into the original content to create a content signed document. The systems and methods use the embedded digital signature to automatically determine whether text-based content associated with a printout of the content signed document was changed from the original content associated with the electronic document. | 12-04-2008 |
20080313027 | FAIR DISCOUNTING AUCTION - The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates employing an online auction in which a coupon is fairly administered. An online auction environment that can employ an auction to identify a fair market value of at least one of a good or a portion of a service, wherein the auction can receive at least one bid from a bidder with a coupon and a bidder without a coupon. A randomizer component that can select one of a collection of bidders having coupons or a collection of bidders not having coupons based on a randomizing technique, wherein the online auction environment can identify an auction winner as a highest bidder within the selected collection, the highest bidder provides a highest bid from both the collection of bidders having coupons and the collection of bidders not having coupons. | 12-18-2008 |
20080313069 | DISTRIBUTED REVERSE AUCTION - A distributed reverse auction allows an auction to end when a dealer is first in time to accept a bid. A purchaser creates an account that relates to a specified purchase. The purchaser places bids at different dealers using the created account. The first dealer to accept the bid draws the agreed upon amount of money from the account. The other bids are cancelled and thus the dealer to act first in time engages in the sale. | 12-18-2008 |
20080320004 | INFLUENCE BASED REWARDS FOR WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVERTISING ECOSYSTEMS - Systems and/or methods are presented that facilitate determining the contextual influence of a user in referrals of products or services, and determining an amount of compensation for successful referrals based on the contextual influence of the user. A central service component can track activity and receive data associated with referrals, including data related to the number and type of referrals, and the number of successful referrals. An evaluation component can analyze referral data associated with the user and can determine a conversion ratio as the number of successful referrals compared to the total number of referrals. The evaluation component can utilize the conversion ratio to facilitate determining an amount of compensation that can be awarded and distributed to the user based on the influence of the user within the context of the product or service referred by the user. | 12-25-2008 |
20090003355 | FRAMEWORK FOR CROSS-ECOSYSTEM AFFILIATE, VIRAL, AND WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVERTISING - Systems and/or methods are presented that can employ an ad object comprising a data packet(s) to facilitate providing an advertising platform that is ecosystem independent and can support various advertising models, such as affiliate, viral, and/or word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. The data packet can be associated with an advertisement for a product(s) and/or service(s) and can include a mechanism(s) that facilitates enabling users to reproduce the data packet and associated advertisement in different sites, such as user sites. As the data packet propagates through a community network, the data packet can receive and accumulate data, such as data relating to purchases, comments, or ratings, storing such data in the data packet and displaying a portion of such data with the advertisement to facilitate WOM advertising. The data packet facilitates providing incentives to users who perform desired actions (e.g., purchases, syndication) related to the advertisement. | 01-01-2009 |
20090006188 | ASSOCIATING AN ACTIVITY WITH AN ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT - The disclosed subject matter pertains to systems and/or methods that facilitate associating user activity, such as offline user activity, with an online advertisement. An ad link component can receive information associated with online activity and offline activity of a user, online advertisements, and other information, and can analyze such information. The online activity can include viewing, clicking on, pledging interest in, or obtaining a token related to, an online advertisement. The ad link component can employ ad link criteria to determine whether offline user activity, such as a purchase or other desired activity, can be associated with the online advertisement. If the ad link component determines the offline user activity is associated with the online advertisement, an incentive, which can be based on incentive criteria, can be awarded to the user. A distribution component can distribute the incentive to the account of the user. | 01-01-2009 |
20090006469 | CLUSTERING USERS USING CONTEXTUAL OBJECT INTERACTIONS - Systems and/or methods are presented that facilitate creating clusters of users that can be linked to each other based on common interactions of such users with an object associated with an advertisement for a product or service. A central service component can track activity and receive data associated with objects, including data related to interactions with such objects by users in a community network. An evaluation component can analyze received data, and can create links between users and/or clusters of users based on common interactions of users with a particular object. The evaluation component can also link clusters that have a particular user in common. The evaluation component can assign a rank or weight level to descriptive content associated with an object, and an associated product or service, based on common object interactions between users. | 01-01-2009 |
20090007101 | OPTIMAL POLICIES FOR LOAD BALANCING FOR DISTRIBUTED AND STRATEGIC AGENTS (MORE TECHNICALLY, OPTIMAL COORDINATION MECHANISMS FOR MACHINE SCHEDULING) - Providing for scheduling tasks in a distributed system based on an inefficiency of each task on a particular machine as compared with available networked machines is described herein. By way of example, a distribution component can receive a plurality of tasks at a machine assigned by at least one independent agent. In addition, an ordering component can schedule each task on a machine as a function of non-decreasing inefficiency. Such a policy can be implemented locally at the machine, minimizing inter-device communication, while only marginally increasing completion time for the set of tasks. In such a manner, the subject disclosure provides for load balancing of distributed systems in a manner that utilizes fewer resources than conventional approaches. | 01-01-2009 |
20090086652 | MODEL AND METHOD FOR COMPUTING PERFORMANCE BOUNDS IN MULTI-HOP WIRELESS NETWORKS - Disclosed is a general model and method for computing performance bounds in multi-hop wireless networks. Rather than focusing on computing asymptotic performance bounds under assumptions of homogeneity or randomness in the network topology and/or workload, the present invention accommodates any given network, technology, interference model, routing paradigm, and workload. Using a conflict graph to formally characterize the impact of wireless interference on the performance of multi-hop wireless networks, methods for computing upper and lower bounds on the capacity of a given wireless network are detailed. Besides computing network capacity, the model and method disclosed can also enable or benefit other applications including maximizing fairness and minimizing maximum link utilization. | 04-02-2009 |
20090094105 | CONTENT EMBEDDED TOOLTIP ADVERTISING - Contextual advertisements embedded within content having tooltip type display functionality are provided where content can be evaluated for possible points for insertion of the advertisements. The content can be evaluated against a list of trigger points indicating advertisement should be inserted along with instructions to embed the advertisements. Using this information, the content can be modified to embed appropriate advertising. Upon returning the content, a viewer thereof can view the content normally, but certain events with respect to the trigger points can cause tooltip type display of the advertisement (such as hovering a cursor over the trigger point). In this regard, trigger points, such as keywords, having associated pop-up advertisements can be underlined or otherwise identified. | 04-09-2009 |
20090094260 | IMAGE-BASED WISH LIST POPULATION - Wish list creation and population is provided where users can associate one or more images as items in a wish list. To this end, an image can be provided, such as a photograph taken by the user, and analyzed to locate matching items and information related thereto. In this regard, the user can observe and desire to purchase an item without knowledge of specifics about the item. The user can then take a picture of the item and tag the picture for upload to their wish list. Matching can be provided to identify one or more items in the picture to facilitate retrieval of information related to the items. Also, items can be selected based on discerned characteristics of the picture in a design/fashion consultant context. | 04-09-2009 |
20090222322 | MONETIZING A SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORM - A system and/or methodology that exploits user interaction within a social network in order to derive profits. The invention provides for increased flow of money through a social network, and simultaneously allows advertisers and merchants to focus their advertising spending within the social network. Additionally, the invention provides for quantitative measurement of the effects of relational proximity marketing /advertising (RPM), and creates incentives for users to purchase goods through the social network. | 09-03-2009 |
20090222435 | LOCALLY COMPUTABLE SPAM DETECTION FEATURES AND ROBUST PAGERANK - The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates reducing spam in search results. An interface can obtain web graph information that represents a web of pages. A spam detection component can determines one or more features based at least in part on the web graph information. The one or more features can provide indications that a particular page of the web graph is spam. In addition, a robust rank component is provided that limits amount of contribution a single page can provide to the target page. | 09-03-2009 |
20090259532 | PEER-TO-PEER COMPENSATION IN AN INTENT-COMPENSATION SCHEME - System(s) and method(s) are provided that facilitate intrinsically targeted, dependable peer-to-peer referral and compensation within an intent-compensation scheme. The referral system synergistically exploits trust mechanisms existing among a referring agent and a referred agent in order to generate high-quality referrals based on a determination of commercial intent from the referred agent. In exchange of conveyed intent at a time of a transaction with a referred agent, system platform directly compensates both the referred agent and the referring agent. Compensation of the referred agent is ensured via tracking mechanism that can identify a referral originating device. Information associated with referral(s) is scoped through privacy profiles, and referral/compensation integrity is maintained via an antifraud component and a tracking component that can identify referring and referred agents. Compensation can be funded trough advertisement spend. | 10-15-2009 |
20090259537 | ADVERTISEMENT-FUNDED SOFTWARE - Systems and methods are provided to directly compensate an agent that utilizes a software application in exchange for the agent's intent in using the application, and for displaying intent-driven advertisement to the agent. Intent is inferred through information received from the agent, when utilizing the software application, according to an agent's privacy settings. Based on agent's intent, an advertisement is displayed and an associated software-related compensation is provided to the agent. Compensation accumulation profiles can be established based at least in part on privacy settings. Compensation possesses monetary value and can be directed towards (i) increasing software functionality, (ii) providing credits for training and literature related to the utilization of the application, or (iii) servicing a device in which the application is executed. The monetary aspect of the software-related compensation originated in intent-driven advertisement effectively funds the agent's software application. | 10-15-2009 |
20090271257 | MODEL FOR EARLY ADOPTION AND RETENTION OF SOURCES OF FUNDING TO FINANCE AWARD PROGRAM - System(s) and method(s) are provided to drive early adoption and retention of disparate sources of funding and financing an award program, with application to a consumer compensation scheme subsidized through advertisement revenue. A component that manages advertisement revenue, or received funds, allocates a portion of revenue to subsidize a rebate program, or award program, for enrolled advertisers, or sources of funding, from a universe of advertisers. Rebate or award funds are provided to enrolled advertisers on an exclusivity based for a specific period of time, after which funds are transferred to a commonly accessible account. The subsidized nature of the awarded compensation funds and their time sensitivity drive advertiser enrollment and retention and ensures consumers are aggressively compensated. In an aspect, the subsidized rebate program can be exploited to directly compensate a consumer online or offline in exchange for the consumer's intent in engaging with a service platform. | 10-29-2009 |
20090313126 | LAYERABLE AUCTION MECHANISMS - Described herein is a method for executing a positional auction. The method includes acts of receiving a keyword and executing at least one multi-item single unit demand auction and at least one single-item auction, wherein a plurality of bidders submit bids in the at least one multi-item single unit demand auction and the at least one single-item auction. The method further includes an act of ranking the plurality of bidders based at least in part upon bids submitted in the at least one multi-item single-unit demand auction and the at least one single-item auction. The method additionally includes an act of allocating a subset of the plurality of bidders to particular positions on a search results page based at least in part upon the ranking. | 12-17-2009 |
20090313648 | AUDIO/VIDEO DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS - An apparatus is described herein, wherein the apparatus includes a housing, wherein the housing includes a first aperture and a second aperture. The apparatus also includes a display screen that is located in the first aperture of the housing. An interface module may be located in the second aperture of the housing, wherein the interface module can be configured to receive a portable memory device. The apparatus also includes a data store that is communicatively coupled to the interface device, wherein the data store includes a plurality of movies available for rental. | 12-17-2009 |
20090319370 | MULTIMEDIA SEARCH ENGINE - Described herein is a search engine that can include a receiver component that receives a query from a user that pertains to a multimedia item and an output component that outputs multiple choices for receiving an instance of the multimedia item to a user. The multiple choices may include a first choice for receiving a first instance of the multimedia item for no charge, wherein the first instance of the multimedia item includes a digital rights management restriction. The multiple choices may also include a second choice for receiving a second instance of the multimedia item for a fee, wherein the second instance of the multimedia item is free of digital rights management restrictions. The search engine can further include a transmitter component that transmits one of the first multimedia item or the second multimedia item to the user. | 12-24-2009 |
20090319386 | AUCTION MECHANISM WHEN AUCTIONEER IS A BIDDER - A system that facilitates executing an auction when an auctioneer is also a bidder is described herein. The system includes a receiver component that receives an indication that an auction is to be executed and an identifier component that determines that the auctioneer is a bidder in the auction. The system also includes an auction component that executes an auction for one or more items based at least in part upon a determination that the auctioneer is a bidder and a rank of the bid of the auctioneer amongst all receive bids. | 12-24-2009 |
20090319438 | PERSONALIZED WEALTH MANAGEMENT - Described herein is a system that includes a receiver component that receives personal preferences of a user regarding wealth management. The receiver component can further receive first wealth management advice from a first financial expert that has been selected by the user. Additionally, the system may include a customization component that automatically modifies the first wealth management advice from the first financial expert based at least in part upon the received personal preferences of the user to generate first personalized wealth management advice. The system may additionally include an output component that outputs the personalized wealth management advice to the user. | 12-24-2009 |
20090319439 | DETERMINATION OF CUSTOMIZED INVESTING ADVICE - Described herein is a system that facilitates provision of personalized investing advice to a user. The system includes a subscriber component that receives a selection of multiple financial models from the user, wherein the user may desire to receive financial data from the multiple financial models in real-time. Further, the system can include an adviser component that can receive and process financial data output by the multiple financial models and can determine customized investing advice for the user based at least in part upon the financial data output by the multiple financial models and personal investing preferences of the user. | 12-24-2009 |
20090326965 | BULK MEDIA - The described implementations relate to bulk media. One technique allows a user to select songs to be installed on a media player device and installs the selected songs on the media player device. The technique also charges the user for the selected songs based on an amount of storage that the selected songs occupy on the media player device. | 12-31-2009 |
20090327031 | RENT-TO-OWN MEDIA - The described implementations relate to rent-to-own media. One technique provides digital rights restricted media to a consumer on a rent-to-own basis. The technique also removes the digital rights restrictions from the media upon completion of the rent-to-own basis. | 12-31-2009 |
20090327125 | ENHANCED MEDIA SUBSCRIPTION - The described implementations relate to enhanced media subscription services. One technique provides digital rights restricted media to a consumer for a period. At the end of the period, based at least in part on consumer use, the technique removes the digital rights restrictions from some of the media and deletes other of the media. | 12-31-2009 |
20100036720 | UBIQUITOUS INTENT-BASED CUSTOMER INCENTIVE SCHEME - System(s) and method(s) are provided to compensate an agent in exchange for the agent's intent in transacting with a service platform. Compensation can be effected in online and offline domains, and intent can be conveyed online or offline. Compensation is funded through advertisement spending, and advertisement impressions facilitate compensation delivery. The service platform that compensated the agent extracts intent through explicit or implicit expressions which can be collected online or offline. Offline expressions can be delivered through wearable indicia. Compensation can be delivered wirelessly offline or online to a device operated by the agent. Agent and agent's device(s) registration afford service platform to deliver adaptive compensation customized to the agent, and advertisement(s) with format and content optimized for the agent's device. To drive agent's commercial transactions, offline location services and online location information facilitate delivery of advertisement and associated compensation based in part on agent's intent and location. | 02-11-2010 |
20100312638 | INTERNET-BASED ADVERTISEMENT MANAGEMENT - Techniques and systems are disclosed where a user utility for Internet-based advertising can be measured for a combination of a search-based website (SBS) and one or more content-based web-sites (CBSs). Determining user utility for web-based economics can comprise determining a user benefit metric for a combination of a SBS and one or more CBSs, where the user benefit metric may be a combination of a SBS user experience metric and a CBS user experience metric. A user cost metric can be determined by combining a SBS cost metric with a CBS cost metric. The user benefit metric can be combined with the user cost metric to determine the user utility for a combination of SBS and one or more CBSs. | 12-09-2010 |
20100318404 | COMPENSATING STORES FOR CONSUMER INFLUENCE WITH AUTOMATED TRACKING - Consumer stores typically sell products at a retail profit, which covers the cost of pre-sale, consumer-influencing services regarding the products (e.g., discussions with sales associates, product demonstrations, and consumer inspections of the products.) However, consumers may utilize these services but may purchase selected products from other retailers that do not provide pre-sale services, and that may accordingly offer lower prices. This tactic may cause lost sales for consumer stores, and eventually store failures. Instead, the consumer store may charge the supplier an influence fee for consumer-influencing services based on a per-service price established between the supplier and the consumer store and consumer influence metrics tracked by a computer. The supplier may recoup the influence fee in the wholesale cost of the product, thereby distributing the shared benefit of the influencing services of the consumer store across all retailers and enabling a sustainable business model for providing the consumer-influencing services. | 12-16-2010 |
20100318436 | INCENTIVE COMPATIBLE SELECTION MECHANISM - A system that selects items from a plurality of items is described herein. The system includes a receiver component that receives a plurality items for an activity in a sequence having an order. A selection component sequentially evaluates each of the items in the sequence in the order received by the receiver component and for each item being evaluated determines that an evaluated item is to be uniquely selected out of the plurality of items immediately upon evaluation thereof. The selection component selects the item such that when the value of the item is higher than the values of all previous items in the sequence, any position in the sequence has a substantially similar probability as any other position to have the item selected. | 12-16-2010 |
20100318500 | BACKUP AND ARCHIVAL OF SELECTED ITEMS AS A COMPOSITE OBJECT - An archive of items, which are computing data accessed by a user, is created at a semantic object level. The object archiving may group seemingly disparate items as a composite object, which may then be stored to enable retrieval by the user at a later point in time. The composite object may include metadata from the various items to enable identifying the composite object, providing retrieval capabilities (e.g., search, etc.), and so forth. In some aspects, an archiving process may extract item data from an item that is accessed by a computing device. Next, the item may be selected by a schema for inclusion in a composite object when the item data meets criteria specified in the schema. The composite object(s) may then be stored in an object store as an archive (backup). | 12-16-2010 |
20100319043 | INTERACTIVE TELEVISION ARCHITECTURE - A set top box that is placed in communication with a television is described herein and includes a receiver component that receives viewer-generated data from a portable electronic device, wherein the viewer-generated data is provided by a viewer responsive to display of interactive television content viewed by the viewer on the television. The set top box also includes a transmission component that transmits the viewer-generated data to a data repository managed by a third party service provider and a display component that causes interactive data pertaining to the viewer-generated data to be overlaid on the television content viewed by the viewer on the television. | 12-16-2010 |
20100325057 | LEVERAGING SOCIAL CAPITAL ON A WEBSITE - The described techniques relate to leveraging social capital associated with a user's profile on a website. In some implementations, a framework can be provided that includes a protected space associated with the user's profile on a social networking website. The protected space can be configured to allow verified indicia of the social capital to be posted thereon. | 12-23-2010 |
20100332488 | REFERRAL-BASED SPONSORSHIP OF ACCESS TO CONTENT ITEM SETS - A content provider may provide public access to a content item set, but may be unable to achieve sufficient revenue to sustain the administrative costs and ongoing development of the content item set. Instead, the content provider may develop relationships with one or more referrers (e.g., search engines.) When a user requests a content item, the content provider may determine whether the request results from a referral by a sponsoring referrer, and based on this determination may provide either a full version or a limited version of the content item. The referrer benefits by providing its users with free access to the content item set, which may be unavailable from non-sponsoring competitors, and in exchange may share advertising revenue with the content provider. This arrangement achieves sustaining sponsorship of the content provider while extending full and free access to the content item set to users of sponsoring referrers. | 12-30-2010 |
20110047026 | USING AUCTION TO VARY ADVERTISEMENT LAYOUT - A layout in which advertisements are displayed may be determined by auction. Several layouts may be defined, each having one or more slots of different relative values. Bids are received from advertisers, and an auction may be held to determine in which slots the different advertisers are placed, and which layout is to be used. The expected revenue from each layout may be calculated, and the layout may be chosen that maximizes the revenue that is expected to result from showing a particular layout to a user. In one example, there are layouts that offer exclusive and non-exclusive mainlines. Mainline exclusivity may be offered to an advertiser that has bid a sufficiently high amount per click that awarding the mainline exclusively to the advertiser can offset the loss of revenue expected from moving other advertisers off the mainline. | 02-24-2011 |
20110161213 | MULTIMEDIA SEARCH ENGINE - Described herein is a search engine that can include a receiver component that receives a query from a user that pertains to a multimedia item and an output component that outputs multiple choices for receiving an instance of the multimedia item to a user. The multiple choices may include a first choice for receiving a first instance of the multimedia item for no charge, wherein the first instance of the multimedia item includes a digital rights management restriction. The multiple choices may also include a second choice for receiving a second instance of the multimedia item for a fee, wherein the second instance of the multimedia item is free of digital rights management restrictions. The search engine can further include a transmitter component that transmits one of the first multimedia item or the second multimedia item to the user. | 06-30-2011 |
20110195726 | COMMERCIALLY SUBSIDIZED MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICES AND SERVICES - Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, may be capable of recommending to a user various providers of one or more solicited services, e.g., by identifying a user location and identifying providers near the user location that provide the services, and by initiating a call between the user and a selected provider. However, the equipment and service costs of such devices may be prohibitive, particularly for mid-range mobile communication devices that may appeal to cost-conscious users. The prohibitive costs may be diminished by redirecting part or all of the cost of providing the recommendation service from the providers, e.g., by charging the provider a service cost upon initiating a call from the user to the provider, or upon representing the provider in a provider database. In one such embodiment, all service costs may be borne by providers, providing to the user a free recommendation service via the mobile communication device. | 08-11-2011 |
20110246312 | ADVERTISEMENT INVENTORY MATCHING - Various embodiments provide techniques for advertisement inventory. In at least some embodiments, a scaled number of impressions can be matched to orders that have scaled impression goals. Impressions can be randomly selected from an offline traffic model and allocated to orders according to a matching algorithm until a number of impression defined by a scale factor is reached. This can occur by sampling the traffic model directly using the scale factor and/or by creating a scaled data set to which the matching algorithm can be applied. The matching algorithm can be configured to identify an order that is farthest away from being complete and then match the randomly selected impression to the identified order. If the scaled orders in the data set can be fulfilled using the scaled number of impressions, a conclusion is made that the original set of orders can be fulfilled using the original impressions. | 10-06-2011 |
20110264548 | MULTIPARTY COMPUTER-ASSISTED HAGGLING - The claimed subject matter relates to a computer-implemented architecture that can facilitate computer-assisted haggling and/or negotiation between multiple parties simultaneously. For example, various proxies associated with both buyers and sellers can be configured to negotiate with other proxies to buy or sell an item. The negotiations can be required to be progressive and during the negotiations a buyer or seller is, typically, allowed to withdraw his or her proposals. The architecture can include a registration component that can resolve concurrency and facilitate a registration of an agreement between two of the parties. The registration of an agreement can create a binding obligation between the parties after which other outstanding proposals can be terminated. | 10-27-2011 |
20110313834 | ELICITING SOCIAL SEARCH RESPONSES FROM SPONSORING AGENTS - A user may submit to a set of users a query relating to a commercial transaction, and may evaluate the responses provided therefrom. However, the set of users may include vendors or their representatives who might present inaccurate or misleading information in order to persuade the user to purchase the product, or may provide low-quality and impersonal advertisements for a product that do not particularly relate to the query or the user. Instead, the query may be offered to agents who can provide relevant responses, and a response from an agent may be provided to the user in exchange for a response fee charged to the agent. This cost model may promote selectivity and high relevance to the query in the submission of responses from knowledgeable responders, thereby eliciting higher-value responses to the query for the user and financial sponsorship to cover the operating costs of the agent network. | 12-22-2011 |
20130097022 | COMMERCIALLY SUBSIDIZED MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICES AND SERVICES - Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, may be capable of recommending to a user various providers of one or more solicited services, e.g., by identifying a user location and identifying providers near the user location that provide the services, and by initiating a call between the user and a selected provider. However, the equipment and service costs of such devices may be prohibitive, particularly for mid-range mobile communication devices that may appeal to cost-conscious users. The prohibitive costs may be diminished by redirecting part or all of the cost of providing the recommendation service from the providers, e.g., by charging the provider a service cost upon initiating a call from the user to the provider, or upon representing the provider in a provider database. In one such embodiment, all service costs may be borne by providers, providing to the user a free recommendation service via the mobile communication device. | 04-18-2013 |
20130100818 | METHOD FOR DETERMINING PLACEMENT OF INTERNET TAPS IN WIRELESS NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORKS - Disclosed is a method for determining the placement of ITAPs in wireless neighborhood networks. The method disclosed provides for efficient integration of multi-hop wireless networks with the Internet by placing ITAPs at strategic locations. Initially the method provides for the formulation of the ITAP placement problem under three wireless models. For each model, methods are developed to efficiently place ITAPs in the networks. The methods aim to minimize the number of required ITAPs while guaranteeing users' bandwidth requirements. Next, a fault tolerance version of the placement method is presented that provides bandwidth guarantees in the presence of failures. Finally the methods are extended to take into account variable traffic demands by developing an approximation algorithm to simultaneously optimize ITAP placement based on demands over multiple periods. | 04-25-2013 |
20130117062 | ONLINE RESOURCE ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS - Various embodiments provide online algorithms for resource allocation. In one or more embodiments, requests for resources from a service provider are received stochastically. For each request, different options for satisfying the request are evaluated based in part upon shadow costs (e.g., unit costs) that are assigned to resources associated with the different options. One of the options may be selected by optimizing an objective function that accounts for the shadow costs. Resources for the selected option are allocated to the request and an adjustment is made to the shadow costs for remaining resources to reflect differences in rates for allocation and/or consumption of the resources. Thereafter, resources may be allocated to a subsequent request using the updated shadow costs and the costs are adjusted again. By updating shadow costs iteratively in this manner, an increasingly more accurate analysis of the objective function is achieved. | 05-09-2013 |
20130117454 | OFFLINE RESOURCE ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS - Various embodiments provide offline algorithms for resource allocation. A known set of “offline” requests may be matched to available resources using an online resource allocation algorithm that models the offline resource allocation problem as though the requests were received stochastically. Requests may be scaled and then sampled to provide random, stochastic input for the online resource allocation algorithm. For each request, resources are allocated to the request by evaluating multiple options based upon shadow costs assigned to resources associated with the different options. After each request is processed, an adjustment is made to the shadow costs for remaining resources to reflect differences in rates for allocation and/or consumption of the resources and the updated shadow costs are used for a subsequent request. A scaled resource allocation determined using sampled requests in this manner may be scaled back up to obtain a solution for the offline resource allocation problem. | 05-09-2013 |
20130218709 | MULTIPARTY COMPUTER-ASSISTED HAGGLING - The claimed subject matter relates to a computer-implemented architecture that can facilitate computer-assisted haggling and/or negotiation between multiple parties simultaneously. For example, various proxies associated with both buyers and sellers can be configured to negotiate with other proxies to buy or sell an item. The negotiations can be required to be progressive and during the negotiations a buyer or seller is, typically, allowed to withdraw his or her proposals. The architecture can include a registration component that can resolve concurrency and facilitate a registration of an agreement between two of the parties. The registration of an agreement can create a binding obligation between the parties after which other outstanding proposals can be terminated. | 08-22-2013 |
20130238378 | MANAGING RESOURCES USING RESOURCE MODIFIERS - Systems, methods, and computer-storage media are provided for employing environment and resource data to facilitate management of shopper traffic and resource allocation. Shopper traffic information is received from environmental sensors located in or nearby a business establishment. Resource information associated with the business establishment is also received. A traffic modifier is determined based on the shopper traffic information and the resource information; the traffic modifier is used to influence the behavior of shoppers with respect to the business establishment. As well, a resource modifier for the business establishment is also determined based on a projected result of dissemination of the traffic modifier. | 09-12-2013 |
20140006098 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS UTILIZING AN ENGAGEMENT CODE | 01-02-2014 |
20140052562 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INTERACTIVE AND SOCIAL SHOPPING - Disclosed in some examples is a method of providing assistance to a consumer comprising authenticating with a shopping service over a network using a network adapter; downloading a shopping list from the shopping service over the network using a network adapter; displaying the shopping list to the user on a display screen, the shopping list comprising a name of an item, wherein each item in the shopping list may be displayed as a tile, wherein each tile is arranged in a series of rows and columns; receiving an input identifying one or more changes to the shopping list; processing the input using a computer processor; and sending the one or more changes to the shopping service over the network using the network adapter. | 02-20-2014 |
20150050911 | COMMERCIALLY SUBSIDIZED MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICES AND SERVICES - Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, may be capable of recommending to a user various providers of one or more solicited services, e.g., by identifying a user location and identifying providers near the user location that provide the services, and by initiating a call between the user and a selected provider. However, the equipment and service costs of such devices may be prohibitive, particularly for mid-range mobile communication devices that may appeal to cost-conscious users. The prohibitive costs may be diminished by redirecting part or all of the cost of providing the recommendation service from the providers, e.g., by charging the provider a service cost upon initiating a call from the user to the provider, or upon representing the provider in a provider database. In one such embodiment, all service costs may be borne by providers, providing to the user a free recommendation service via the mobile communication device. | 02-19-2015 |