Abstract: Systems and methods for optimizing webpage content based on a screen orientation of a device are disclosed. Generally, a plurality of content chunks comprising a webpage to be displayed on a device is identified. An indication of a screen orientation of the device is received and webpage content to be displayed on the device is modified based at least in part on the screen orientation of the device, the identified plurality of content chunks, and a focus priority associated with each content chunk of the plurality of content chunks.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for personalizing search results for delivery to multiple recipients, including receiving a search query by a search engine from a user on behalf of a group of users, wherein the group of users communicate through a plurality of communication devices at a plurality of locations; conducting a search of a database by the search engine to locate any data relevant to one or more terms of the search query; generating, by the search engine, a set of search results returned from the database according to at least one factor related to one or more of the group of users; and substantially simultaneously sending the set of search results to the plurality of communications devices of the group of users.

Abstract: A method is disclosed that includes gaining authenticated access to at least one of a restricted network device and a restricted online webpage with an authenticator integrated with a content crawler, wherein the authenticator is configured to obtain authentication data from a user for access to the at least one of the restricted network device and the restricted online webpage; indexing personal content of the at least one of the restricted network device and the restricted online webpage in a database; and enabling the user to search the indexed database based on a search query.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method is disclosed for real-time inventory tracking with a mobile device, including: receiving a communication for a stationary inventory item via a cellular or wireless network from a tracking server that is coupled with the cellular or wireless network; and tracking the stationary inventory item on a registered consumer mobile device in real-time via the cellular or wireless network, wherein tracking comprises: receiving an updated status regarding a quantity and a location related to the stationary inventory item; and displaying the updated status on a screen of the mobile device in real time.

Abstract: A method of generating search queries based on digitized audio from conversations, including: providing a database having a global hot-list of universal popular keywords or phrases and a personalized entity list comprising keywords and phrases used with a frequency above a determined threshold value in conversations involving a user; monitoring a conversation between at least two people, including the user; identifying words or phrases in digitized audio of the monitored conversation through speech recognition; comparing the identified words or phrases to the keywords and phrases in the database to find any matches; generating a search string, without the user requesting a search, based on words or phrases found to match the keyword or phrases stored in the database; submitting the search string to a search engine as a search query; and serving a set of search results returned by the search engine to a display device of the user.

Abstract: A plurality of documents is scored, where at least some of the documents are characterized by at least one link from at least one other of the documents. For each of at least particular ones of the plurality of documents, a score is assigned to that particular document, with respect to a topic, based at least in part on an incoherency characteristic associated with at least one document linking to that particular document.

Abstract: A method, system, and apparatus are directed to providing advertising information to a mobile device over a network. A request is received from the mobile device. The request may comprise a query, geo-location information, and/or a user preference. If the request comprises the query, a search result is generated based on a search for the received query and/or the received geo-location information. At least one virtual billboard is determined, wherein the at least one virtual billboard is in proximity with a first geo-location identified by the received geo-location information and/or a second geo-location associated with the search result. The virtual billboard may also be based on a type of the virtual billboard, a time, a user preference (criterion), and/or a keyword included in the query. The virtual billboard is provided to the mobile device. An advertising usage is recorded for the provided virtual billboard.

Abstract: A method, system, and apparatus are directed to providing information over a network. A search query may be received. If the search query includes at least one keyword matching a pattern associated with a specific search engine, a plurality of search results is retrieved from the specific search engine based on the keyword, and the plurality of search results is provided. A plurality of potential search or source engines may be determined based on a current time information. At least one of the potential search or source engines may be a personalized source engine. At least one plurality of results may be retrieved from at least one of the potential search or source engines. The result may be based on the search query. An aggregated result may be determined based on a time rule and/or the current time information. The aggregated result may comprise the plurality of results.

Abstract: A search engine compares entered search terms to an index of terms signifying a specific or local intent. If an entered term matches term in the index, then the search engine identifies and outputs information corresponding to the specific or local intent. Terms to include in the index of terms can be identified by monitoring the searching behavior of a set of users.

Abstract: Techniques are provided maintaining data that indicates for a plurality of query terms whether the plurality of query terms are date-qualified query terms. A query is received, and in response to receiving the query, the query is inspected to determine that the query contains a particular date-qualified query term. Then it is determined that the particular date-qualified query term has been associated with a plurality of dates, and it is determined which of the plurality of dates with which to associate the date-qualified query term for the query, based at least in part on the frequency with which each particular date of the plurality of dates has been associated with the particular date-qualified query term.

Abstract: A system for indexing a document including: receiving a document to be processed for inclusion in an index of documents; locating a set of documents that include hyperlinks to the document; retrieving anchortext associated with each hyperlink; parsing the anchortext into one or more tokens. Then for each token the following acts are performed: determining a weight for the token, determining whether the weight assigned to the token exceeds a threshold token weight; and indexing the document under the token, if the token weight assigned to the token exceeds the threshold token weight.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for automatically annotating a document to offer, to a viewer, a choice of operations that a user can take relative to identified entities to which the document refers, where the choice of operations offered in relation to each such entity is appropriate to and based on the types of that entity. In one embodiment of the invention, for each “interesting” entity within a document, a mechanism automatically determines one or more types for that entity. The mechanism automatically annotates the document so that an application will present entity-type-specific data (including operation choices) that is generated by modules that are mapped to the types of the entities within the document. The annotations comprise metadata that indicates types of each “interesting” entity. The entity-type-specific data may be presented along with the rest of the document. A user need not navigate to a different document prior to viewing the data.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for selecting advertisements to display to a user requesting a primary webpage is provided. Keywords related to the primary webpage are determined using internal information of the primary webpage and/or external information provided in neighboring webpages. The external information may include anchor text metadata of hyperlinks on neighboring webpages that link to the primary webpage or include the number of such hyperlinks having a same particular anchor text. Other internal and/or external information may be used to determine a list of keywords related to the primary webpage. One or more of keywords on the list are selected to represent the primary webpage according to one or more objectives. One or more advertisements are selected to be served to the user using the selected keywords. Machine learning techniques may be used to develop a model that automatedly determines keywords representing a webpage.

Abstract: A plurality of documents is scored, where at least some of the documents are characterized by at least one link from at least one other of the documents. For each of at least particular ones of the plurality of documents, a score is assigned to that particular document, with respect to a topic, based at least in part on an incoherency characteristic associated with at least one document linking to that particular document.

Abstract: Techniques for automatically adding context-sensitive search-enabling user interface elements to a web page are provided. According to one technique, topical regions of a document are automatically determined by computer-implemented means. The document is automatically separated into topically different sections. For each section, at least some of the topics to which that section pertains are automatically determined. Between each of the sections, a user interface element is automatically inserted into the document. Each such user interface element is automatically associated with the topics to which the section immediately preceding that user interface element pertains. A user's subsequent activation of such a user interface element causes context-sensitive search results to be provided to the user.

Abstract: Applying a bias when determining a suggested search query. Examples of biases that can be applied include, but are not limited to, temporal biases and monetization biases. Temporal biasing involves increasing a weight associated with a search query, based on a temporal attribute associated with the query. Search queries may also have associated with them a parameter such as frequency, count, etc. One of these parameters may serve as a weight. In order to determine suggested search queries, the temporal attribute is used to modify or bias the parameter (e.g., frequency parameter). Thus, the weight of the search query is modified to temporally bias the query. The suggested search queries are determined based on the biased parameter.

Abstract: The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for trust propagation. The method according to one embodiment comprises calculating a first feature vector for a first user, calculating a second feature for a second user and comparing the first feature vector with the second feature vector to calculate a similarity value. A determination is made as to whether the similarity value falls within a threshold. If the similarity value falls within the threshold, a relationship is recorded between the first user and the second user in a first user profile and a second user profile.

Abstract: Context-specific transaction proposals are automatically generated and presented to a user who expresses interest in a particular topic. A user viewing a World Wide Web page or other content item activates an interface to indicate that he or she is interested in additional information related to the subject of the page. A context vector or other representation of the content of the page being viewed is transmitted to an information server, which identifies possible transactions related to the content and proposes one or more of these transactions to the user. Transaction proposals can be presented together with a contextual search interface that allows the user to submit zero or more search terms together with the context vector as a search query.

Abstract: A search engine receives query terms from a client. In response, the search engine executes a search on a web directory to identify zero or more documents that match the query terms. The identified documents are associated with one or more categories. The search engine probabilistically selects one of the categories associated with the identified documents. Each message in a message database is also associated with one or more of the categories. The search engine accesses the message database and selects at least one message associated with the selected category. The search engine returns a web page containing references to the documents matching the query terms and the one or more messages selected from the message database to the client.

Abstract: A search engine receives query terms from a client. In response, the search engine executes a search on a web directory to identify zero or more documents that match the query terms. The identified documents are associated with one or more categories. The search engine probabilistically selects one of the categories associated with the identified documents. Each message in a message database is also associated with one or more of the categories. The search engine accesses the message database and selects at least one message associated with the selected category. The search engine returns a web page containing references to the documents matching the query terms and the one or more messages selected from the message database to the client.