Abstract: A machine-implemented method for recording conversion activity in response to advertisements including receiving an indication of a user interaction with an ad displayed at a webpage at a user client device, the ad being associated with at least one website, providing one or more content items relating to the ad for display at the webpage in response to the indication of user interaction, providing a conversion cookie to the user client device for the at least one webpage in response to the indication of user interaction, where the conversion cookie causes the browser to send an indication of a conversion activity when a conversion activity occurs in response to a user visiting the webpage, receiving, at a time after the providing of the conversion cookie, an indication of a conversion activity in response to a user performing a conversion activity and associating the conversion activity with the ad.

Abstract: A method includes, in one or more processing devices, executing instructions to perform operations that include outputting data for a first graphical user interface comprising a control mechanism for specifying an amount of content from a first content set to include in a second content set. The method also includes receiving, through the control mechanism, information indicative of the amount of content from the first content set to include in the second content set. The method also includes identifying content from the first content set based on a score that is adjusted in accordance with the information, and based on an author of the content being a member of a predefined group of individuals. The method also includes outputting data for a second graphical user interface comprising the second content set the second content set including the identified content.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining a measure of resource usage by a virtual machine between startup and termination. The determination can be based on units of time in a sequence of contiguous units of time from the startup to the termination of a virtual machine. The actual utilization of a resource by the virtual machine during a unit of time may be compared to a resource utilization cap for the resource for the unit of time. If the utilization cap is exceeded, the excess resource utilization is determined. If the resource utilization cap is not exceeded, a resource utilization shortfall is determined. The measure of resource usage can be based on the number of units of time, the resource utilization cap for each resource, and the amount of excess resource utilization for each resource.

Abstract: A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for facilitating deduplication of operations to be performed is presented. An operation to be performed is received. A mapping function is applied to at least one parameter of the operation to produce a mapping value in a target mapping space, the target mapping space being partitioned between target servers in a set of target servers proportional to resource capacities of the target servers in the set of target servers. A target server in the set of target servers whose portion of the target mapping space includes the mapping value is identified. The operation is issued to the target server.

Abstract: Systems, methods performed by data processing apparatus and computer storage media encoded with computer programs for maintaining, for a user, multiple user interest profiles, each user interest profile corresponding to a different category and containing information relating to the user's online activities; receiving a request for an item of content to be presented to the user in connection with information to be displayed by a device associated with the user; determining a context of the displayed information; identifying at least two of the user's user interest profiles belonging to respective categories that are relevant to the determined context; choosing the content item to be presented to the user based at least in part on information in the identified at least two user interest profiles; and causing the chosen content item to be delivered for presentation to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving a search query, where the search query comprises one or more terms including an individual identifier; identifying one or more entities associated with the individual identifier; providing the one or more entities as query suggestions; receiving a selection of an entity; obtaining search results for the selected entity, where the search results are obtained using clustered resources corresponding to the selected entity; and providing the obtained search results, where the search results are presented in a social profile page corresponding to the selected entity.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus include a method for identifying content for inclusion in a display advertisement to be presented in a block having dimensions that may vary depending on a given received request. The method includes receiving style definitions to be associated with the display advertisement, each style definition being different and including a layout for the content to be used as criteria for when to apply a given style definition when generating an instantiation of the display advertisement. The method further includes receiving a request for content including size information for a block where the content is to be displayed, determining that the display advertisement satisfies the request, determining which style definition to apply based on the size information and criteria for each of the plurality of style definitions, generating an instantiation of the display advertisement using the determined style definition, and providing the instantiation of the display advertisement.

Abstract: A display system includes a wedge optical element, a photoactive layer, light director, and light modulator. The wedge optical element has a clear substrate. The photoactive layer receives emitted light that generates an image. The light director is disposed between the photoactive layer and the wedge optical element. The light modulator generates emitted light and is optically coupled to the wedge optical element to direct the emitted light to an angled side of the wedge optical element. The angled side of the wedge optical element is configured to reflect the emitted light toward a backside of the photoactive layer to generate an image viewable by a user on a frontside of the photoactive layer. The light director is disposed to receive the emitted light from the angled side of the wedge optical element and direct the emitted light toward propagating substantially normal to the backside of the photoactive layer.

Abstract: Implementations of the present disclosure include actions of defining a first group of contacts, the first group of contacts being defined based on input provided by a user of a social networking service and including other users of the social networking service, receiving a first selection of a first attribute associated with the first group of contacts, the first attribute providing that at least some digital content distributed by contacts is accessible to the user, and non-public digital content associated with the user that is inaccessible to at least one of the contacts, defining a distribution group associated with an item that is to be distributed, the distribution group including a plurality of groups of contacts, determining that the first group is included in the distribution group, and distributing the item to contacts in the distribution group except for contacts also in the first group.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for providing content items with branding labels. One example method includes receiving a request for a content item to be presented to a user, identifying the content item from eligible content items, evaluating the content item to determine if the content item includes content that is associated with a branding label including identifying an appropriate branding label for the content item, applying the branding label to the content item, and providing the content item along with the branding label responsive to the request.

Abstract: Systems, methods performed by data processing apparatus and computer storage media encoded with computer programs for maintaining a user interest profile corresponding to a user and containing information describing visits to publisher sites (e.g.

Abstract: In one aspect, a method includes verifying a first link in a first resource associated with an entity. The first resource is provided through a social networking service. The first link links to a second resource associated with the entity. The method also includes verifying a second link in the second resource. The second link links to the first resource. Additionally, the method includes receiving acknowledgments of the first resource and receiving acknowledgments of the second resource. The method further includes combining the acknowledgments of the first resource and acknowledgments of the second resource. And the method includes providing the combination for display on the first webpage or the second webpage. Receipt of an acknowledgement from a user who is a member of the social networking website does not add the entity to any access control list associated with the user at the social networking website.

Abstract: This specification describes technologies relating to content presentation. In general, a computer-implemented system and method is disclosed for providing an incentive to a content provider network to submit multiple bids. One or more processors executing code receive from a computing device associated with a first content provider network a first bid and a second bid. A third bid is received from a computing device associated with a second content provider network. The first bid is determined to be a winning bid based on the first bid being higher than the second bid and the third bid. A first calculation is made of a first amount to charge a first content provider associated with the winning bid, wherein the first amount is less than the amount of the first bid. A second calculation is made of a second amount to pay the first content provider network for providing the first bid and the second bid, wherein the second amount is less than the first amount.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus related to determining a characteristic of a location based on visit data. For example, a location and visit data associated with the location may be identified. A first visit measure and a second measure for the location may be determined, the first visit measure being indicative of the number of people in a population present at the location during a first time. A characteristic of the location may be determined based on comparison of the first visit measure to the second measure.

Abstract: A system and machine-implemented method for detecting an error in displaying advertisement content, the method including receiving one or more ads for display at a user device in response to a request from the user device, determining information regarding the one or more ads, determining if the one or more ads are displayed correctly based on the information regarding the one or more ads, identifying one or more incorrect ads of the one or more ads if it is determined that the one or more ads are not displayed correctly based on the information regarding the one or more ads and determining an updated price to charge one or more advertisers associated with the identified one or more incorrect ads based at least in part on the fact that the identified one or more incorrect ads have been displayed incorrectly.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage medium, for receiving a query; retrieving one or more social restricts associated with the user, the one or more social restricts comprising a set of author-based query restricts; generating an augmented query based on the query and the set of author-based query restricts; obtaining a set of social search results that are responsive to the augmented query, each social search result in a first sub-set of the set of social search results being associated with an author-based document restrict that corresponds to an author-based query restrict in the set of author-based query restricts; and providing the social search results for display to the user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for using alternate words as an indication of word sense. In one aspect, a method includes identifying a particular term. The method further includes identifying a first alternate term and a second alternate term for the particular term, and identifying a first sequence of terms that occurs in a text corpus, and includes the particular term among its terms. The method further includes determining a number of occurrences of a second sequence of terms in the text corpus. The second sequence of terms differs from the first sequence of terms only in that the first alternate term is substituted for the particular term and determining a number of occurrences of a third sequence of terms in the text corpus. The third sequence of terms differs from the first sequence of terms.

Abstract: A cloud computing service implements a method of securing customer data from access to only authorized administrative elements that are part of the cloud computing service. The service defines a set of access policies for the data, such that each access policy includes a permitted action. When the service receives a request to access the customer data, the request may include an access credential and originate from an administrative element within the cloud computing service. The service will verify the access credential and use the access credential to identify one of the access policies. The service will then identify a permitted action that is associated with the identified access policy and return a data access token to the administrative element. The data access token permits the administrative element to perform the identified permitted action on the customer data.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for associating a search query with at least one entity. Some implementations are directed to methods and apparatus for identifying one or more entities associated with search result documents responsive to a query, and associating one or more of the entities with the query. Some implementations are directed to methods and apparatus for identifying one or more entities associated with a query and providing information related to the entities in response to the query. Associated entities and/or data associated with associated entities for a given query may be provided to one or more users and/or stored for later retrieval.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for annotating query suggestions. Some implementations are directed to methods and apparatus for annotating a query suggestion with a semantic description to provide additional information about the meaning of the query suggestion.