Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for detecting and explaining bursty stream events in targeted groups. In one example, the method includes receiving validated bursty events, finding explanatory data sources having relevant bursty events that are relevant to the validated bursty events, wherein the explanatory sources explain the presence of the validated bursty events, correlating the validated bursty events to the relevant bursty events of the explanatory data sources to obtain burst results, and sending the burst results to a burst database that is accessible to an end user.

Abstract: Methods and systems for generating a dense graph are described. One of the methods includes receiving a graph and computing a threshold to apply to the graph. The method further includes determining whether the graph includes a first set of at least one node, determining whether a second set of at least one node from the first set meets the threshold, and removing the at least one node of the second set concurrently from the graph upon determining that the at least one node of the second set meets the threshold. The operation of removing is performed to generate an updated graph. The method includes determining whether a density of the updated graph is greater than a density of the graph and replacing the graph within the updated graph upon determining that the density of the updated graph is greater than the density of the density of the graph.

Abstract: An improved system and method for web destination profiling for online population-targeted advertising is provided. A web destination profiler may be provided for generating web destination profiles. Traffic may be analyzed at a particular web destination in order to understand the population visiting the web destination. The analysis of user traffic, including differentiated clickstream data, may be applied for determining known characteristics of a web destination profile. Moreover, unknown characteristics of a web destination profile may be determined using a variety of techniques including inferring characteristics by modeling traffic flow through other web destinations, estimating characteristics from other web destination profiles by predicting traffic flow through other web destinations, propagating characteristics to a web destination profile by smoothing a joint distribution of characteristics of other web destination profiles, and so forth.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for detecting and explaining bursty stream events in targeted groups. In one example, the method includes receiving validated bursty events, finding explanatory data sources having relevant bursty events that are relevant to the validated bursty events, wherein the explanatory sources explain the presence of the validated bursty events, correlating the validated bursty events to the relevant bursty events of the explanatory data sources to obtain burst results, and sending the burst results to a burst database that is accessible to an end user.

Abstract: Techniques are provided which allow users to purchase goods or services at a suitable price. A user may specify on a website, a maximum price the user is willing to pay for a product the user desires to purchase. The user may provide a deposit and sellers may be notified of the user's commitment to purchase the product and the maximum price the user is willing to pay for the product. The sellers may be allowed to offer their asking prices to the user if their respective asking prices are less than or equal to the maximum price the user is willing to pay. If none of the sellers, offer asking prices less than the user's maximum price, the deposit may be returned to the user.

Abstract: A system and method for implementing a multi-step challenge and response test includes steps or acts of: using an input/output subsystem for presenting a series of challenges to a user that require said user to correctly solve each challenge before a next challenge is revealed to the user; receiving the user's response to each challenge; and submitting a last response in the series of challenges to a server for validation. The method further includes: using a processor device configured to perform for each challenge in the series of challenges: internally validating the response by comparing the user's response to a correct response; and using the user's response, decrypting the next challenge to reveal the next challenge; wherein the next challenge remains obfuscated until a previous challenge is correctly solved.

Abstract: Method, system, and programs for computing similarity. Input data is first received from one or more data sources and then analyzed to obtain an input feature vector that characterizes the input data. An index is then generated based on the input feature vector and is used to archive the input data, where the value of the index is computed based on an improved Johnson-Lindenstrass transformation (FJLT) process. With the improved FJLT process, first, the sign of each feature in the input feature vector is randomly flipped to obtain a flipped vector. A Hadamard transformation is then applied to the flipped vector to obtain a transformed vector. An inner product between the transformed vector and a sparse vector is then computed to obtain a base vector, based on which the value of the index is determined.

Abstract: Evaluating a web design includes: receiving input that includes page elements; deriving a plurality of key page elements from the input; running a saliency model on the input to derive hot spots representing those items that are most likely to initially grab (or obtain) a viewer's attention; comparing positions of the hot spots to placement of the plurality of the key page elements to determine effectiveness of the placement of the key page elements; and presenting a saliency map depicting the hot spots in the page elements.

Abstract: An improved system and method for web destination profiling for online population-targeted advertising is provided. A web destination profiler may be provided for generating web destination profiles. Traffic may be analyzed at a particular web destination in order to understand the population visiting the web destination. The analysis of user traffic, including differentiated clickstream data, may be applied for determining known characteristics of a web destination profile. Moreover, unknown characteristics of a web destination profile may be determined using a variety of techniques including inferring characteristics by modeling traffic flow through other web destinations, estimating characteristics from other web destination profiles by predicting traffic flow through other web destinations, propagating characteristics to a web destination profile by smoothing a joint distribution of characteristics of other web destination profiles, and so forth.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for matching items of user-generated content to entities is provided. Items of user-generated content, such as status updates, are gathered. For each of the items, a machine determines a degree to which the item is associated with an entity. In one aspect, items are matched to an entity by matching the content of the items to attributes of the entity. In another aspect, items are matched to an entity by predicting attributes of an author of the items and determining a distance between the predicted attributes of the author and the attributes of the entity. The distance may be a physical distance between locations of the entity and user or a contextual distance between categories for the entity and posts by the author. Items matched to the entity may be displayed on an interface concurrently with information about the entity.

Abstract: Techniques for detecting social influence between users in a set of users with regard to an activity are provided. Data for each user of the set of users is received that includes a time value at which the user became active with regard to the activity, and includes at least one indication of another user in the set of users associated with the user. A first estimate of social correlation in the set of users is determined based on the data. The data is modified. For instance, the data may be modified according to a shuffle test and/or an edge reversal test. A second estimate of social correlation in the set of users is determined based on the modified data. The first estimate is compared to the second estimate to determine a degree of social influence in the set of users.

Abstract: A system and method for implementing a multi-step challenge and response test includes steps or acts of: using an input/output subsystem for presenting a series of challenges to a user that require said user to correctly solve each challenge before a next challenge is revealed to the user; receiving the user's response to each challenge; and submitting a last response in the series of challenges to a server for validation. The method further includes: using a processor device configured to perform for each challenge in the series of challenges: internally validating the response by comparing the user's response to a correct response; and using the user's response, decrypting the next challenge to reveal the next challenge; wherein the next challenge remains obfuscated until a previous challenge is correctly solved.

Abstract: Method, system, and programs for computing similarity. Input data is first received from one or more data sources and then analyzed to obtain an input feature vector that characterizes the input data. An index is then generated based on the input feature vector and is used to archive the input data, where the value of the index is computed based on an improved Johnson-Lindenstrass transformation (FJLT) process. With the improved FJLT process, first, the sign of each feature in the input feature vector is randomly flipped to obtain a flipped vector. A Hadamard transformation is then applied to the flipped vector to obtain a transformed vector. An inner product between the transformed vector and a sparse vector is then computed to obtain a base vector, based on which the value of the index is determined.

Abstract: Methods, computer programs, and systems for generating a link title for a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) within a context webpage to be shown as a web result are provided. The method evaluates generation parameters for a plurality of sources for picking words from the link title. Further, the method generates candidates for the link title, and a likelihood is computed for each candidate. When computing the likelihood, the generation parameters, the context webpage and the words are considered. In addition, the method selects a candidate with the highest likelihood from all the computed likelihoods, and presents the URL with the selected candidate as the title.

Abstract: A method is provided to associate reviews that have unknown correspondences to tangible entities to structured objects that have known correspondences to tangible entities comprising: transforming a respective review and text from a respective structured object to a collection of words that intersect the respective review and text from the respective structured object; determining a measure of a likelihood of a match as a function of respective probabilities of occurrences of respective words of such intersecting collection within generic review text and respective probabilities of occurrences of respective words of such intersecting collection within structured object text.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium are provided for matching items of user-generated content to entities is provided. Items of user-generated content, such as status updates, are gathered. For each of the items, a machine determines a degree to which the item is associated with an entity. In one aspect, items are matched to an entity by matching the content of the items to attributes of the entity. In another aspect, items are matched to an entity by predicting attributes of an author of the items and determining a distance between the predicted attributes of the author and the attributes of the entity. The distance may be a physical distance between locations of the entity and user or a contextual distance between categories for the entity and posts by the author. Items matched to the entity may be displayed on an interface concurrently with information about the entity.

Abstract: A method of generating a time managed challenge-response test is presented. The method identifies a geometric shape having a volume and generates an entry object of the time managed challenge-response test. The entry object is overlaid onto the geometric shape, such that the entry object is distributed over a surface of the geometric shape, and a portion of the entry object is hidden at any point in time. The geometric shape is rotated, which reveals the portion of the entry object that is hidden. A display region on a display is identified for rendering the geometric shape and the geometric shape is presented in the display region of the display.

Abstract: A method of and service for searching computerized networks, such as the internet, that first performs a search based on a user query to produce results that are ranked. The results comprise references to entities (addresses on the network, such as web sites). Before reporting the results to the user, the invention provides that the search entity contacts the entities listed in the search results to determine whether entities listed in the search results desire to change their rank when compared to other entities listed in the results. If some entities do desire to change their rank, the invention charges fees to entities that increase their rank and credits (pays fees) to entities that decrease their rank.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for providing a marketplace for CAPTCHA developers. A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test that a content provider may present to users for authorizing the users to access content that is hosted by the content provider. CAPTCHA developers may propose CAPTCHAs for testing in the marketplace. A server is configured to provide instances of proposed CAPTCHAs to users along with instances of reference CAPTCHAs that have known difficulties to determine the relative difficulties of the proposed CAPTCHAs for the users. The server may determine a reward to be provided to a developer of a proposed CAPTCHA based on a difficulty that the predetermined automated systems encounter when they attempt to solve the proposed CAPTCHA and an ease with which the users solve the proposed CAPTCHA. The server may determine rewards to be provided to developers of predetermined automated systems that solve the proposed CAPTCHAs.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for generating CAPTCHAs that include overlapped characters, projections on virtual three-dimensional (3D) surfaces, and/or virtual 3D objects. A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test that a content provider may present to users for authorizing the users to access content that the content provider hosts. For example, when a user attempts to access content, a CAPTCHA may be generated in accordance with one or more of the techniques described herein and provided to the user. The user may be asked to identify characters that overlap in the CAPTCHA, characters that are projected on a virtual 3D surface, and/or a designated virtual 3D object, so that the user may be authorized to access the content. The user may enter the characters and/or select the designated virtual 3D object that is identified in the CAPTCHA using an input device, such as a keyboard, touch screen, pointing device, etc.