Abstract: Many scenarios involve the delivery of messages received from various message sources to recipients, based on subscriptions established between various recipients and message sources. The recipients may be distributively assigned to one or more message servers, either operating independently or as part of an interoperating message server set. Respective message servers may generate a subscription filter indicating whether at least one assigned recipient subscribes to respective message sources, and may utilize the subscription filter to determine, upon receiving a message from a message source, whether to discard the message or store the message for delivery.

Abstract: Within a social network, users may submit various types of messages, such as personal messages to other users and status messages to be shared with all associated users. While these messages often relate to highly personal information such as opinions and personal emotions, such messages may also comprise one or more facts about a particular topic, such as a report of a weather condition in a particular location at a particular time. These facts may be identified in various messages, and may be stored in a fact store, such that when a user submits a query specifying a topic may receive from the fact store one or more facts that are responsive to the topic of the query. Additionally, user interfaces may be devised and provided to users submitting such messages, e.g., in order to reduce ambiguity and improve the reliable extraction of facts from messages.

Abstract: Many scenarios involve the delivery of messages received from various message sources to recipients, based on subscriptions established between various recipients and message sources. The recipients may be distributively assigned to one or more message servers, either operating independently or as part of an interoperating message server set. Respective message servers may generate a subscription filter indicating whether at least one assigned recipient subscribes to respective message sources, and may utilize the subscription filter to determine, upon receiving a message from a message source, whether to discard the message or store the message for delivery.

Abstract: A redirection service may be used to direct a user's request to specific providers of various types of services. When a user requests a web service (e.g., mapping, search, bookmarks, weather reports, etc.), the request is received by a redirection service. The redirection service identifies a provider of the service, and issues a redirect instruction to the user's browser that redirects the browser to the identified service provider. The service provider may be determined by user selection, by default, or by any other mechanism. In one example, the user's request for a service comes by selecting a link included in a web page. In another example, a user issues a direct request for the service in the form of a command. The command may be entered, in one example, through a browser or desktop search box.

Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which an interactive timeline user interface shows communication data aggregated from various sources (e.g., a telephone service, a website, an application and/or the like) in time order. To reduce the number of items in the timeline, certain items may be combined into a compressed item, e.g., items from the same source and/or of the same type may be rolled up into a rolled up item. The user may also interact to reply to a data item. For example, an editor may be provided upon interaction with a data item in the timeline, and the type of reply that is sent may automatically match the type of data item, (e.g., a text message reply to a text message).

Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which an interactive timeline user interface shows communication data aggregated from various sources (e.g., a telephone service, a website, an application and/or the like) in time order. To reduce the number of items in the timeline, certain items may be combined into a compressed item, e.g., items from the same source and/or of the same type may be rolled up into a rolled up item. The user may also interact to reply to a data item. For example, an editor may be provided upon interaction with a data item in the timeline, and the type of reply that is sent may automatically match the type of data item, (e.g., a text message reply to a text message).

Abstract: Making an information retrieval process public, so that it can be followed by others, allows capturing of an interest graph that allows people to learn more about shared interests with other people. This also allows items of interest to a trusted resource (such as an expert) to be identified. These items can then be brought to the attention of other users that share the same interest as the expert. In addition, by keeping track of what particular content a user has already seen, the system can bring items of interest to the user's attention, where the user has not yet seen those items.

Abstract: In a crowd-sourced question answering system, the user is allowed to provide clarifying information to eliminate some of the most probable solutions or answers. This allows the user to find less common solutions to a query.

Abstract: Various embodiments enable an application to obtain information associated with a link to content without navigating to the link. The application can be configured to identify a link, receive input to attain information associated with the link, and send a request to a service for the information. In one or more embodiments, a service can be configured to receive a request for information associated with a link, ascertain one or more sources from which to gather the information, determine appropriate mechanisms by which to obtain the information, and acquire the information. Alternately or additionally, the service can further assemble the information into a consumable format, and return the consumable format to a requesting application or device.

Abstract: Within a social network, users may submit various types of messages, such as personal messages to other users and status messages to be shared with all associated users. While these messages often relate to highly personal information such as opinions and personal emotions, such messages may also comprise one or more facts about a particular topic, such as a report of a weather condition in a particular location at a particular time. These facts may be identified in various messages, and may be stored in a fact store, such that when a user submits a query specifying a topic may receive from the fact store one or more facts that are responsive to the topic of the query. Additionally, user interfaces may be devised and provided to users submitting such messages, e.g., in order to reduce ambiguity and improve the reliable extraction of facts from messages.

Abstract: Many scenarios involve the delivery of messages received from various message sources to recipients, based on subscriptions established between various recipients and message sources. The recipients may be distributively assigned to one or more message servers, either operating independently or as part of an interoperating message server set. Respective message servers may generate a subscription filter indicating whether at least one assigned recipient subscribes to respective message sources, and may utilize the subscription filter to determine, upon receiving a message from a message source, whether to discard the message or store the message for delivery.

Abstract: Within a content item set, particular content items may be identified as trending, based on changes in a frequency of references to the content items. For example, users of a social network may reference web resources by posting the uniform resource locators (URLs) thereof in messages, and trending web resources may be identified by detecting changes in the frequencies of such references. These trends may be tracked by counting such references in content item histograms, and by computing trend scores at the time of detecting each reference to a content item. Trending content items may then be identified at a second time by comparing the trend scores after decaying the trend scores of respective content items, based on the period between the second time and the last reference time of the last detected reference to the content item.

Abstract: Within a social network, users may define user lists comprising users who share a semantic nexus. The creation and updating of user lists may be detected by monitoring the messages of users to detect list identifiers (e.g., names) indicating new user lists, and by polling the social network to detect changes in the membership of respective user lists. The list identifiers may be recorded in the user profiles of respective members of the user lists. Moreover, when a user posts a message to the social network, the message may be annotated with the list identifiers recorded in the user profile of the user. These techniques may permit the restriction of a search query over messages to those posted by members of a particular user list, e.g., by searching for messages having annotations that match the list identifiers of the user lists specified in the search query.

Abstract: A redirection service may be used to direct a user's request to specific providers of various types of services. When a user requests a web service (e.g., mapping, search, bookmarks, weather reports, etc.), the request is received by a redirection service. The redirection service identifies a provider of the service, and issues a redirect instruction to the user's browser that redirects the browser to the identified service provider. The service provider may be determined by user selection, by default, or by any other mechanism. In one example, the user's request for a service comes by selecting a link included in a web page. In another example, a user issues a direct request for the service in the form of a command. The command may be entered, in one example, through a browser or desktop search box.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for enhancing an initial set of data values generated by a query of one or more data stores. File parameters and file types are retrieved from the initial query and used to generate a second set of searches, actions, and information related to the initial set of data values. The results from the initial query and the secondary query are displayed on a presentation device.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for enhancing an initial set of data values generated by a query of one or more data stores. File parameters and file types are retrieved from the initial query and used to generate a second set of searches, actions, and information related to the initial set of data values. The results from the initial query and the secondary query are displayed on a presentation device.

Abstract: A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.

Abstract: Described is a technology by which an interactive timeline user interface shows communication data aggregated from various sources (e.g., a telephone service, a website, an application and/or the like) in time order. To reduce the number of items in the timeline, certain items may be combined into a compressed item, e.g., items from the same source and/or of the same type may be rolled up into a rolled up item. The user may also interact to reply to a data item. For example, an editor may be provided upon interaction with a data item in the timeline, and the type of reply that is sent may automatically match the type of data item, (e.g., a text message reply to a text message).