Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

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: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.

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: Techniques are described for identifying one or more “interest twins” of a user. An interest twin of a user in another user that has demonstrated interests in items that are the same as or similar to the items in which the user has demonstrated an interest. Various techniques are described for reducing the overhead in interest twin determination operations. Once the interest twins for a user have been identified, the knowledge of the interest twins may be used in a variety of ways to enhance to experience of the user. For example, a mechanism may be provided which allows the user to see a list of items in which the user's interest twins have indicated an interest.

Abstract: Services are provided via a multicast tree. A request to receive a service is received at a node. Stored information at the node is searched to identify a service path or a service node operable to provide the requested service.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed towards modifying a distribution of writers as either a push writer or a pull writer based on a cost model that decides for a given content reader whether it is more effective for the writer to be a pull writer or a push writer. A cache is maintained for each content reader for caching content items pushed by a push writer in the content writer's push list of writers when the content is generated. At query time, content items are pulled by the content reader based on writers a content reader's pull list. One embodiment of the cost model employs data about a previous number of requests for content items for a given writer for a number of previous blended display results of content items. When a writer is determined to be popular, mechanisms are proposed for pushing content items to a plurality of content readers.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems, methods, and user interfaces for browsing a collection of content items saved by a user or by one or more buddies associated with a given user. The method of the present invention comprises saving one or more content items and one or more associated keywords as specified by a user. An interface is generated that displays the one or more saved content items and the one or more associated keywords, as well as the one or more buddies associated with a given user. A user indication of the selection of a given keyword or the selection of a given buddy by the user is received. The one or more displayed content items are filtered according to the selected keyword, buddy, or combination of selected keyword and buddy.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for selecting a diverse mix of content items that may be displayed to a user. Content items such as user-generated events are received from a variety of sources. One or more content items are added to a set of content items based on a diversity of characteristics. The diversity of characteristics for the one or more content items may be calculated by measuring a diversity of characteristics of the set as if the one or more content items were added to the set. Content items that produce a greater diversity are selected for addition to the set. The set is displayed to the user, who is provided with a more meaningful mix of content due to the greater diversity in content.

Abstract: An apparatus has a server connected to a network, the server including a processor coupled to at least one data repository and software executing on the processor from a non-transitory medium, the software providing a service comprising receipt of a transaction record related to a transaction between a business and a customer, the record in the form of a digital file generated at a location of the business, processing of the transaction record, determining contextual meaning of individual portions of the record, inserting into the record an executable link on or proximate a portion processed for contextual meaning, the link to a resource associated with the contextual meaning of the portion linked, and transmitting the record with the inserted link to the customer.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed towards a Modified Sequitur algorithm (MSA) using pipelining and indexed arrays to identify trending topics within a plurality of documents having user generated content (UGC). The documents are parallelized and distributed across a plurality of network devices, which place at least some of the received documents into a buffer for which the MSA may then be applied to the documents within the buffer to identify n-grams or phrases within the documents' contents. The identified phrases are further analyzed to remove extraneous co-occurrences of phrases, and/or words based on a part of speech analysis. A weighting of the remaining phrases is used to identify trending topic phrases. Links to content in the plurality of UGC documents that is associated with the trending topic phrases may then be displayed to a client device.

Abstract: A method and a computer-readable medium are provided which perform screen scraping via grammar induction. The computer-readable medium stores instructions of the method, the instructions directing a computer processor to intercept display information transmitted to a computer-implemented display device representing information stored in a data source; induce a grammar via statistical analysis of the intercepted display information; provide the grammar to a parser-generator to generate a parser corresponding to the induced grammar; and perform screen scraping using the generated parser.

Abstract: Computer systems and methods incorporate user annotations (metadata) regarding various pages or sites, including annotations by a querying user and by members of a trust network defined for the querying user into search and browsing of a corpus such as the World Wide Web. A trust network is defined for each user, and annotations by any member of a first user's trust network are made visible to the first user during search and/or browsing of the corpus. Users can also limit searches to content annotated by members of their trust networks or by members of a community selected by the user.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed towards modifying a distribution of writers as either a push writer or a pull writer based on a cost model that decides for a given content reader whether it is more effective for the writer to be a pull writer or a push writer. A cache is maintained for each content reader for caching content items pushed by a push writer in the content writer's push list of writers when the content is generated. At query time, content items are pulled by the content reader based on writers a content reader's pull list. One embodiment of the cost model employs data about a previous number of requests for content items for a given writer for a number of previous blended display results of content items. When a writer is determined to be popular, mechanisms are proposed for pushing content items to a plurality of content readers.

Abstract: Location information for a node in a network is determined. A first distance from the node to at least one global landmark node is determined and a second distance from the node to at least one local landmark node proximally located to the node is determined. Location information for the node based on the first distance and the second distance is generated.