Abstract: Users can be notified when information becomes available, such as when an item is available for purchase at some point in the future. Users can indicate to receive information about the item using a desired notification type, such as an email message or text message. A notification then can be sent to the user using the indicated type of notification when the item, or information about the item, subsequently becomes available through the system.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing customizable sign-on functionality, such as via an access manager system that provides single sign-on functionality and other functionality to other services for use with those services' users. The access manager system may maintain various sign-on and other account information for various users, and provide single sign-on functionality for those users using that maintained information on behalf of multiple unrelated services with which those users interact. The access manager may allow a variety of types of customizations to single sign-on functionality and/or other functionality available from the access manager, such as on a per-service basis via configuration by an operator of the service, such as co-branding customizations, customizations of information to be gathered from users, customizations of authority that may be delegated to other services to act on behalf of users, etc.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for metering network services, for example Web services. In embodiments, a network services metering system may collect network service usage information via an add usage interface and store the usage information in a database. In one embodiment, the usage information may be partitioned into two or more partitions. Once the usage information has been aggregated and stored, the metering system may be queried to obtain usage statistics such as aggregate usage over specific time intervals. In one embodiment, a pipeline mechanism that generates and processes batches of usage information may be implemented for adding usage information to the database. The pipeline mechanism may help to reduce or eliminate redundancy and loss of usage information, and may make the metering system linearly scalable in multiple dimensions.

Abstract: Systems and methods for filtering tokens from a document for determining whether the document describes substantially similar subject matter compared to another document are described. In one embodiment, a first document is obtained. This document is organized into a plurality of fields, and at least some of the fields include tokens representing the subject matter described by the document. A field of this document is selected and a token from within the selected field having the highest inverse document frequency (IDF) is selected. Those tokens that have a higher IDF than the selected token are removed. Using the remaining tokens, a determination is made as to whether the first document describes substantially similar subject matter to the subject matter described by a second document. An indication is provided as to whether the first document describes substantially similar subject matter to that described by a second document according to the determination.

Abstract: A service framework uses importance ranking information in making call decisions and/or wait-time decisions in connection with service requests. Each of the service requests has an importance ranking which reflects the importance of the information provided by the service to a task being performed. The health of a service may be controlled by permitting fewer (or more) service requests to be made to the service when the service is less (or more) healthy. The likelihood of a service request being made to the service may depend on the importance ranking of the service request. When waiting for a response, a determination whether to continue waiting may be made based on the likelihood that the service has failed and based on the importance of the information to the task being performed.

Abstract: A distributed, web-services based storage system. A system may include a web services interface configured to receive, according to a web services protocol, a given client request for access to a given data object, the request including a key value corresponding to the object. The system may also include storage nodes configured to store replicas of the objects, where each replica is accessible via a respective unique locator value, and a keymap instance configured to store a respective keymap entry for each object. For the given object, the respective keymap entry includes the key value and each locator value corresponding to replicas of the object. A coordinator may receive the given client request from the web services interface, responsively access the keymap instance to identify locator values corresponding to the key value and, for a particular locator value, retrieve a corresponding replica from a corresponding storage node.

Abstract: Disclosed is a clip configured to ground a receptacle, such as a micro universal serial bus (MUSB) receptacle, to a ground plane. The clip may comprise a pair of locating features extending from the front edge of the clip for alignment with an edge of a circuit board to which the receptacle is affixed, a spring tab on the top surface configured to contact the ground plane when the device is assembled, and engagement features on the left and right sides of the receptacle surface configured to engage the clip to the receptacle.

Abstract: Systems and methods for determining whether a first document is a potential duplicate of a second document such that the two documents describe the same or substantially the same subject matter, wherein the first and second documents include attribute data in attribute fields. A set of rules is obtained for determining whether the first document is a potential duplicate of the second document. Moreover, for each rule in the set of rules, a determination is made as to whether data in a first set of attributes of the first document is contained in a second set of attributes of the second document. According to the results of the evaluated rules in the rules set, determining whether the first document is a potential duplicate of the second document. If, according to the evaluated rules in the rules set, the first document is determined to be a potential duplicate of the second document, storing a reference to the first document in a set of potential duplicates of the second document.

Abstract: Techniques are described for using multiple successive interactions with multiple responders in order to perform a variety of types of tasks, such as to generate solutions to abstract or conceptual problems. In some situations, at least some of the multiple responders are humans available to perform tasks and/or provide information, such as to provide responses to questions in exchange for payment. The multiple successive interactions with the responders may be used to iteratively refine the problem and its abstract intermediate solutions until the refinements are sufficiently detailed and tangible as to allow detailed final solutions to be generated. In some situations, the interactions with the responders may be performed as part of an automated service for generating solutions to a variety of types of problems, such as in exchange for payment from the users or others who specify the problems.

Abstract: According to aspects of the disclosed subject matter, a method for identifying a set of documents from a document corpus that are potential duplicates of a source document is provided. A source document is obtained. A list of queries corresponding to a source document is identified. Each query in the identified list of queries is executed on the document corpus, wherein the execution of each query yields a corresponding results set identifying an ordered set of documents in the document corpus. For each document identified in each results set, a document score is generated for the identified document based on the identified document's ordinal position in its results set. A subset of the identified documents of the results set is selected according to the generated document scores that satisfy predetermined selection criteria. The selected subset of identified documents are stored or displayed.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating transactions involving items and users in various ways. In some situations, item transactions are coordinated by an automated Item Transaction (or “IT”) system provided via one or more computing systems, such that users of the IT system who have available items are matched with other users of the IT system who desire those items. The types of items being involved in transactions via the IT system may vary, and in some situations may include items such as music CDs, video DVDs, computer games, computer software, etc. The operation of the IT system may be enhanced in various ways via interactions with one or more external item marketplaces, such as by automatically obtaining and using information related to users of the IT system from those marketplaces, and/or by acquiring additional items from those marketplaces for use by the IT system.

Abstract: An event history server system stores event data descriptive of user-specific events that occur in browsing sessions of users. A query interface of the event history server system enables applications to selectively retrieve the event data based on various event parameters such as event type, event time of occurrence, and user identifier. The applications may, for example, include one or more personalization applications that generate personalized content for users.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating transactions involving items and users in various ways. In some situations, item transactions are coordinated by an automated Item Transaction (or “IT”) system provided via one or more computing systems, such that users of the IT system who have available items are matched with other users of the IT system who desire those items. The types of items being involved in transactions via the IT system may vary, and in some situations may include items such as music CDs, video DVDs, computer games, computer software, etc. The operation of the IT system may be enhanced in various ways via interactions with one or more external item marketplaces, such as by automatically obtaining and using information related to users of the IT system from those marketplaces, and/or by acquiring additional items from those marketplaces for use by the IT system.

Abstract: Prominence data resulting from user interaction with a hyperlink on a page may be stored in one or more repositories. Prominence data may be collected automatically when the user views a page or clicks on a hyperlink without requiring separate action from the user to accomplish storage or retrieval. The prominence data may further include a display parameter that denotes a level of prominence that is usable to affect the display of a hyperlink. A prominence score used to determine the display parameter may be calculated by dividing a count of click-throughs by a count of page views of the page containing the hyperlink. Other score calculations may be used. User feedback may be incorporated into the score calculation and may be collected through a toolbar, popup window, or other feedback-collecting mechanism.

Abstract: Requests are received for information about a first item or service. Second items (or products or services) are identified that are associated with the first item or category of the first item. The compatibility of the first and second items or services is determined. The customer is informed of the outcome of the determination and provided with information about additional, compatible items or services.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as via an electronic marketplace acting as an intermediary for task performance. In some situations, the facilitating of the interactions includes automatically matching available tasks to task performer users, such as to automatically generate recommendations for task performer users of available tasks that are appropriate for those task performer users to perform. Such generated task recommendations for task performer users may then be provided to those task performer users in various ways, including via one or more Web pages or electronic communications sent to devices of the task performer users. The task recommendations may be generated in various ways, including based on previous tasks performed by the task performer users and on other prior activities of the task performer users.

Abstract: A digital media resource messaging system provides a convenient digital media resource viewing, managing, organizing, and editing platform that facilitates enhanced resource exchange by storing and forwarding digital media resources via a server between multiple resource-sharing partners designated by the user. In one embodiment, the digital media resource messaging system includes services to view, manage, organize, edit, and exchange digital images and video sequences.

Abstract: An ad system is described for providing ad selections in response to an ad presentation opportunity. The ad system can use multiple content providers to generate multiple sets of ad candidates. The content providers can apply different ad selection paradigms in generating their sets of ad candidates. The paradigms may act on different aspects of a context pertaining to the ad presentation opportunity. A chooser module and filtering module can cull the set of ad selections from among the plural sets of ad candidates. At least one content provider uses machine learning functionality in generating ad candidates, such as a Naïve Bayesian approach, an affiliate similarity approach, etc. Various content providers also find application in a stand-alone mode.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks, such as by an intermediary electronic marketplace or other task fulfillment facilitator system. In some situations, task performer users and/or other users may create task subscriptions for use in automatically identifying tasks of interest to the users about which the users desire to receive notification. The users may be notified of the identified tasks in various ways, such as by sending electronic messages of various types to the users that include indications of the tasks identified for those users based on their subscriptions. Tasks of interest may be identified in various ways, such as based on task attributes of interest specified for a subscription that are later matched against tasks that are available at the time of the matching.

Abstract: An ad system is described for providing ad selections in response to an ad presentation opportunity. The ad system can use multiple content providers to generate multiple sets of ad candidates. The content providers can apply different ad selection paradigms in generating their sets of ad candidates. The paradigms may act on different aspects of a context pertaining to the ad presentation opportunity. A chooser module and filtering module can cull the set of ad selections from among the plural sets of ad candidates. At least one content provider uses machine learning functionality in generating ad candidates, such as a Naïve Bayesian approach, an affiliate similarity approach, etc. Various content providers also find application in a stand-alone mode.