Abstract: Described herein is a fuel authorization program that vehicles enrolled in the fuel authorization program to provide fuel tank sensor data in each fuel authorization request, so that an amount of fuel authorized will be limited to the amount needed to fill the vehicle's fuel tank, reducing a likelihood that fuel will be diverted. In at least some embodiments, the fuel authorization controller at the vehicle automatically uses the fuel tank sensor data and known tank size to include in a fuel authorization request sent to a fuel vendor data defining how much fuel is required to fill the vehicle fuel tanks. In at least some embodiments, the fuel vendor consults data from a source other than the vehicle (such as records maintained by the fuel authorization program) to determine how large the vehicles fuel tanks are, and to calculate how much fuel is required.

Abstract: Methods, and systems, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable storage mediums, including a method for obtaining information about advertisement slots on resources (e.g., web pages). The method includes receiving a request to provide content for display in an ad slot of a web page presented on a user device; determining that parameter data specifying a parameter of the ad slot is not included in the request, the parameter being an indicator of a relative position of the ad slot on the web page; in response to determining that the parameter data is not included in the request, providing content to display in the ad slot to fulfill the request, the content including a tag configured to determine the parameter of the ad slot; receiving the parameter of the ad slot determined by the tag; and storing the parameter of the ad slot in a database.

Abstract: Described herein is a fuel authorization program that vehicles enrolled in the fuel authorization program to provide fuel tank sensor data in each fuel authorization request, so that an amount of fuel authorized will be limited to the amount needed to fill the vehicle's fuel tank, reducing a likelihood that fuel will be diverted. In at least some embodiments, the fuel authorization controller at the vehicle automatically uses the fuel tank sensor data and known tank size to include in a fuel authorization request sent to a fuel vendor data defining how much fuel is required to fill the vehicle fuel tanks. In at least some embodiments, the fuel vendor consults data from a source other than the vehicle (such as records maintained by the fuel authorization program) to determine how large the vehicles fuel tanks are, and to calculate how much fuel is required.

Abstract: Described herein is a fuel authorization program that requires data to be dynamically retrieved from a vehicle data bus during the fuel authorization process. This can be implemented using a smart cable that is installed in enrolled vehicles. The smart cable includes a housing suitable for commercial environments, a cable to logically couple the smart cable to the vehicle data bus, a second data link to be used to logically couple the smart cable to a fuel authorization “puck” in a vehicle, and a controller. The puck handles communication with the fuel vendor. The controller automatically implements the functions responding to a query from the puck received over the second data link by dynamically acquiring data from the vehicle data bus using the first data link, and conveying the data to the puck using the second data link.

Abstract: Methods and systems for providing an automated virtualized signal marketplace or exchange for signals from distributed data sources for use in advertising. Systems and methods to automatically discover and recommend which of the signals controlled by multiple entities may be most effective toward a given objective associated with advertising campaigns. Signals are indicators of data that are derived from data sources and abstracted to protect the underlying data. Each entity that sells data in the virtual marketplace first converts data into a “signal” or indicator that represents the data without disclosing it or providing it. Signal sellers determine if they want share signals based upon buyer, price, and other rules, including limitations on signal use; signal buyers determine signal value based upon their objectives.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of delivering an audio and/or visual file over the air (wireless) from one or more servers to an electronic device, dependent or independent on an Internet connection, after inquiry and/or ordering said delivery from one or more of a dialed telephone number, dialing a toll-free number, and SMS and/or MMS message, comprising transmitting a compressed audio and/or visual file to said electronic device, and wherein said electronic device is effective to receive said compressed audio and/or visual file and playback said audio and/or visual content of said file on demand by the user.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for providing notifications and other communications to a customer based on the customer's proximity to a checkout register at a store. A mobile electronic device with mobile self checkout software thereon may record and analyze ambient noise to determine when a customer is in a checkout line as well as to track the customer's progress through the checkout line. The mobile self checkout software may present information to the customer according to the customer's position in the checkout line. The type and nature of the information presented to the customer may be changed according to the customer's distance from the checkout terminal as well as how quickly the customer is approaching the terminal.

Abstract: An electronic commerce (e-commerce) system may send advertisement emails to customers that are registered with the e-commerce system. The advertisement emails may include mailto hyperlinks. Each mailto hyperlink may be associated with a product that is being offered for sale, and each mailto hyperlink describes an email message that may be generated when that hyperlink is selected. When a mailto hyperlink is selected, the generated email message may include one or more parameters related to the product associated with the hyperlink, such as an identifier of the product. The generated email message may then be transmitted to the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may receive the message and, based on the parameters in the received message, execute a transaction to purchase the identified product on behalf of the customer.

Abstract: An electronic commerce (e-commerce) system may send advertisement emails to customers that are registered with the e-commerce system. The advertisement emails may include mailto hyperlinks. Each mailto hyperlink describes an email message that may be generated when that hyperlink is selected. When a mailto hyperlink is selected, the generated email message may include one or more parameters related to a donation that be made by the customer to a non-profit organization. For example, the generated email message may include a customer identifier, and/or one or more parameters that indicate the non-profit to which a donation should be made, and an amount to be donated. The generated email message may then be transmitted to the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may receive the message and, based on the parameters in the received message, communicate with a payment processing system to perform the donation indicated in the message.

Abstract: Embodiments employ knowledge from network searches to enrich features useable to describe an advertisement. Advertisement content may be segmented to generate key phrases that are rank ordered based on a phrase's pointwise mutual information value with Ad keywords and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) scores. These key phrases are employed to generate a plurality of query searches that are performed to generate a plurality of search result snippets. The snippets are then analyzed and ranked to identify query expansion features having a TF-IDF value over a given threshold. A subset of these ranked phrases are combined with the Ad keywords to be used to rebuild an Ad index for the given advertisement. When content is to be delivered to a client device, content keywords are compared to the Ad index to select an advertisement to be provided with the content to the client device.

Abstract: An electronic commerce (e-commerce) system may send advertisement emails to customers that are registered with the e-commerce system. The advertisement emails may include mailto hyperlinks. Each mailto hyperlink may be associated with a product that is being offered for sale, and each mailto hyperlink describes an email message that may be generated when that hyperlink is selected. When a mailto hyperlink is selected, the generated email message may include one or more parameters related to the product associated with the hyperlink, such as an identifier of the product. The generated email message may then be transmitted to the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may receive the message and, based on the parameters in the received message, execute a transaction to purchase the identified product on behalf of the customer.

Abstract: Methods and systems for preventing reception of licensed protected content prior to reception of a license, in a content rendering device wherein, the license corresponds to the licensed protected content and to the content rendering device. The license may be stored on the content rendering device in a database that may be searchable by a key. The license and the key may be associated within a file comprising the licensed protected content. A proxy computer may handle operations for the content rendering device, a DRM license server and a content server. Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) features regarding GetDeviceInfo, SendObjectInfo and SendObjectPropList operations may be utilized to activate DRM license protection for receiving the license prior to the corresponding license protected content. The content rendering device may reject transmission of and reject rendering the corresponding license protected content if the license is not resident in its database.

Abstract: A system and a method for collecting and using market data. The system includes a workstation, where at least one message is entered, a transmitter, where the at least one message is transmitted, a parser for parsing the at least one message, a data recognizer for identifying relevant information in the at least one message, a processor for extracting the relevant information and a communicator for communicating the relevant information.