Abstract: Online retailers may operate one or more services configured to detect requests generated by automated agents. A CAPTCHA may be transmitted in response to requests generated by automated agents. The CAPTCHAs may include queries requesting market data corresponding to items offered for sale on an electronic commerce website operated by the online retailer. The response to the queries may be stored by one or more services of the online retailer and used as market data for the electronic commerce website. The market data may be used to notify customers about one or more items offered for sale on the electronic commerce website.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and media for dynamically detecting mobile environment information are provided.

Abstract: Tiered advertisement bidding is disclosed. One or more quality metrics associated with a user profile are determined. An advertisement bid is selected from a plurality of tiered bids based at least in part on the determined quality metrics. Determining the quality metrics can include determining a conversion assessment. Determining the quality metric can also include determining whether a need associated with a user profile has been met for a category. In some cases, persona detection is performed with respect to the user profile.

Abstract: Techniques are generally described that relate to a method and system for selecting an advertisement for a subscriber of a multi-platform service operating over a transmission medium. An advertisement computer presents advertisements to the subscriber over a platform included in the multiplatform service. Each of the advertisements is associated with a geographic location. The advertisement computer may receive positive responses to the presentment of the plurality of advertisements and define a target geographic area. A plurality of local advertisement responses from the positive responses are selected by the advertisement computer. Each local advertisement response is associated with a location inside the defined target geographic area. The advertisement computer defines a positive response area based on the plurality of local advertisement responses and selects a first new advertisement.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a consumer comparative pricing data from at least two merchants is discussed. In one aspect of the invention a customer queries a database containing time and location specific pricing data for competitors of a first merchant. If the query shows that the customer could have purchased the same item or items for a lower price at a competitor, the first merchant awards the customer an on-line credit that is redeemable at the merchant. In another aspect, a consumer uploads an image of a competitor's receipt. The item specific data on the receipt is converted to UPC codes on an item-by-item basis. These UPC codes are then compared against the merchant's pricing database and the consumer is provided data set comparing the prices the consumer paid to the prices the consumer would have paid had the consumer shopped at the merchant.

Abstract: A marketing platform and corresponding methods for providing incentive offers to customers are provided. An example method may commence with streaming content to a customer. The content may be provided by a content provider. The method may continue with rendering an incentive offer based on customer data in response to an access of the content by the customer via a customer device. The incentive offer may be provided by a marketer. The incentive offer may be associated with a plurality of choices designed to entice the customer to review the incentive offer in exchange for discounted or free access to the content. The method may further include receiving, from the customer, a selection of at least one of the plurality of choices. The method may continue with modifying the customer data based on the selection. Future incentive offers may be based on the modified customer data.

Abstract: Methods and systems are described for providing advertising services in a predictive manner to a device with an advertising exchange. In one embodiment, a system receives a configuration call from a device upon initiation of a software application and associated advertising services software on the device. The system generates, prior to a predicted ad play event on the device, a predictive ad request for obtaining at least one advertisement (ad) from at least one of an ad store and an advertising exchange prior to the predicted ad play event. The at least one ad is stored on the device prior to an actual ad play event. The system determines, just prior to the actual ad play event, a bandwidth for a connection between the device and the system. The system determines if any ad source includes at least one ad that is more likely to convert or cause user interaction than the ads stored on the device based on the bandwidth for the connection between the device and the system.

Abstract: Methods, systems and computer readable media for securing mDNS in enterprise networks are described. In some implementations, the method can include authorizing one or more service advertisements and validating one or more service advertisements. The method can also include adding one or more information details to a record associated with an advertised service.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for providing an alternative payment platform, including method and systems for providing a platform for presenting an alternate offer to a user who is engaged with a primary offer and receiving an indication of the user's engagement with the alternate offer, wherein the user's engagement with the alternate offer serves as an alternative form of payment for an item associated with the primary offer. Such methods and systems may further include methods and systems for selecting one or more alternate offers engagement with which serves as an alternative form of payment for an item associated with a primary offer, presenting the selected alternate payment offers to a user, receiving an indication of engagement with at least one of the alternate offers, receiving payment in exchange for presenting the accepted offer and providing payment to the offeror of the primary offer.

Abstract: A method for managing loyalty groups at point-of-sale (POS) accesses is discussed. The method includes determining that a user account is a member of a loyalty group, responsive to determining that a user device of the user account is used at merchant's POS. The method includes determining a loyalty membership type for the user account that indicates whether user details of the user account are accessible by the merchant. The method includes determining another user account from the loyalty group, the loyalty membership type further indicating whether the user details are accessible by the another user account. The method includes determining whether the loyalty membership type for the user account can be upgraded, and if so, providing communication to the user device to cause a user interface of the user device to display a prompt for providing access to additional user details to upgrade the loyalty membership type.

Abstract: A computing device selects an in-store shopper to fulfill an order placed by a remote buyer. In particular, the computing device receives a message via a communications network. This message comprises a purchase order identifying an item offered for sale at a retail store. The computing device identifies a plurality of people physically located at the retail store and selects, from the plurality of people, a shopper to retrieve the item from the retail store and deliver the item to a delivery location. In particular, selecting the shopper is based on a purchase price and corresponding procurement cost of the item. The computing device transmits an order fulfillment request to a communications device associated with the shopper. The order fulfillment request identifies the item.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for providing auto-replenishment of an inventory of promotions. Auto-replenishment amounts and dates may be determined based on a variety of factors including current inventory, outstanding promotions, redemption ratios and redemption rates. Redemption ratios and redemption rates may be characterized based on provider information, consumer information, and/or promotion information. Auto-replenishment may result in a smoothed redemption curve and optimal impact to the provider.

Abstract: An advertisement distribution device according to the present application includes a distribution unit. The distribution unit distributes advertising content while switching an advertisement distribution process in accordance with a predetermined target figure within the range an advertisement listing fee paid to a provider of a Web page on which the advertising content is placed reaches the predetermined target figure.

Abstract: A method and system are proposed for presenting information relating to a product to a potential customer for the product, upon the user scanning a 2D barcode using a mobile device. The information is presented to the customer as a story generated by an agent-based storytelling system. The story is personalized to the customer using online multimedia. It can be used to conduct mobile branding and advertisement, and is able thereby to augment offline shopping with online shopping experience.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a storage unit, a management unit that acquires attributes of communication apparatuses from a plurality of the communication apparatuses and stores identifiers of the communication apparatuses and the attributes in the storage unit in association with each other as communication apparatus information, and a selection unit that selects a distributor apparatus that is the communication apparatus distributing a content to the other communication apparatuses as a radio signal based on the communication apparatus information are included.

Abstract: An online system selects advertisements for presentation in various advertisement slots to maximize the total value to the online system for advertisement presentation. Candidate advertisements for presentation to a user are identified and types of advertisements are associated with various advertisement slots. For example, types of advertisements are associated with advertisement slots based on values for presenting various types of advertisements in different advertisement slots and one or more ad placement rules. Candidate advertisements having an advertisement type associated with each advertisement slot are identified, and an expected value of various placements of the candidate advertisements having a type corresponding to advertisement slots is determined. Based on the expected values, a placement of candidate advertisements in advertisement slots is selected and presented to a user.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system and method for providing benefits based on MO service, and there is provided a benefit providing system based on MO service, the system including: a service apparatus for identifying, if an event participation message including a Message Oriented (MO) identification is received, broadcast contents corresponding to the MO identification, setting recommended benefit information based on the identified broadcast contents or corresponding user information, and creating a response message including a service connection address capable of connecting to the set recommended benefit information.

Abstract: A method to process a reward item. The method includes detecting, by a computer processor and from a networked application associated with a product, a user using the networked application to access a pre-determined service, wherein the detecting comprises receiving a product identifier of the product that is acquired by the user, determining, by the computer processor and in response to detecting the user accessing the pre-determined service, the reward item offered by a reward program associated with acquiring the product by the user, and facilitating, by the computer processor and in response to the determining, delivery of the reward item to the user.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for generating, by an adaptive wizard, a customized gamification system to a customer. The gamification system is a system of events and milestones that provides a means by which the customer can recognize and award desired behavior patterns in order to increase engagement with users. The adaptive wizard generates the gamification system based on customer input and/or observed user behavior on a customer website. The adaptive wizard receives the input and determines content of the gamification system. The adaptive wizard processes the inputs and develops the gamification system for implementation by the customer to assist in achieving customer enterprise goals.

Abstract: In various example embodiments, a system and method for offering and billing advertisement opportunities are provided. In example embodiments, an advertisement opportunity in media to be communicated to a user device associated with a viewer is identified. Attributes of the advertisement opportunity are determined. Based on these attributes, a value to assign to the advertisement opportunity is determined. The advertisement opportunity is offered to a potential advertiser based on the assigned value determined using the attributes of the advertisement opportunity.