Abstract: The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates exposing a software feature to increase productivity of performing a task. A software component can include a plurality of software features in which the software component can rank and assign a skill level to an entity utilizing at least one software feature. A smart help component can supply the entity with an informative tip based on the skill level rank, wherein the informative tip can assist in utilizing at least one software feature.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate enhanced experiences in connection with consumer shopping and/or vendor advertising. The architecture can receive an intent parameter that relates to a shopping objective of a shopper, associate the shopper with a profile, receive a set of advertisements from one or more vendors, and select a suitable advertisement for display to the shopper based upon the intent parameter and/or the profile. The architecture can also maintain a veracity score for the shopper that can indicate the shopper's tendencies to follow through with objectives listed in the intent parameters. The veracity score can be utilized, e.g., as a benchmark for bidding advertisers.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate auditing of a customer's possessions in a comprehensive manner. The architecture can facilitate the creation of a media archive of a customer's property, as well as an associated property list extracted based upon, e.g., examination of the archive. The property list can include an entry associated with an item of property and can be transmitted to subsidizing entities to offset the expenses associated with the creation of the archive and the property list.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate verification or feedback in association with consumer transactions. In particular the architecture can image a transaction receipt, translate the image into text-based data, and extract relevant transaction data there from. Such relevant transaction data can be saved to a data store maintained or supervised by the customer and/or transmitted to authorized components that can benefit from data related to transaction histories, verification, and/or feedback.

Abstract: The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate use of beneficial advertising opportunities in order to mitigate risks to a seller in connection with advertising expenses. The architecture can receive from the seller, inter alia, an indication of profits allocated to a host in exchange for advertising an item on behalf of the seller. Based upon the received data as well as information obtained from other sources, the architecture can determine a value associated with advertising for the seller. By ranking the values, the architecture can efficiently allocate advertising resources to the sellers that provide the highest value, while at the same time effectively ensure that the seller has little or no risk associated with the costs of advertising.

Abstract: Aggregating ownership of certain types of intellectual property and providing withdrawal privileges based at least in part on individual contribution to the common ownership is described herein. Particularly, electronic media can be received, parsed, aggregated with other media, and stored as a superset of media. The superset can be owned commonly by those who submitted media to the trust based in part on a number, type, value, and/or demand, or the like, of submitted media. Further, participants can withdraw media items from the trust based in part on submission of media to the trust. Accordingly, individuals can aggregate collections of digital media and share such media in a manner that complies with DRM restrictions and intellectual property rights of associated entities.

Abstract: An improved system for managing user inputs and z-order in a graphic user interface (GUI) environment is disclosed. A GUI element may include a plurality of keys corresponding to keys on a typical keyboard, and may serve as a replacement for the keyboard. The system permits an application having an input focus to retain the input focus while inputs are received in the GUI element, and even transient user interface elements (e.g., menus) will remain displayed in those applications after the user inputs are entered. Input pen and mouse events may first be forwarded to the input area application, which may remove the events from the normal circulation, preventing other applications from learning of the events, and then post those events to the input panel application separately.

Abstract: A system and process for capturing and implementing handwritten gestures is described. A user may use gestures to quickly command a pen-based input device to perform operations. Using the described embodiments, users may edit text or handwritten ink using a pen in a pen-based computing platform and have the edits affect the text or ink.

Abstract: Methods for communicating between an application and an ink divider object (which stores ink strokes to be divided into groups) may include: (a) issuing a divide request to the ink divider object, optionally by the application; (b) in response to the divide request, calling a divide method, which groups the stored ink strokes into one or more groupings of strokes having a first predetermined granularity (e.g., words, lines, paragraphs, sentences, drawings, etc.); and (c) making information regarding the one or more groupings of strokes available to the application. This “information” made available to the application may include, for example, the actual groupings of the strokes, the number of stroke groupings having the first predetermined granularity, machine generated text corresponding to the stroke groupings, or the like. The results of the divide method may be stored in an ink division result object.

Abstract: Association of ink information with image files is described. An image file is created and ink information is parsed and inserted into comment or arbitrary data fields of the image file. The image file with additional ink information may be used by both ink-enabled applications/environments and non-ink-enabled applications environments. The ink-enabled applications/environments may extract the ink information and use the original ink while the non-ink-enabled applications/environments may use the image information to permit the end user to see the visual representation of the ink.

Abstract: The present invention relates to interfacing with electronic ink. Ink is stored in a data structure that permits later retrieval by applications. The ink includes stroke information and may include property information. Through various programming interfaces, one may interact with the ink through methods and setting or retrieving properties. Other objects and collections may be used as well in conjunction with the ink objects.

Abstract: Described herein are one or more computer operating environments that include a standard set of web services via a communications network (e.g., the Internet) and a mechanism for extending the standard set of web services to execute one or more extended web services. Since these extended web services may be produced by an unconfirmed or untrusted source (e.g., a third-party software developer), the described computer operating environments isolate the extended web services from the standard set of web services and from the communication network. Furthermore, each extended web service is an isolated process (isoproc) with a limited ability to communicate with other services. In particular, each isoproc's ability to communicate is limited to only associated defined communication channels over which it has express permission to communicate.

Abstract: The present invention relates to interfacing with electronic ink. Ink is stored in a data structure that permits later retrieval by applications. The ink includes stroke information and may include property information. Through various programming interfaces, one may interact with the ink through methods and setting or retrieving properties. Other objects and collections may be used as well in conjunction with the ink objects.

Abstract: Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.

Abstract: Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.

Abstract: Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.

Abstract: Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.

Abstract: Provided is a single repository for capturing, connecting, sharing, and visualizing information based on a geographic location, for example. Provided is a schema, repository, index, and APIs for any information, place, entity, attribute, service or person that can be referenced geographically. A system to provide real time image data includes an input component that receives image data associated with a specific geographic area, a splitter component that splits the image data into at least two quadrants, and a storage component that stores at least a portion of the at least two quadrants. Also provides is on-line or real-time advertising based on a user's mapped location and/or a user preference.

Abstract: The safety of data stored across distributed storage resources may be dynamically monitored and indicated to the user. Monitoring may occur in real time and/or in response to changes in the stored data. The notification may be in the form of, e.g., a visual indicator that appears in the taskbar of a graphical user interface of an operating system. The indicator may be presented in a particular color or having some other visual property associated with the particular data safety state. In addition, the user may be provided with a convenient way of obtaining additional storage resources. Upon automatically detecting that storage is running low, the user may be presented with a user interface that offers the user a way to easily add to the existing storage. For example, the user may be directed to a predefined Internet web site that is known to offer such additional storage.

Abstract: A logical file system is described that distributes copies of files across various different physical storage resources yet provides a consistent view to the user of his or her data, regardless of which machine the user is accessing the files from, and even when the user's computer is offline. The distributed file system uses smart data redundancy to enable a virtually infinite amount of storage as long as additional storage resources are made available to the distributed file system. The result is a reliable storage system that does not necessarily tie the user's data to the user's particular computer. Instead, the user's data is associated with the user—for life—or for however long the user would like the data to be maintained, regardless of whether the user's computer or data storage components are replaced or destroyed.