Abstract: Recommending relevant content to a user based on personalized implicit and explicit activity signals aggregated for various content items is provided. A user is provided with situational awareness of content they may use by aggregating and displaying content that has been acted on by people the user works with most closely. Relationships between people and activities around content may be represented in a work graph which may be surfaced to the user. Content and relationship information pertaining to content may be surfaced to the user via a user interface. The user may query the content according to a variety of queries such as “popular with my colleagues,” “viewed by me” (i.e., the querying user), “worked on by me,” “most viewed,” and the like.

Abstract: A method comprising: accessing a record of past emails or IM messages between a first user and a plurality of other users; from amongst a set of entities (e.g. other users, user groups or folders), identifying a subset as preferred entities of the first user, wherein at least some of the preferred entities are identified automatically based on at least a frequency of interaction between the first user and each of the entities; independently of receiving any search queries, causing a graphical user interface to display a list of the preferred entities; and based on the first user selecting one of the entities from the list, causing the graphical user interface to display to the first user a filtered-down list of emails and IM messages, being some or all of the emails or IM messages communicated between the first user and the selected entity.

Abstract: Aggregation of content based on user-generated topics is provided. Users may associate one or more topics with content items stored across various workloads and repositories. A topic may be a word or phrase of the user's choice, and may be utilized for discoverability of information and aggregation of content items. Topics and content items associated with topics may be acted on (e.g., a user may add or delete topics to associate with a content item, associate or disassociate content items with a topic, embed a set of content items or a stream of content items associated with a topic into other experiences, follow topics, etc.). Content items identified as related to a specific topic may be automatically suggested as possible content items of interest to the user. Additionally, when a user follows a topic, the user may be notified of any changes that occur to the topic.

Abstract: Aggregation of content based on user-generated topics is provided. Users may associate one or more topics with content items stored across various workloads and repositories. A topic may be a word or phrase of the user's choice, and may be utilized for discoverability of information and aggregation of content items. Topics and content items associated with topics may be acted on (e.g., a user may add or delete topics to associate with a content item, associate or disassociate content items with a topic, embed a set of content items or a stream of content items associated with a topic into other experiences, follow topics, etc.). Content items identified as related to a specific topic may be automatically suggested as possible content items of interest to the user. Additionally, when a user follows a topic, the user may be notified of any changes that occur to the topic.

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: A personalized view of insights into social activity surrounding a content item is provided that may indicate to a user why a given piece of content may be interesting to him/her. A user's activities, as well as the activities of others (e.g., colleagues of the user) may be shown, including such items as a total number of views, comments, followers, and likes associated with the content item. The insights view may be personalized based on the user's relationships with other users in association with the content item. The user may learn through the personalized view who among his/her relationships have commented, edited, shared, or liked the content item, as well as, how many of the user's colleagues have viewed the content item. In addition, through a search function that may be applied to the view content, a user may learn about related content items based on the social insights.

Abstract: Generating and providing a content feed to a user that surfaces information items that are determined to be interesting or relevant to the user including content that is determined to be “distant” to the user is provided. Explicit user actions are used to discover peers who are not colleagues of the user (e.g., peers with whom the user does not share a close organizational relationship, peers with whom the user does not regularly communicate, etc.), but who the user indicates an interest in via his/her actions. These peers are categorized as elevated peers of the user, and information items associated with and trending around the elevated peers are surfaced to the user in a content feed.

Abstract: Generating and providing a content feed to a user that surfaces information items that are determined to be interesting or relevant to the user including content that is determined to be “distant” to the user is provided. Explicit user actions are used to discover peers who are not colleagues of the user (e.g., peers with whom the user does not share a close organizational relationship, peers with whom the user does not regularly communicate, etc.), but who the user indicates an interest in via his/her actions. These peers are categorized as elevated peers of the user, and information items associated with and trending around the elevated peers are surfaced to the user in a content feed.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for graph-driven authoring in productivity applications can include using context of a user of a productivity application, the existing content of the user's document or an expression input with a command for finding relevant documents, and a date/time to obtain a set of results of relevant documents. The relevant documents include documents associated with people known to the user that contain content relevant to the topic(s) and/or entities from the context and that are current.

Abstract: Documents can be deconstructed into component blocks for reuse in productivity applications using a document shredder. The document shredder can identify specific objects within a source document that are likely to be reused, replicate the objects, and store the objects, or component blocks, separate from the source document. The productivity application can access the objects and present these objects to a user of the productivity application for easy insertion into the user's document. The component blocks, or identified relevant objects can be from document sources of previously generated content from a same or different author than the user of a productivity application.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for graph-driven authoring in productivity applications can include using context of a user of a productivity application, the existing content of the user's document or an expression input with a command for finding relevant documents, and a date/time to obtain a set of results of relevant documents. The relevant documents include documents associated with people known to the user that contain content relevant to the topic(s) and/or entities from the context and that are current.

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: Generating and providing a content feed to a user that surfaces information items that are determined to be interesting or relevant to the user including content that is determined to be “distant” to the user is provided. Explicit user actions are used to discover peers who are not colleagues of the user (e.g., peers with whom the user does not share a close organizational relationship, peers with whom the user does not regularly communicate, etc.), but who the user indicates an interest in via his/her actions. These peers are categorized as elevated peers of the user, and information items associated with and trending around the elevated peers are surfaced to the user in a content feed.

Abstract: Techniques for managing a presentation of information in a gesture-based system, where gestures are derived from a user's body position or motion in the physical space, may enable a user to use gestures to control the manner in which the information is presented or to otherwise interact with the gesture-based system. A user may present information to an audience to an audience using gestures that control aspects of the system, or multiple users may work together using gestures to control aspects of the system. Thus, in an example embodiment, a single user can control the presentation of information to the audience via gestures. In another example embodiment, multiple participants can share control of the presentation via gestures captured by a capture device or otherwise interact with the system to control aspects of the presentation.

Abstract: When content is shared, the sharer of the content is identified, as are the audience members. An entry is generated in a data store that identifies the content, the sharer and the audience members. Content retrieval requests can then be processed against the data store to identify and return content.

Abstract: Recommending relevant content to a user based on personalized implicit and explicit activity signals aggregated for various content items is provided. A user is provided with situational awareness of content they may use by aggregating and displaying content that has been acted on by people the user works with most closely. Relationships between people and activities around content may be represented in a work graph which may be surfaced to the user. Content and relationship information pertaining to content may be surfaced to the user via a user interface. The user may query the content according to a variety of queries such as “popular with my colleagues,” “viewed by me” (i.e., the querying user), “worked on by me,” “most viewed,” and the like.

Abstract: Aggregation of content based on user-generated topics is provided. Users may associate one or more topics with content items stored across various workloads and repositories. A topic may be a word or phrase of the user's choice, and may be utilized for discoverability of information and aggregation of content items. Topics and content items associated with topics may be acted on (e.g., a user may add or delete topics to associate with a content item, associate or disassociate content items with a topic, embed a set of content items or a stream of content items associated with a topic into other experiences, follow topics, etc.). Content items identified as related to a specific topic may be automatically suggested as possible content items of interest to the user. Additionally, when a user follows a topic, the user may be notified of any changes that occur to the topic.

Abstract: A personalized view of insights into social activity surrounding a content item is provided that may indicate to a user why a given piece of content may be interesting to him/her. A user's activities, as well as the activities of others (e.g., colleagues of the user) may be shown, including such items as a total number of views, comments, followers, and likes associated with the content item. The insights view may be personalized based on the user's relationships with other users in association with the content item. The user may learn through the personalized view who among his/her relationships have commented, edited, shared, or liked the content item, as well as, how many of the user's colleagues have viewed the content item. In addition, through a search function that may be applied to the view content, a user may learn about related content items based on the social insights.

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.