Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for extracting an excerpt from a representative review of an item, such as an item available for purchase in an electronic commerce system. Attributes or categories used in reviews of an item may be identified and ranked according to consumer preference. Upon ranking the categories, an excerpt may be extracted from a review corresponding to a ranked one of the attributes or categories. The excerpt may be identified and extracted if a number of reviews for an item exceeds a threshold quantity as it may be impractical for a user to read every review written about the item.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for extracting an excerpt from a representative review of an item, such as an item available for purchase in an electronic commerce system. Attributes or categories used in reviews of an item may be identified and ranked according to consumer preference. Upon ranking the categories, an excerpt may be extracted from a review corresponding to a ranked one of the attributes or categories. The excerpt may be identified and extracted if a number of reviews for an item exceeds a threshold quantity as it may be impractical for a user to read every review written about the item.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for extracting a representative review excerpt from a plurality of reviews associated with an item available for purchase in an electronic commerce system. A review extractor identifies a lexicon appearing in the reviews and associates each of the reviews with at least one category where the categories are based on the identified common lexicon. The review extractor then ranks the categories according to a ranking of attributes specified by consumer preferences. Upon ranking the categories, the review extractor then extracts a representative review excerpt based on a correlation between the number of reviews associated with each category and the ranking of that category as indicated by the consumer preferences.

Abstract: Various embodiments of a system and method for tracking service requests are described. Embodiments may include call tree generation logic configured to receive multiple request identifiers associated with a respective one of multiple service requests. Each given request identifier may include an origin identifier, a depth value, and a request stack comprising one or more interaction identifiers. The call tree generation logic may also be configured to, based on multiple request identifiers that each include an origin identifier associated with a particular root request, generating a data structure that specifies a hierarchy of services called to fulfill that particular root request. Based on one or more of the interaction identifiers and one or more of the depth values, the generated data structure may specify for each given service of the hierarchy: a parent service that called the given service, and one or more child services called by the given service.

Abstract: A resource delivery network and method for distributing content in the network is disclosed herein. The network comprises a plurality of servers arranged in tiers and partitioned. Each server includes a resource store with a set of resources for distribution to a successive tier. Updates to each successive tier are provided by a pull-forward client on servers in the tier. This forward propagation mechanism maximizes resource availability at edge servers in the network. Resources transmitted to the edge tier servers may be transformed, combined, and rendered without taxing lower tier servers. Transformation and pre-rendering of data can be performed by low priority CPU tasks at each layer of the system.

Abstract: A resource delivery network and method for distributing content in the network is disclosed herein. The network comprises a plurality of servers arranged in tiers and partitioned. Each server includes a resource store with a set of resources for distribution to a successive tier. Updates to each successive tier are provided by a pull-forward client on servers in the tier. This forward propagation mechanism maximizes resource availability at edge servers in the network. Resources transmitted to the edge tier servers may be transformed, combined, and rendered without taxing lower tier servers. Transformation and pre-rendering of data can be performed by low priority CPU tasks at each layer of the system.

Abstract: Systems and methods provide a dynamic multi-tenant service-oriented architecture using customization code. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method provides a service using customization code. A server receives a call to a service from a client. The call includes one or more parameters. The method determines, based at least in part upon the one or more parameters, a customization code segment that corresponds to the control point identifier. The method further calls the determined customization code segment inline during execution of the service.

Abstract: In some implementations, a digital work provider may provide language model information related to a plurality of different contexts, such as a plurality of different digital works. For example, the language model information may include language model difference information identifying a plurality of sequences of one or more words in a digital work that have probabilities of occurrence that differ from probabilities of occurrence in a base language model by a threshold amount. The language model difference information corresponding to a particular context may be used in conjunction with the base language model to recognize an utterance made by a user of a user device. In some examples, the recognition is performed on the user device. In other examples, the utterance and associated context information are sent over a network to a recognition computing device that performs the recognition.

Abstract: Architectures and techniques are described to manage a site according to the content of a number of documents. In some cases, the number of documents may include a fleet state document that specifies aspects related to the site, such as performance metrics. Additionally, fleet creation documents may be created that indicate tasks to be executed in order to realize the aspects specified in the fleet state document. Further, task attribute maps specifying values for the attributes of each task upon execution may also be created. A workflow engine may execute the tasks of the fleet creation documents according to the values of the task attribute maps in order to configure computing devices of a fleet to realize the aspects of the fleet state document.

Abstract: Techniques described herein provide a self-service, run-time configuration store for interaction between a business owner and a Web service. For instance, the techniques may receive entity-specific configuration data from a business entity, may validate and store the entity-specific configuration data in a central location, and may receive a service-specific schema definition from a Web service. In response to a command to push the validated configuration data, or in response to a request to pull the validated configuration data, the techniques serve the entity-specific configuration data to configure the Web service for use with customers of the business entity.

Abstract: Disclosed are various embodiments for enabling customers to generate promotions. A specification of a promotion is obtained from a user. The promotion provides an incentive for ordering one or more items from a merchant. An electronic commerce application of the merchant is configured to offer the promotion. An account associated with the user is maintained such that a promotion expense is debited from the account relative to a number of orders to which the incentive is applied.

Abstract: Systems and methods for facilitating a decision-making process are disclosed. In one aspect of the present disclosure, in response to receiving a request to facilitate a decision making process, the decision-making agent participates in a communications thread where users are attempting to reach a decision regarding a business to frequent and/or an activity to partake. Since group activities are oftentimes scheduled via common communication threads, the decision-making agent can intervene in such communication threads, when requested, and assist the participating users in making a decision or making informed suggestions toward reaching an agreement.

Abstract: A resource distribution network and method for distributing content in the network. The network comprises a plurality of servers arranged in tiers and partitioned. Each server includes a resource store with a set of resources for distribution a next successive tier. Updates to each successive tier are provided by a pull-forward client on servers in the tier. This forward propagation mechanism maximizes resource availability at edge servers in the network. Resources transmitted to the edge tier servers may be transformed, combined and rendered without taxing lower tier servers. Transformation and pre-rendering of data can be performed by low priority CPU tasks at each layer of the system.

Abstract: Systems and methods provide a dynamic multi-tenant service-oriented architecture using customization code. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method provides a service using customization code. A server receives a call to a service from a client. The call includes one or more parameters. The method identifies a control point identifier that is associated with the service and determines, based on the one or more parameters, a mapping table storing data. The data identifies one or more customization code segments. The method loads the determined mapping table into a memory of the server and identifies one of the customization code segments that corresponds to the control point identifier. The method further loads the identified customization code segment into the memory of the server and calls the identified customization code segment inline during execution of the service. A response is transmitted to the client, based on the execution.

Abstract: Systems and methods for facilitating a decision-making process are disclosed. In one aspect of the present disclosure, in response to receiving a request to facilitate a decision making process, the decision-making agent participates in a communications thread where users are attempting to reach a decision regarding a business to frequent and/or an activity to partake. Since group activities are oftentimes scheduled via common communication threads, the decision-making agent can intervene in such communication threads, when requested, and assist the participating users in making a decision or making informed suggestions toward reaching an agreement.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for an intermediate party to facilitate an interactive telephony session between a customer and a sender of a request for the session. The sender can provide the request to the intermediate party via electronic mail. The request includes the information to initiate the interactive telephony session with the customer as well as the information to conduct that session. In one embodiment, the information to conduct the interactive telephony session includes a URL that provides an application in VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language). The intermediate party can initiate and conduct the session at the appropriate time and provide the sender with a status regarding the session. During the session, the customer can respond with voice or DTMF inputs to various prompts, thereby proceeding with a transaction and/or providing valuable feedback to the sender.

Abstract: A system and method are provided for an intermediate party to facilitate an interactive telephony session between a customer and a sender of a request for the session. The sender can provide the request to the intermediate party via electronic mail. The request includes the information to initiate the interactive telephony session with the customer as well as the information to conduct that session. In one embodiment, the information to conduct the interactive telephony session includes a URL that provides an application in VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language). The intermediate party can initiate and conduct the session at the appropriate time and provide the sender with a status regarding the session. During the session, the customer can respond with voice or DTMF inputs to various prompts, thereby proceeding with a transaction and/or providing valuable feedback to the sender.

Abstract: Declarative markup languages for speech applications such as VoiceXML are becoming more prevalent programming modalities for describing speech applications. Present declarative markup languages for speech applications model the running speech application as a state machine with the program specifying the transitions amongst the states. These languages can be extended to support a marker-semantic to more easily solve several problems that are otherwise not easily solved. In one embodiment, a partially overlapping target window is implemented using a mark semantic. Other uses include measurement of user listening time, detection and avoidance of errors, and better resumption of playback after a false barge in.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for linking a web based account to a phone based account is described. The method avoids the need to directly reveal account information, e.g. username/password, about one account to the provider of the other. The linking occurs on the web in one embodiment, with a user's browser being redirected from the web site to the web site of the provider of the voice service. The redirection URL will include account linking information. Once the user identifies herself to the web site of the provider of the voice service, the linking information can be stored in the user's phone account as a cookie. When the user access the voice service over the phone, her telephone identifying information can be used to identify her profile. When she visits the phone application corresponding to the web site, the cookie—now including linking information—can be passed to the application to identify the appropriate web account.

Abstract: Declarative markup languages for speech applications such as VoiceXML are becoming more prevalent programming modalities for describing speech applications. Present declarative markup languages for speech applications model the running speech application as a state machine with the program specifying the transitions amongst the states. These languages can be extended to support a marker-semantic to more easily solve several problems that are otherwise not easily solved. In one embodiment, a partially overlapping target window is implemented using a mark semantic. Other uses include measurement of user listening time, detection and avoidance of errors, and better resumption of playback after a false barge in.