Abstract: A subject user may selectively monitor one or more other users in an online environment. In one embodiment, a subject user may access a directory of available online users that are located within a particular predefined portion of the online environment. The order of the available online users in the directory may be based on at least one of the subject user's preferences and profile data. The subject user may then select a subset of the available online users from this directory. The subject user may receive periodically-updated information regarding the selected subset of available online users. In one embodiment, this may include information on the selected user(s) location, profile, status and/or actions.

Abstract: A subject user may be automatically matched to one or more other users in an online resource-limited environment. In one embodiment, a multi-user online environment is accessed using a resource-limited device operated by the subject user. A pool of candidates from the available online users may then be generated based on their proximity in the online environment to the subject user. The various candidates within this pool may then be ranked based on a comparison of user profile matching criteria. Candidates may then be selectively added to the subject user's interaction group, which in one embodiment represents the set of online users which will be “seen” or otherwise available to the subject user for possible interaction.

Abstract: Methods and systems are described for real time, targeted, contextual ad serving in a multilingual online environment. Upon receiving a request for serving an ad to a non-English Web site, an ad server obtains non-English content from the particular Web site page and has it translated to English. The English version of the content is input to an English language classifier, which has been developed extensively and has voluminous training sets for numerous topics. The results from the classification are translated to the non-English language and used by the ad server to select an appropriate contextual, targeted ad to be delivered to the non-English Web site. Special techniques are used in the classification process wherein classification results, which may be a list of topics with associated relevancy weights, are better suited for selecting a contextual ad in real time for the non-English Web site.

Abstract: A method comprising receiving a write request; adding the write request to a batch of substantially contiguous disk writes; determining to write the batch of substantially contiguous disk writes to a non-volatile memory; writing the batch of substantially contiguous disk writes to the non-volatile memory; sending a confirmation of writing the batch of substantially contiguous disk writes; receiving a confirmation of the confirmation of writing; and clearing the batch of substantially contiguous disk writes.