Abstract: Features are disclosed for analyzing requests for network accessible content, including but not limited to web pages, to determine which topics and other characteristics are popular or are gaining in popularity (“trending”). Content items or sources may be profiled to determine characteristics that two or more content items or sources may have in common. Content requests from multiple client devices may be tracked and analyzed to determine the trending or popular characteristics. Data feeds or reports regarding the summarized content requests may be generated and distributed to content servers and other entities. The data feeds may be used to tailor content, such as by highlighting or featuring content associated with the most-requested content characteristics, or utilizing demographic data to tailor content for different users.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for analyzing requests for network accessible content, including but not limited to web pages, to determine which topics and other characteristics are popular or are gaining in popularity (“trending”). Content items or sources may be profiled to determine characteristics that two or more content items or sources may have in common. Content requests from multiple client devices may be tracked and analyzed to determine the trending or popular characteristics. Data feeds or reports regarding the summarized content requests may be generated and distributed to content servers, advertisers, and other entities. The data feeds may be used to tailor content, such as by highlighting or featuring content associated with the most-requested content characteristics, or utilizing demographic data to tailor content for different users.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for detecting meaningful updates to network accessible content, including but not limited to web pages. The portion or portions of content that are meaningful can be automatically determined based on a previously defined content profile, an analysis of user interactions with the content, algorithms and automated content analysis techniques, some combination thereof, or other techniques. Content can be monitored and determinations can be made regarding whether and to what extent the content has changed. Client devices or users thereof may be notified of detected meaningful content updates. Notifications can include updated portions of the content. The updated content may be displayed to the user on a client device, and visual treatments may be applied to the updated portions to draw the users' attention to the presence and substance of the updates.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for determining a sequence of content, including but not limited to web pages, that a user of a client device is likely to request or otherwise find interesting based on previous content requests (of that user and/or other users), and to making the sequence of content available for viewing on the client device. The identified pattern may later be used as a basis to prefetch the content, and to make the sequence of prefetched content available on the client device as a “suggested browsing session.” The suggested browsing session may include a sequence of content pages typically requested by the user, and/or may include linked pages and recommendations that the user is otherwise likely to find interesting.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for enabling users to select portions of content pages, including predefined portions and arbitrarily defined portions, for which to receive update notifications or which to share with other users. Notifications regarding updates to the selected portions may be displayed to the user in a notification overlay. The notification overlay may be at least partially transparent so as to allow users to see content on a content page displayed beneath the overlay. The notification overlay may be displayed persistently as the user navigates or otherwise transitions from page to page. Users may also access shared, predefined, and context-sensitive notification overlays created by other users, entities, or automated processes.

Abstract: A connection-aggregation proxy service disclosed in various embodiments receives connection requests from a plurality of local initiating services, where the connection requests are not targeted at the connection-aggregation proxy service. The connection-aggregation proxy service establishes connections with the local initiating services, receives packets over those connections, and transmits the packets across the same connection when the packets are for the same external target. A local connection-aggregation proxy service in one example executes on the same physical computing device as the local initiating services. A gateway connection-aggregation proxy service in another example resides at a network edge between the local initiating services and the external target that the network local initiating services are requesting.

Abstract: Various features are disclosed for generating and presenting users with resource metadata regarding the usefulness or predicted usefulness of particular pages, sites, and/or other network resources. The metadata may be based partly or wholly on the monitored browsing behaviors of many users, including behaviors reflective of whether particular resources were useful to the users. The metadata may, in some cases, be personalized for particular users based, for example, on their browsing environments or contexts. For example, the metadata presented to a smartphone user regarding a particular link may reflect a determination of whether the target resource is well suited for display on smartphones generally or on the user's particular model of smartphone.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for detecting meaningful updates to network accessible content, including but not limited to web pages. The portion or portions of content that are meaningful can be automatically determined based on a previously defined content profile, an analysis of user interactions with the content, algorithms and automated content analysis techniques, some combination thereof, or other techniques. Content can be monitored and determinations can be made regarding whether and to what extent the content has changed. Client devices or users thereof may be notified of detected meaningful content updates. Notifications can include updated portions of the content. The updated content may be displayed to the user on a client device, and visual treatments may be applied to the updated portions to draw the users' attention to the presence and substance of the updates.

Abstract: Features are disclosed for detecting meaningful updates to network accessible content, including but not limited to web pages. The portion or portions of content that are meaningful can be automatically determined based on a previously defined content profile, an analysis of user interactions with the content, algorithms and automated content analysis techniques, some combination thereof, or other techniques. Content can be monitored and determinations can be made regarding whether and to what extent the content has changed. Client devices or users thereof may be notified of detected meaningful content updates. Notifications can include updated portions of the content. The updated content may be displayed to the user on a client device, and visual treatments may be applied to the updated portions to draw the users' attention to the presence and substance of the updates.

Abstract: An embodiment of the disclosed system provides the user of a computing device with information concerning the expected usefulness of an item, such as a hyperlink, within a network resource, such as a search result webpage, with the expected usefulness information based at least in part on an attribute of the user's computing device. For example, the system may provide the user with information identifying a particular website as poorly suited for the user's device, based on data that the system collected identifying an aggregate bounce-back rate from computing devices with a similar attribute to the user's computing device.

Abstract: Various embodiments of a system and method for allocating labor to units processed in a materials handling facility are described. Embodiments may include a labor allocation system configured to receive information associated with a materials handling process that includes handling multiple units. For each unit, such information may indicate a respective pre-handling time period and a respective post-handling time period. The labor allocation system may determine a measure of variability of the pre-handling time periods associated with the units. The labor allocation system may also determine a measure of variability of the post-handling time periods. In response to determining that one of the measures of variability is less than the other, the labor allocation system may determine that each time period associated with the lesser measure of variability is representative of a quantity of labor expended to process a respective unit in accordance with the materials handling process.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating access of users to tasks that are available to be performed, such as via a task exchange system that serves as an intermediary to facilitate performance by some task performer users of tasks supplied by other task requester users. The techniques may include automatically providing a particular group of task performer users with access to a supply of available tasks that are appropriate for those task performer users, such as based on an aggregate probability or other likelihood measure that the task performer users as a group will collectively accept to perform those tasks in a specified manner. More generally, the affinity and/or appropriateness of a group of users to perform one or more tasks may be based on various information related to the users, including past task performance behavior of those users, and/or qualifications or more general reputational aspects of those users.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing enhanced access to stored data and related functionality, such as data stored by a system across multiple alternative storage partitions. At least some of the stored data may be specific to particular users who interact with the system, such as for users to perform tasks supplied by other users. The enhanced data access techniques may include storing at least a subset of each user's associated data on a single storage partition, and then efficiently identifying the storage partition corresponding to a user so that requests from that user may be handled by a computing node associated with that corresponding storage partition. Furthermore, additional data access enhancement techniques may relate to initially identifying an appropriate storage partition for a user and/or for migrating existing user data to a new partition identified as being appropriate for a user.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing enhanced access to stored data and related functionality, such as data stored by a system across multiple alternative storage partitions. At least some of the stored data may be specific to particular users who interact with the system, such as for users to perform tasks supplied by other users. The enhanced data access techniques may include storing at least a subset of each user's associated data on a single storage partition, and then efficiently identifying the storage partition corresponding to a user so that requests from that user may be handled by a computing node associated with that corresponding storage partition. Furthermore, additional data access enhancement techniques may relate to initially identifying an appropriate storage partition for a user and/or for migrating existing user data to a new partition identified as being appropriate for a user.