Abstract: A badge may be assigned to a person, where the badge represents a characteristic or recurrent behavior of the person. A query may be associated with a badge, and the query may be continually used in a search request in combination with the person's context, thereby allowing the person to be continually provided with fresh results that may be relevant to the person's durable characteristics and current context. In one example, the person carries a handheld device, and the results are presented to the user on the user's desktop or lock screen. The act of providing the results may be triggered in various ways, such as movement of the person who carries the device, or the availability of sufficiently high-quality results.

Abstract: A device may have a plurality of displays, such as a high-power display and a low-power display. The low-power display may be used to display various types of information. Some examples of information that may be displayed on the low-power display include personal customizations of the device (e.g., skins, tattoos, text or graphics, etc.), a battery meter, a signal strength meter, the date and time, or any other type of information. In one example, the device has a separate processor that drives the low-power display, so that the low-power display can be used while the device is in sleep mode or off. In another example, an application that runs on the device's regular processor uses the high- and low-power displays cooperatively to display output from an application. The low-power display can be wrapped around the edges and/or corners of the device, to make effective use of the device's surface area.

Abstract: An image matching system is described for finding reference images that match a query image. The image matching system performs this operation in expeditious fashion by restricting the matching to a bounding region; the bounding region, in turn, may be associated with a location at which the query image may have been captured. In addition, the image matching system provides various mechanisms that expedite adding new reference images to an image index, to thereby provide a re-enforced learning mechanism of the image matching system.

Abstract: Content may be collected, annotated, and propagated in a unified process. In one example, a mobile device such as a smart phone is used to collect information. The information may be text, video, audio, etc. The information may be sent to a reaction service, which may return an annotation of the information. The annotation may be attached to the information to create an annotated document. The annotated document may be communicated to other users. Additionally, the annotated document may be stored in a way that associated the annotated document with the user who created or captured the information. The ability to capture information, obtain annotations to the information, and propagate the annotated information may facilitate the creation of social media, such as social network postings or online photo albums.

Abstract: An authoring system on a mobile device (or other type of device) may help a user to author a message based on context available on the device. Context data comes to exist on the device in some manner. For example, the context may contain the results of a search that a user has performed on the device. A message may be proposed based on the search query and/or the result—e.g., if a user searches for “Edinburgh,” the authoring system may propose the message “Username likes Edinburgh” or “Username is learning about Edinburgh.” The authoring system may allow the user to change the message and/or to add additional content and/or links to the message. The user may then to send the message over some channel such as e-mail, a social network, a microblogging site, etc.

Abstract: A badge may be assigned to a person, where the badge represents a characteristic or recurrent behavior of the person. A query may be associated with a badge, and the query may be continually used in a search request in combination with the person's context, thereby allowing the person to be continually provided with fresh results that may be relevant to the person's durable characteristics and current context. In one example, the person carries a handheld device, and the results are presented to the user on the user's desktop or lock screen. The act of providing the results may be triggered in various ways, such as movement of the person who carries the device, or the availability of sufficiently high-quality results.

Abstract: An image matching system is described for finding reference images which match a query image. The image matching system performs this operation in expeditious fashion by restricting the matching to a bounding region; the bounding region, in turn, may be associated with a location at which the query image may have been captured. In addition, the image matching system provides various mechanisms that expedite adding new reference images to an image index, to thereby provide a re-enforced learning mechanism of the image matching system.

Abstract: A device may have a plurality of displays, such as a high-power display and a low-power display. The low-power display may be used to display various types of information. Some examples of information that may be displayed on the low-power display include personal customizations of the device (e.g., skins, tattoos, text or graphics, etc.), a battery meter, a signal strength meter, the date and time, or any other type of information. In one example, the device has a separate processor that drives the low-power display, so that the low-power display can be used while the device is in sleep mode or off. In another example, an application that runs on the device's regular processor uses the high- and low-power displays cooperatively to display output from an application. The low-power display can be wrapped around the edges and/or corners of the device, to make effective use of the device's surface area.

Abstract: State information about user may be used to affect the way in which an application or service behaves with respect to that user. In one example, inferences about the user are drawn based on user-specific and/or non-user-specific information. Examples of user-specific information may include the user's location, searches the user has performed, purchases the user has made, etc. Non-user-specific information may include bus schedules, movie schedules, maps, etc. Inferences about the user's state may be drawn from this information. Types of state information include flags (relatively transient state information), patterns (recurring state information), and badges (relatively durable state information). State information may be made transparent to the user, and the user may be given a chance to affirm or reject state information that has been inferred about that user.

Abstract: Content may be authored on a device using various types of information, and may be propagated at various different fidelities. In one example, a user enters or captures information on a mobile device, such as a smart phone. The entered and/or captured information may be sent to a remote service, which provides information based on the entered and/or captured data. An application on the device then allows the user of the device to author rich content based on the entered and/or captured data, and based on the information returned from the service. The application may allow the user to include text, photos, video, audio, links, or any other type of content. The entire content object that the user creates may be stored in a structured form, and may be propagated at various different fidelities (e.g., text only, etc.) in order to accommodate the limitations of the propagation channel.

Abstract: An authoring system on a mobile device (or other type of device) may help a user to author a message based on context available on the device. Context data comes to exist on the device in some manner. For example, the context may contain the results of a search that a user has performed on the device. A message may be proposed based on the search query and/or the result—e.g., if a user searches for “Edinburgh,” the authoring system may propose the message “Username likes Edinburgh” or “Username is learning about Edinburgh.” The authoring system may allow the user to change the message and/or to add additional content and/or links to the message. The user may then to send the message over some channel such as e-mail, a social network, a microblogging site, etc.

Abstract: Content may be collected, annotated, and propagated in a unified process. In one example, a mobile device such as a smart phone is used to collect information. The information may be text, video, audio, etc. The information may be sent to a reaction service, which may return an annotation of the information. The annotation may be attached to the information to create an annotated document. The annotated document may be communicated to other users. Additionally, the annotated document may be stored in a way that associated the annotated document with the user who created or captured the information. The ability to capture information, obtain annotations to the information, and propagate the annotated information may facilitate the creation of social media, such as social network postings or online photo albums.

Abstract: Techniques are described to provision and manage conference websites. In one or more implementations, a website is provided for each of a plurality of conference attendees. Each of the websites includes a respective copy of materials related to a conference, which may be modifiable by respective conference attendees.