Abstract: Methods and systems for identifying communities based on information propagation data are described. One of the methods includes receiving a social graph, which includes nodes and relationships between the nodes. The method further includes receiving a number of the communities to find within the social graph, receiving data regarding propagation of information between the nodes, and calculating a probability of formation of a link between a first one of the nodes and a second one of the nodes based on the data. The link provides a direction of flow of media between the first and second nodes. The method includes calculating a probability that media will be accessed by the second node based on the data. One of the communities includes the first node, the second node, and the link.

Abstract: Techniques are described herein for enhancing the ranking products using purchase day based time windows. A purchase day based time window is a time window that is defined to include purchase days selected from a series of consecutive days. A purchase day is a day on which a product associated with the time window is purchased. The series of consecutive days includes the purchase days intermixed with non-purchase day(s). A non-purchase day is a day on which the product associated with the time window is not purchased. The purchase day based time window is further defined to not include the non-purchase day(s).

Abstract: A full screen advertisement is embedded within the content of a webpage that comprises a plurality of portions that are configured to form fit the display so that each portion of the webpage extends between the four edges of the display. The advertisement is also response as it reshapes to form fit the resolution of the output device. The advertisement also includes a gated content section that can be unlocked through a product purchase or through a social tie-in.

Abstract: The disclosure describes systems and methods for modeling relationships between entities on a network using data collected from a plurality of communication channels including social data, spatial data, temporal data and logical data within a W4 Network. The W4 Network personalizes and automates sorting, filtering and processing of W4COMN communications delivered or requested to be delivered using personalized value-based ranking and encoding of data, which is modeled from the point-of-view (POV) of any specific user, topic or node in the W4 Distributed graph. POV modeling supplies comparative value services to users which entails individuated data models to be aggregated and used in customization and personalization forecasting for each user and their associated data management needs.

Abstract: The systems and methods described create a mathematical representation of each of the media objects for which user ratings are known. The mathematical representations take into account the subjective rating value assigned by a user to the respective media object and the user that assigned the rating value. The media object with the mathematical representation closest to that of the seed media object is then selected as the most similar media object to the seed media object. In an embodiment, the mathematical representation is a vector representation in which each user is a different dimension and each user's rating value is the magnitude of the vector in that dimension. Similarity between two songs is determined by identifying the closest vectors to that of the seed song. Closeness may be determined by subtracting or by calculating the dot product of each of the vectors with that of the seed media object.

Abstract: Systems and methods have been developed for displaying contextually relevant advertisements to users as media objects are being rendered. One or more data sources with contextual information for different portions of each media object are maintained. From this contextual information, keywords may be generated and used to locate contextually-related advertisements. The advertisements are selected based on contextual information about the media object in order to match or otherwise be contextually relevant with the media content being rendered. As the subject matter of the media object changes during rendering, different advertisements related to the new context are provided that replace the prior advertisement. The advertisements are displayed in an area that could be used for other purposes when the rendering device is not rendering media objects.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product discover relationships among items and recommend items based on the discovered relationships. The recommendations provided by the present invention are based on user profiles that take into account actual preferences of users, without requiring users to complete questionnaires. An improved binomial log likelihood ratio analysis technique is applied, to reduce adverse effects of overstatement of coincidence and predominance of best sellers. The invention may be used, for example, to generate track lists for a personalized radio station.

Abstract: A method and system for tracking sales leads includes receiving, with a processor of a lead clearing house server and over a network, messages that include personal lead information encrypted with a one-way hash algorithm, each message comprising at least one encrypted lead. The processor may store the received encrypted leads in memory of the server in relation to a log containing activity history with relation to respective encrypted leads. The processor may compare the encrypted personal lead information of the stored encrypted leads with personal lead information of received encrypted leads. The processor may update the log of respective encrypted leads responsive to identifying a match between personal lead information of a received and a stored encrypted lead. The processor may communicate, over the network to a participant that sent the matching encrypted lead, a status based on the updated log related to the matching encrypted lead.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention are directed to using image data and contextual data to determine information about a scene, based on one or more previously obtained images. Contextual data, such location of image capture, can be used to determine previously obtained images related to the contextual data and other location-related information, such as billboard locations. With even low resolution devices, such as cell phone, image attributes, such as a histogram or optically recognized characters, can be compared between the previously obtained images and the newly captured image. Attributes matching within a predefined threshold indicate matching images. Information on the content of matching previously obtained images can be provided back to a user who captured the new image. User profile data can refine the content information. The content information can also be used as search terms for additional searching or other processing.

Abstract: The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for trust propagation. The method according to one embodiment comprises calculating a first feature vector for a first user, calculating a second feature for a second user and comparing the first feature vector with the second feature vector to calculate a similarity value. A determination is made as to whether the similarity value falls within a threshold. If the similarity value falls within the threshold, a relationship is recorded between the first user and the second user in a first user profile and a second user profile.

Abstract: A computer implemented method can determine validity of web-based interactions. Web-based interaction data relating to a web-based interaction may be accessed. The web-based interaction data may include aggregate measure data that may include a number of unique queries per web-based session. The validity of the web-based interaction may be determined based on the aggregate measure data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus enabling inter-widget communication and control uses a central server to receive selected widgets and settings associated with at least one widget, wherein the received settings are used to at least partly determine the settings of the other selected widgets according to a pre-defined relationship between or among the widgets.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer program products for generating search results comprising web documents with associated expert information. One embodiment of a method for generating such search results includes receiving one or more search queries, selecting one of the one or more search queries, determining one or more categories of web documents responsive to the selected search query and crawling a web graph of linked web documents to identify one or more web documents tagged as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query. The method further includes generating a result set of the one or more web documents identified as within the one or more categories responsive to the selected search query, ranking the result set and generating a list of ranked search results responsive to the selected search.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described to protect personal information by decoupling it from user identity. According to specific embodiments, this is accomplished by associating each user with an anonymous token that is decoupled from the user's identity. Personal information (e.g., a user's physical or geographic location) is stored in association with this anonymous token, with no apparent connection to the user. Those allowed to access the personal information—including the owner himself—are granted the ability through a variety of mechanisms to connect the anonymous token back to the owner. The personal information can then be retrieved by locating the data stored in association with the anonymous token in the data store.

Abstract: System and method for presenting geolocated relevance-based content. In one example, presence of a user is detected at a location. A plurality of search queries associated with the location are obtained. At least one search query is identified from the plurality of search queries based on information associated with the user. A search result is then generated based on the at least one identified search query to the user.

Abstract: A network device, method, and mobile device are directed towards enabling a mobile device user to archive a text message threaded conversation with another conversation participant. text messages sent from the mobile device may be replicated by a server component, whether the text message is a reply message or an incoming message. The replicated text message may then be sent to an identified personal computing device's network-based messaging archive. In one embodiment, the messaging archive may be an outbox archive for text messages. As described, a text message being sent to the mobile device from the other conversation participant may also be replicated and archived in a network-based inbox archive for text messages on the identified personal computing device. In one embodiment, the archived text messages may be displayed to the user on the personal computing devices as threaded conversations.

Abstract: An embodiment is provided wherein a search query is received from a user. It may then be determined if the search query would ordinarily result in a results page having no sponsored search advertising. If the search would ordinarily result in a results page having no sponsored search advertising, then advertising that would ordinarily be displayed in response to each of two or more search terms making up the search query individually may be aggregated. Then one or more advertisements may be selected from the aggregated advertising. Then the selected advertisements may be displayed on a results page responsive to the search query.

Abstract: An audio fingerprint is extracted from an audio sample, where the fingerprint contains information that is characteristic of the content in the sample. The fingerprint may be generated by computing an energy spectrum for the audio sample, resampling the energy spectrum logarithmically in the time dimension, transforming the resampled energy spectrum to produce a series of feature vectors, and computing the fingerprint using differential coding of the feature vectors. The generated fingerprint can be compared to a set of reference fingerprints in a database to identify the original audio content.

Abstract: Facilitating browser access to cached content available from a peer to peer network by receiving a request for content from a content server, receiving from the content server content metadata indicating that the requested content is available from at least one alternative user computing device via a peer to peer network, instantiating on the user computing device a browser helper application which facilitates access to the peer to peer network, and receiving from the content server a lookup table comprising a list of alternative user computing devices from which the requested content is available. The lookup table can be parsed to select an alternative user computing device from which the content, or portions thereof, is requested. The received content can the be stored for later use or presented to the user via the browser.

Abstract: A method and network architecture through which user-specific media profile data can be made available to third parties. A browser is optionally enhanced to facilitate playback and control of one or more media players, thereby allowing the user to play content via the browser. As the user plays content in the browser or any of the media players, information is collected about the content and stored in a database. By monitoring all media-related interactions made by the user within the browser, the collected content information can encompass information from a wide range of sources. User-specific profile data is then determined based on the collected data and such user-specific profile data is made available to third parties. The user-specific profile data can be used, for example, for social networking purposes, and may also be used to drive advertisements or other content to the user.