Abstract: Online shopping may be facilitated by the use of an intermediate computer system a) collecting data from online shopping interactions, b) obtaining additional online shopping preference information related to a specific, potential online shopping transaction, c) forwarding a request a merchant based on the preference information to modify terms and/or conditions of the potential online transaction, and d) providing at least some of the related shopper's collected data for use by the one or more merchants considering the request. The transaction whereby the transaction may be completed in accordance with said request upon agreement between the related shopper and said one or more merchants.

Abstract: A method includes presenting a media item to a test subject, the media item associated with a brand or product; presenting a series of sensory stimuli to the test subject; and, based on responses of the test subject to the series of stimuli, generating results suitable to inform a business decision related to marketing of the brand or product.

Abstract: The controversiality of an offering in a computer implemented system is computed based on user satisfaction feedback. A controversiality index can be provided to indicate the extent to which the offering is controversial.

Abstract: In one embodiment, for each of one or more users, the user having provided one or more opinions concerning one or more products, deriving one or more opinion records from the one or more opinions, wherein each opinion record is derived from a specific opinion provided by the user concerning a specific product; generating a user-preference profile based on the one or more opinion records, wherein: the user-preference profile comprises one or more user-preference vectors corresponding to the one or more products; and each user-preference vector comprises one or more features of the corresponding product and one or more feature scores respectively corresponding to the one or more features.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for collecting information as authorized by information providers and sharing the information with information recipients according to criteria specified by the information providers. Information is collected from one or more of a variety of sources and stored in a provider profile, with the provider profile also specifying criteria for sharing the information, including payment required for sharing the information with particular categories of recipients. An exchange system is maintained allowing recipients to request or to otherwise specify needs for particular categories of information and payments to be provided by the information, and needs or requests of recipients for information are matched with criteria specified by providers, with information being transferred or used to provide results for a recipient and payment being transferred from the recipient to a provider or providers when a match between information needs and criteria for sharing information is identified.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices are described for acquiring unsolicited consumer comments. Input from a user indicating that the user has one or more unsolicited comments directed to an establishment or an entity associated with a product may be received at a user device. The establishment or the product to which the user has the one or more directed unsolicited comments may be determined at the user device. A comment input interface to receive the one or more unsolicited comments regarding the establishment or the product from the user may be presented through the user device. The one or more unsolicited comments from the user may be received at the user device. The one or more received unsolicited comments may be transmitted, from the user device, to a comment processor system to prepare for presentation to the establishment or the entity associated with the product.

Abstract: A method of submitting customer-identified insights for improving a fleet of vehicles. A capturing application is distributed that allows a customer to record a customer identified insight. The capturing application is configured to transmit a recorded customer-identified insight to a receiving unit. Customer-identified insights are received at the receiving unit via a communication system. The customer-identified insights are aggregated in a storage database. The customer-identified insights in the storage database are analyzed to identify potential vehicle improvements.

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments are directed to generating temporal indicators with respect to web-based survey responses. Exemplary embodiments identify quantity information and temporal information associated with responses to a web-based survey. The temporal indicator is generated based on the quantity information and the temporal information.

Abstract: A method of forming a consensus from a collection of ideas is disclosed. The ideas are divided into non-exclusive groups for evaluation, with each group being provided to a participant for voting. The votes are tallied, and for each idea a “win percentage” is calculated, which is defined as the ratio of the number of groups in which a particular idea wins the voting, divided by the number of groups in which a particular idea appears. Each idea that has a “win percentage” that exceeds a particular threshold is passed on to one or more subsequent rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, the groups are configured so that no two ideas compete against each other more than once.

Abstract: An improved method for providing a consumer matching service, of the type having the steps of establishing a database of participating businesses which includes information on the experiences available from these businesses and also collecting consumer contact and experience sought information, includes the steps of: (a) establishing a consumer personality trait profile in which one's personality traits are predictive of how one is most likely to make a purchase or selection decision as it relates to choosing between an array of experiences available to a consumer, (b) ascribing to each of the available experiences similar personality traits, and (c) matching the consumer personality trait profile to the personality traits ascribed to the available items so as to compile for the consumer a list of ranked businesses which offer the experiences being sought by the consumer and most optimally match to the consumer's personality trait profile.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods that can be utilized to evaluate and/or direct an interaction with a consumer database and/or evaluate a consumer database, where the consumer database contains information about consumers and particular products and/or services held or used by the consumers. The interactions may be, for example, determining a strategy for sales, marketing, cross-selling, and/or retaining one or more of the consumers. The evaluations may include, for example, hierarchically ranking the consumers and/or determining a clustering of the consumers.

Abstract: A method includes receiving at least one criterion to identify at least one media item. The method includes determining one or more media items that satisfy the at least one criterion. The method includes determining a group interest profile for each of the one or more media items. A particular group interest profile indicates a portion-varying level of group interest toward the at least one media item. The particular group interest profile is based on a plurality of ratings input by a plurality of members of a group for a plurality of portions of the at least one media item. The method includes determining a plurality of high-interest portions of the at least one media item based on the plurality of group interest profiles. The method also includes creating a high-interest media item that combines the plurality of high-interest portions.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided to present leads to users based on multiple selection strategies. In response to a user query, a plurality of leads are received from a leads generating source. At least some of the plurality of leads are selected for presentation to the user using a plurality of selection strategies. The various selection strategies are fined-tuned to select leads based on various considerations, including profitability for the leads generating service and fit to the user's needs and demographics. Leads can be presented to the user on a multipart user interface where different parts of the interface are each associated with a separate lead selection strategy.

Abstract: In embodiments, the present invention provides a method and system for associating a survey question with an interactive sponsored content, selecting the interactive sponsored content based at least in part on a mobile subscriber characteristic associated with a mobile communication facility, presenting the interactive sponsored content to the mobile communication facility, receiving a response to the survey question from the mobile communication facility, analyzing a plurality of user responses to the survey question, and presenting a survey analytic to the mobile communication facility based at least in part on the analysis.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a system and method for providing virtually real-time or near real-time satisfaction survey feedback received from a customer to allow for corrective action to be taken by an appropriate business agent almost immediately, or preferably within a few hours of the completion of a survey, before the customer has any significant opportunity to provide negative feedback via online media or other communication channels. In an embodiment, the present system and method provides an interactive electronic survey platform—for example a touch screen display or kiosk set up near the lobby of a hotel, or on a mobile platform such as a tablet at a restaurant table—offering an incentive for customers to complete a short interactive satisfaction survey.

Abstract: A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product predicts a success of a currently proposed project. Responsive answers to a survey questionnaire for a currently proposed project are received and used to create a predicted success score for the currently proposed project, based on a pattern of responsive answers to a predetermined combination of questions from the survey questionnaire. The predicted success score for the currently proposed project is compared with and matched to actual success scores from prior projects. If the percentage of prior projects that retained their success scores through completion exceeds a predetermined accuracy threshold, then the currently proposed project is approved for implementation.

Abstract: Computer-implemented methods for providing real-time customer, patient or consumer and employee metrics include: providing at least one strategic goal; providing at least one metric associated with the at least one strategic goal; providing at least one communication channel between a customer and a company; providing at least one communication code; utilizing the at least one communication code to access the at least one communication channel; providing a survey tool to the customer using the at least one communication channel; capturing data from the survey tool in a database; converting the captured data to the at least one metric; and providing the at least one metric on a dashboard application. An executable software application that implements the computer-implemented method disclosed is also contemplated.

Abstract: Items—including gourmet products—are evaluated and rated by participants in a controlled event, which can be coordinated by software locally or at a dedicated website. Event data, including item scores and participant scores can be shared with vendors, merchants and other commercial entities associated with the products. Promotional incentives from such entities for the products (and related products) can then be directly targeted and provided to participants and other members of the public. The participant's activities can also be collected and disseminated to affiliates/friends of the participants through social networking sites, personalized web pages, etc.

Abstract: A method for collecting feedback from a user, involving determining a location of the user using a user device comprising location detection, sending a feedback request corresponding to an entity at the location to the user device, providing feedback data responsive to the feedback request, wherein feedback data is supplied by the user and includes rating information associated with the entity, and transmitting feedback data and the location from the user device to a remote database.

Abstract: A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to a campaign response option, a sales target plan, a sales price list and a sales specification business object.

Abstract: Systems and methods of forecasting household economic data. In one embodiment, the forcast is made based on a macroeconomic scenario. In this aspect, a storage media of a computer maintains household survey records, and geodemographic segment identifiers are added to those records. A computer processor is used to aggregate the household survey records by geodemographic segments. The resulting segment-level records can be applied to an econometric model, and the model can use macroeconomic forecast assumptions related to the macroeconomic scenario, thus producing economic forecasts for the geodemographic segments. The economic forecasts that are produced may include predicted income and expenditures for each of the geodemographic segments.

Abstract: Aspects of the present invention provide an efficient way for the job seeker to search for a company that fits the seeker's desired cultural traits by enabling the job seeker to identify key traits sought after in a prospective employer, and to use those traits to focus the job search. Thus, a job seeker is able to use a formal framework for assessing a company culture, can have access to a more-comprehensive listing of companies that meet certain criteria, can identify traits that are the most and least relevant to a company's culture, and can, as a result, see relative rankings of companies along various cultural dimensions.

Abstract: A method may include receiving, at a mobile computing device from a server via a network, survey information, where the survey information may include data capture instructions. The method may further include presenting, on a display of the mobile computing device, the data capture instructions and a control for capturing data, where the control for capturing data may be configured upon selection to activate a peripheral feature of the mobile computing device, and where the peripheral feature may be configured to capture one or more of audio content, image content, and video content. The method may further include receiving selection of the control for capturing data, and activating the peripheral feature. The method may further include intercepting capture data, where the capture data was created by the peripheral feature. The method may further include providing, to the server via the network, capture information associated with the capture data.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention is directed toward identifying a number of high-ranking sectors requiring additional communication resources in a network composed of a number of sectors. A set of wireless-service subscribers that have churned are identified. Various sector profile data is captured for sectors serving the churners. The sectors are ranked based on the sector profile data that is collected. A number of high-ranking sectors are identified, based on the ranking.

Abstract: A plurality of questions are displayed. Responses to the plurality of questions are received, wherein a response to a question included in the plurality of questions includes an indication of a likelihood of occurrence of an answer to the question. A value for a quality measure is determined, based on the responses to the plurality of questions.

Abstract: An Internet Based Achievement Management Process & Method of use thereof which generally comprises computer software, including internet web page based code, and methods of applications that allows a user to mange, track, and record events and or achievements which pertain to professional, educational, and or personal goals as well as the ability to measure or compare the events and or achievements against their peers by means of an impartial third party review and assessment process.

Abstract: Systems and techniques for collecting information as authorized by information providers and sharing the information with information recipients according to criteria specified by the information providers. Information is collected from one or more of a variety of sources and stored in a provider profile, with the provider profile also specifying criteria for sharing the information, including payment required for sharing the information with particular categories of recipients. An exchange system is maintained allowing recipients to request or to otherwise specify needs for particular categories of information and payments to be provided by the information, and needs or requests of recipients for information are matched with criteria specified by providers, with information being transferred or used to provide results for a recipient and payment being transferred from the recipient to a provider or providers when a match between information needs and criteria for sharing information is identified.

Abstract: A method and system for adjusting a process for identifying settings visited by a consumer based at least in part on electronically-derived consumer location data. A method and system are provided for gathering location data for consumers and identifying points of interest (POIs) visited by the consumers based on the location data. Based on a comparison of settings identified by a process to settings that are identified in data collected from external data sources, the system may determine whether to adjust the visit detection process. The system may adjust the visit detection process by adjusting a way in which settings are defined in a data set, by adding or removing settings from a data set, and/or by changing a manner in which the visit detection process determines whether a location corresponds to a setting in the data set.

Abstract: A method and system for gathering consumer feedback and information based at least in part on location data relating to movement of a consumer. A method and system are provided for gathering opinions and feedback from and having interactions with consumers to collect consumer responses to tasks requested by the system. The system may request that a consumer perform a task based on an analysis of the electronically-derived consumer location data as well as previously captured opinions and feedback. In addition, location-derived insights can be used to segment and further inform and refine the information gathered from consumers.

Abstract: A method and system for providing an accurate count of total households and seasonal households within a defined geographic area is disclosed. The invention has application in, for example, the identification of potential sites for retail business locations. The invention utilizes additional data sources beyond census data in order to provide more accurate household counts, particularly in high-growth areas when census data has become stale. Seasonal households are counted by the use of telephony data containing spatially inconsistent records (SIRs), that is, records for which the billing address does not match the location where the telephone service is provided. Households for which an exact address is not known are allocated within the geographic area of interest according to various spreading models.

Abstract: The various exemplary embodiments provide a method for projecting survey information into a geographic region. The geographic region is divided into a plurality of geographic subregions, each of which are profiled using a plurality of profiling variables to form a selected geographic subregion profile. The profiling variables include both demographic and behavioral variables. A plurality of survey respondents are then randomly assigned into the selected geographic subregion to form a modeled population, with the random assignment weighted based on a representation probability of each of the corresponding plurality of survey respondents for the selected geographic subregion profile, with the representation probabilities having been determined using a sample balancing algorithm. Following such profiling and assignment for all subregions, survey information corresponding to the modeled population is projected into the geographic region.

Abstract: An event recording is received. The event is associated with an event entity and occurs over an event duration at an event location. A tag is received responsive to user interaction with a communication device. The tag is associated with at least one of the particular entity associated with the event entity, a particular time period associated with the event duration, and a particular location associated with the event location. Additional information associated with the event recording is received, and the tag is matched with at least a portion of the event recording based on at least one of the particular entity, the particular time period, and the particular location associated with the received tag. The portion of the event recording matching the received tag is presented for review along with the received additional information associated with the event recording.

Abstract: Personalization is enabled in a privacy-conscious manner. User interest information can be determined as a function of user behavior with respect interaction with content, for example. Distribution of user information can be managed as function of user permission and one or more offers to acquire the information from parties such as electronic merchants, data aggregators, or ad networks, among others.

Abstract: A restaurant customer-survey system and device, which reduces employee fraud when a customer-satisfaction survey embedded in the device is conducted. The survey may be implemented in a pager, tip tray, or other computing device that includes an internally mounted camera that covertly takes a photograph of the survey participant. The photograph is date/time stamped and associated with a table number so that the waiter for the table can be identified. The survey results together with the associated photograph are uploaded to a management database. The restaurant manager can review the photographs to ensure that employees are not fraudulently conducting the surveys rather than customers. The system also enables the customer to interface with the restaurant's point-of-sale (POS) system to retrieve the customer's current bill or wirelessly make a payment from the table.

Abstract: A system for determining preference, including a client device with feedback controls, a server and addressable URIs; the device and server in communication over an electronic network and the URIs' content retrievable over the network; the server automatically receiving and storing ratings, tracking URIs, using ratings to create a preference model for URIs, and using the preference model to suggest URIs; the stored ratings include a record having a rated item URI, a rater having a unique identification, a rating value provided by the rater, and at least one metadatum for creating subsets of ratings. Also, a method for automatically creating a chimeric preference vector, the method steps including identifying a multiplicity of datasets of rated items; automatically combining the datasets to form a combined dataset; automatically identifying ratings collisions; treating ratings collisions to form a data subset; and generating a chimeric preference vector based on the data subset.

Abstract: An analysis tool guides the selection of an external agent who will interact with a selected organizational actor. The analysis tool helps to minimize mismatches in personality and behavior between the external agents and actors in the business. The analysis tool also coaches deal external agents on how to successfully interact with the selected organizational actor. As a result, there are fewer misunderstandings about project scope and requirements, there is better communication between individuals, and valuable deals are more frequently closed.

Abstract: The price of digital content is set by a pricing module using data obtained from a statistics module. The statistics module includes historical information about a content author's previous works, including demand for those works, and tracks data such as how many downloads are requested for the current content being priced, how many users are watching or listening to previews of the digital content, and where users are located. The pricing module may make content available for free initially; alternatively an initial non-zero price is chosen. The pricing module increases the price and observes changes in demand to determine a best-fit demand curve. Once the best-fit demand curve is determined, a price for the content is selected to maximize revenue. As the demand curve shifts, the price is adjusted to maintain optimal demand. Price is also adjusted proactively based on demand predictions determined according to statistical and historical data.

Abstract: A method for evaluating expansion of a business where the business is located in a first geographic area. The method includes receiving information about the business, querying a business information source and a demographic information source using the information, receiving data from the business information source and the demographic information source in response to the querying, processing the data using business expansion factors to obtain a rank order, where the data comprises a plurality of potential geographic areas for expanding the business, where the plurality of potential geographic areas are evaluated on the business expansion factors to determine a similarity to the first geographic area to obtain a rank order, and presenting, in the rank order, each of the plurality of potential geographic areas.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing recommendations directed to cultural events, such as films, theatre shows, concerts, etc., via an online site are described. The systems and methods may also be used to provide recommendations for restaurants, books, television shows or other subjects. The system and method include a trainable recommendation engine that collects, aggregates, and combines trusted recommendations to create a personalized list of recommended events. Algorithms are used to gather and aggregate individual reviews of events and event listings, restaurants, books or other subjects from the Internet, aggregate the likes and dislikes of individuals who provide reviews to generate customized recommendations for the user, and constantly improve each user's experience by identifying likeminded individuals within the system.

Abstract: The present invention provides a process and system for matching buyers and sellers of either goods or services, or goods and services for a project. The invention enables a buyer to specify a project in terms of physical, functional, temporal, financial, and transactional parameters that can be automatically converted, by the present invention, into at least one request for either goods or services, or goods and services to perform work related to the project. The requests are suitably provided to at least one seller. Upon receiving a request, the seller may submit a response to the request, as desired. The invention provides a forum for the negotiation of any agreements and the formation of contracts to provide the requested, or alternative goods or services, or goods and services, as well as reconciliation of purchase orders, actual field costs, and invoices.

Abstract: A product assortment planning system determines scaled performance metric values for an assortment of products. The system includes a data store storing performance metric values for an assortment of products including a target assortment of products and a source assortment of products, an equivalization unit and a scaling unit. The equivalization unit equivalizes the performance metric values for the source assortment of products. The scaling unit determines incrementality assumptions. The incrementality assumptions are an estimation of an amount of cannibalization that occurs for the target assortment of products as a result of combining the source assortment of products with the target assortment of products. Scaled performance metric values are calculated for each product in the assortment of products based on the equivalized performance metric values and the incrementality assumptions.

Abstract: Items—including gourmet products—are evaluated and rated by participants in a controlled event, which can be coordinated by software locally or at a dedicated website. Event data, including item scores and participant scores can be shared with vendors, merchants and other commercial entities associated with the products. Promotional incentives from such entities for the products (and related products) can then be directly targeted and provided to participants and other members of the public. The participant's activities can also be collected and disseminated to affiliates/friends of the participants through social networking sites, personalized web pages, etc.

Abstract: One or more price metrics are generated by retrieving, from a database, one or more price data sets representing a specified time period. Each of the retrieved price data sets includes at least a parameter value, a quoted cost, and a selling unit of measure for at least one item, and is responsive to a product specification data set that includes at least one parameter value and a unit of measure for each of one or more items. In at least one embodiment, a combined item price total is divided by a combined item unit total to generate a metric price per unit for each item in the product specification data set. In another embodiment, a summed individual metric price per unit is divided by the number of individual metric prices to generate an overall metric price per unit for each item in the product specification data set.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for modeling the temporal behavior of clients to develop a predictive system to influence client relationships. In an embodiment, the method comprises establishing for each of a plurality of clients a temporal model for a given time period, and the temporal model identifies a plurality of factors as contributing to a specified relationship with the each client over the given time period. For each of a plurality of different stages of the given time period, the temporal model identifies one or more of these factors as contributing to the specified relationship with the each client. One of the clients is identified as a model client for another client, and the temporal model of this model client is used to predict one or more of the plurality of factors as contributing to a specified relationship with this another client at a specified time.

Abstract: A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product predicts a success of a currently proposed project. Responsive answers to a survey questionnaire for a currently proposed project are received and used to create a predicted success score for the currently proposed project, based on a pattern of responsive answers to a predetermined combination of questions from the survey questionnaire. The predicted success score for the currently proposed project is compared with and matched to actual success scores from prior projects. If the percentage of prior projects that retained their success scores through completion exceeds a predetermined accuracy threshold, then the currently proposed project is approved for implementation.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system measures loyalty of one partner to another partner in a relationship, such as the loyalty of a company's customer to the company. The first partner's loyalty is measured by obtaining information from the partner, such as through answers to survey questions, about the partner's perception of the climate of the relationship. A loyalty index function may be applied to scores associated with the answers to produce a single loyalty index representing the first partner's loyalty to the other partner. The system may recommend that the second partner change their practices to increase the first partner's loyalty index. For example, the system may recommend that the second partner improve practices related to “satisfier” dimensions of the relationship, and/or that the second partner improve practices which empirical data have demonstrated to correlate most strongly with increased loyalty.

Abstract: A system and method provide customers making purchases with a credit card with electronically delivered receipts and surveys from the merchant. A user subscribes to the system and provides credit card information and an electronic message address (e.g. and email address or mobile phone number). The system does not store the entire credit card information. Upon a purchase, a credit card processor forwards credit card information to the system. A related message address is identified. A survey previously created by the merchant is transmitted to the address. The customer receives the receipt and survey. The customer completes the survey and submits it to the system. The system forwards the survey results to the merchant.

Abstract: A method for training a ranking application. The method includes ranking the help postings to create an initial ranking using initial parameter values, and storing user interactions with the help postings to obtain stored interactions. Simulations are performed using the stored interactions to generate revised parameter values for the ranking application. Performing the simulations includes calculating relevance values from the stored interactions, creating a test posting, assigning, to the test posting, an initial score and a relevance value randomly selected from the relevance values to generate a test ranking, and simulating user interactions with the test ranking to generate simulated rankings. The simulated rankings are analyzed to obtain revised parameter values. The method further includes ranking, using the revised parameter values, the help postings to generate a revised ranking, and displaying the help postings in the forum according to the revised ranking.

Abstract: In particular embodiments, requests for opinions are received from shoppers. Each request is associated with an image of the respective shopper's appearance. A modified image of the shopper's appearance is determined in relation to a product or service, showing how the shopper's appearance is changed by the product or changed after the service has been performed. The request for opinions and the image of the shopper's appearance is sent to one or more participants. One or more opinions responsive to the request are received. Market intelligence information is determined in relation to the product or service, based on information associated with the requests for opinions.

Abstract: A method and communication system is provided to identify a calling/called party when the call is being set up but before the call is answered. In the method, a first terminal and a second terminal are respectively provided with opposing terminal's image data before the call is answered. The image data of the first and second terminals can be registered in a media server disposed between the first and second terminals, and the image data can be transmitted between the first terminal and the media server and between the second terminal and the media server in accordance with an SIP protocol.