Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Stelios Paparizos

Roger Shane Barga

Vinay Gupta

Gur Kimchi

Doug Burger

John Christopher Shafer

Alexandros Ntoulas

Eric J Horvitz

Ajay Nair

Zachary Apter

Lili Cheng

Rakesh Agrawal

Sreenivas Gollapudi

Prakash Sikchi

Ariel Fuxman

Zhimin Chen

Wei Liu

Christopher Walter Anderson

Lawrence William Colagiovanni

Naga Srinivas Vemuri

Juliana Freire De Lima E Silva

Hoa Nguyen

Marc Eliot Davis

Xuedong D Huang

Matthew Graham Dyor

David James Gemmell

An Yan

Samuel Ieong

Joseph Futty

Chris L Anderson

Tao Cheng

Janine Crumb

Panayiotis Tsaparas

Dan E Walther

Mohammed Moinuddin

Krishnaram N G Kenthapadi

Gennadii M Tertychnyi

Indraneel Mukherjee

James Gemmell

Hady W Lauw

Data, such as product data or airline flight data, is represented using structured data tuples, tables, or as data with related metadata and tags, and stored by a search engine. Partial queries are received by the search engine from a user and are used to generate a dialog between the search engine and the user. The dialog may include suggested query completions for the partial queries that correspond to a schema associated with the data tuples. The suggested query completions may be determined using attribute combinations of attributes and attribute values, or metadata and tags associated with the data tuples, including known synonyms and misspellings. The user may interact with the query completions in the dialog, and the search engine may revise the dialog and the query completions according to the interactions. A user may query data tuples without knowing the schema used by the underlying data structures.

Providing query completions based on data tuples

Various embodiments are described for systems and methods for managing data. The system may include a device group configured for peer-to-peer communications, the device group including a computing device and one or more peer computing devices. The system includes a cross device application programming interface (API) that is implemented as a device group API client executed on the computing device and each of the peer computing devices. Each device group API client includes a permissions module that is configured to determine whether a request satisfies a device-group-specific permission for access to data stored on any device associated with the device group. Upon authorization of the request, a file storage module is configured to retrieve and output the requested file.

Computing system for managing data

A server computing device and related method for providing recommendations to a user computing device are disclosed. In one example, user activity of the user of a user computing device and friend activity of a friend using a friend computing device are received. A request for a recommendation is received from the user device. Based on the user and friend activities, it is estimated that the user and friend will approach an intersecting location within a window of time, and the user and friend are available to meet in that window. A recommendation of a service offered within a distance of the location is sent, with the recommendation displayed on the user computing device.

Server computing device for recommending meeting a friend at a service location based on current location, travel direction, and calendar activity

Methods and systems for automatically synthesizing product information from multiple data sources into an on-line catalog are disclosed, and in particular, for automatically synthesizing the product information based on attribute-value pairs. Information for a product may be obtained, via entity extraction, feed ingestion, and other mechanisms, from a plurality of structured and unstructured data sources having different taxonomies and schemas. Product information may additionally or alternatively be obtained or derived based on popularity data. The product information may be cleansed, segmented and normalized. The product information may be clustered so closest products, attribute names and attribute values are associated. A representative value for an attribute name may be determined, and the on-line catalog may be updated so that entries are comprehensive, meaningful and useful to a catalog user. Updates from at least 500 million different data sources may be scheduled to occur as frequently as several times daily.

Product synthesis from multiple sources

A long-term personal agent program, executable as network service and/or on one or more user computing devices and related method for identifying opportunities and making recommendations on behalf of one or more users, are disclosed herein. In one example, the personal agent program includes a monitoring engine configured to monitor and interpret a user's activities over time with a plurality of sensing and logging methodologies according to user authorization, the use of statistical methods for learning to understand a user's goals and behavioral patterns from data, and the use of procedures for computing the expected value of information guiding sensing and logging in different contexts. The personal agent further may include a recommendation methodology configured to make suggestions and to take actions on behalf of the user, in the present moment as well as for future times, based on inferences about user goals and opportunities in the world.

User computing device with personal agent program for recommending meeting a friend at a service location based on current location, travel direction, and calendar activity

A structured query may specify attribute values for attributes. An estimate of the number of items that will match the structured query if it is applied to a structured database is determined. If the estimated number of items is below a threshold, the structured query may be relaxed to form new candidate structured queries. The number of candidate queries may be determined based on a desired running time. Each of the candidate structured queries may be determined by changing one or more attribute values of the attributes of the structured query. Estimates of the number of items each of the candidate structured queries will match is determined, and the candidate structured query that has the highest matching estimation is used to query the database. The matching results may be output.

Relaxation for structured queries

An achievement system tracks users' offline activities and awards achievements to users for participation in particular offline activities. The achievements that are awarded for particular activities and/or to particular users may be sponsored by merchants, who may compensate an achievement system provider for the opportunity to sponsor the achievements. To award users achievements, the users' offline activities are tracked. When a user participates in an offline activity for which achievements are available, the user is awarded an achievement. The achievement may be stored in an achievement profile for the user. In some embodiments, achievements earned by users may be converted into other benefits and alternative awards.

Bringing achievements to an offline world

An approach is described for generating synonyms to supplement at least one information item, such as, in one case, a set of related items. The approach can involve an expansion phase, a clean-up phase, and a reduction phase. In the expansion phase, the approach identifies, for each related item, a set of initial synonym candidates. In the clean-up phase, the approach removes noise from the set of initial synonym candidates (if such noise exists), to provide a set of filtered synonym candidate items. In the reduction phase, the approach ranks and applies a threshold (or thresholds) to the set of filtered synonym candidate items, to generate, for each information item, a set of selected synonyms. The approach uses query log data at various points in its operation. The selected synonyms can be used to improve the effectiveness of user searches.

Generating synonyms based on query log data

Messages generated by user accounts in a social networking application over a period of time are processed to determine the subjects and topic associated with the messages, as well as the geographical locations of the users associated with the user accounts, and the times when the users associated with the accounts are most active. The determined, subject, time, and location information is used to create a model that may be used to predict whether a user in the social networking application is willing, available, and has the knowledge or topical affinity to answer a question proposed by another user in the social networking application based on a subject, time, and/or location associated with the question. When a user enters a question, the user may be presented with a list of their friends or contacts ranked according to the probabilities generated by the model.

Selecting user accounts in social network to answer question

Described is answering online web queries from a structured data store, such as a products database. An online web search query is modified into an evaluation expression for accessing a structured data store (e.g., a database, XML file, a flat table) to find search results. A query is matched to a pattern, which is used to generate the expression, as well as determine to which structured data store the query is routed. Tokens (e.g., words) in the query are processed against a dictionary of token classes (sets of tokens) and patterns (sets of token classes) to annotate the query to map the query to the matching pattern. A translation process generates the expression based on translation hints that correspond to the matching pattern. Also described is offline mining of query logs to generate the dictionaries.

Answering web queries using structured data sources

A marketplace server and method for facilitating purchase transactions are provided. A marketplace server may include a routing engine configured to receive an order for goods from a first computing device associated with a first customer, with the order including a first delivery address of the customer. The routing engine also calculates a delivery route to the first delivery address. An offer engine is configured to create an offer for other goods. The offer includes a shipping incentive associated with a second delivery address of a second customer. The offer may be targeted to the second customer based on a proximity of the second delivery address to the delivery route. The offer engine sends the offer to a second computing device associated with the second customer. Upon receiving an acceptance of the offer from the computing device, the offer engine processes a purchase transaction for the offer.

Online marketplace with shipping incentives

A computing system and method for managing an identity of a user are provided. A server may be configured to communicate with each of a plurality of client devices in corresponding request and response streams. An inference engine is configured to monitor the request and response streams for identifying factors that distinguish each of the plurality of client devices from other of the plurality of client devices. Upon detecting one or more of the identifying factors for each of the two or more client devices that match within a threshold probability, the inference engine makes an inference that two or more of the plurality of client devices are used by the user. Based upon the inference, the inference engine creates a virtual identity record at the server linking the two or more client devices.

Virtual identity manager

Methods and computer-readable media are provided for determining suggested queries. A user enters a search website, and the user is identified based on a user identification. Suggested queries are determined based on a group associated with the user. This association is created by extracting queries from data logs, categorizing the queries into groups based on their respective subject matter, associating the user with one or more groups, and determining suggested queries for each group. The suggested queries are communicated for display.

Providing query suggestions

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Stelios Paparizos