Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Thomas A Leung

Omar H Shahine

Joshua T Goodman

Ying Li

Ethan Nelson Ray

Eliot Carleton Gillum

Imran I Qureshi

Ewa Dominowska

Charles Reeves Little, Ii

Wende E Copfer

William Raymond Hoffman

Michael D Schackwitz

Pablo M Stern

Aly Valli

Chun Yu Wong

Paul R Weber

Denise D Hui

Elizabeth I Powers-Boyle

Matthew S Carr

John A Genna

Megan M Schuller

Roberto F Figueroa

Vikram S Sardesai

Robin L Boyea

Kristin D Bromm

Advertisements are refreshed in an interface based on one or more parameters provided over a network. The parameters can be retrieved from a web service and implemented at a client device. Advertisement refreshing is performed independently of web page content loading. The parameters may include a time period and user action count and be configured differently for different markets, geographical areas, other customer groups, sections of an application or different advertisement types. One or more of the parameters may be adjusted at a back-end server and distributed to machines in the different customer groups, allowing an efficient and centralized mechanism for managing and updating advertisement refreshing.

Advertisement refresh rules for network applications

A delivery confirmation is provided to the sender of an e-mail message. When the e-mail message is composed, a link, such as a hyperlink, is inserted into the e-mail message, such as in the body or header. The link can include information such as a message identifier and identifiers of the sender and the recipient, which are provided as a query string of the link, while a host field of the link includes the address of an e-mail/web server. When the recipient receives the e-mail message and opens it, the link is displayed along with text that instructs the user to use the link to confirm delivery. The confirmation can include displaying indicia for the e-mail message in a folder view on an interface of the sender, or sending a confirmation e-mail message to the sender, for instance. Voting by e-mail can also be provided.

Delivery confirmation for e-mail

While interacting with a messaging interface, keywords or other search criteria are automatically identified and used to perform a search. Search results and sponsored links (or advertisements) are displayed to the user within the messaging interface. To alleviate privacy concerns, this process will not be performed unless the user has explicitly opted-in to the search feature. In another embodiment, the user can highlight keywords in an outbound or inbound message to trigger a search without leaving the messaging interface. In another embodiment, the user can input a search keyword or phrase to trigger a search without leaving the messaging interface.

Searching based on messages

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Thomas A Leung