Intuit, Inc.

Troy D Otillio

Igor A Podgorny

Luis Felipe Cabrera

M Shannon Lietz

Ankur Jain

Jeffrey M Wolfe

Brett Weaver

Oleg Gryb

Marc J Attinasi

Sabu Kuruvila Philip

Jinglei Whitehouse, Iii

Gang Wang

Elangovan Shanmugam

Thomas Bishop

Floyd J Morgan

Vineet Singh

Fedor N Dzegilenko

James Armitage

Jinglei Whitehouse

Alexander S Ran

Moshe Olim

Desiree D G Gosby

Daniel C McGloin

The disclosed embodiments relate to a computer system that facilitates the providing of an answer to a question. During operation, the computer system receives the question from a user, where the question is related to income taxes. Then, the computer system performs content-dependent processing of the question based on a tax-information data structure to produce the answer to the question. Note that the tax-information data structure includes: tax phrases, context information associated with the tax phrases, tax concepts that encompass multiple tax phrases, and/or statistical association metrics between the tax phrases and the tax concepts. Next, the computer system provides the answer to the user.

Content-dependent processing of questions and answers

Secret application and maintenance policy data is generated for different classes of data. The class of data to be protected is determined and the secret application and maintenance policy data for the determined class of the data to be protected is identified and obtained. Required secrets data representing one or more secrets to be applied to the data to be protected is obtained and then automatically scheduled for application to the data to be protected in accordance with the secret application and maintenance policy data for the determined class of the data to be protected. Maintenance of the one or more secrets is also automatically scheduled in accordance with the secret application and maintenance policy data for the determined class of the data to be protected.

Method and system for automatically managing secret application and maintenance

A secure secrets proxy is instantiated in a first computing environment and includes secure secrets proxy authentication data for identifying itself to a secrets distribution management system in a second computing environment as a trusted virtual asset to receive and cache secrets data in a secure secrets cache outside the second computing environment. A virtual asset requests one or more secrets, triggering a process to authenticate the requesting virtual asset, gathering authorized secrets data representing secrets the virtual asset is allowed to have. The secure secrets proxy is provided data representing the requested secrets and stores that secrets data in the secure secrets cache of the proxy.

Method and system for providing a secure secrets proxy and distributing secrets

Secrets data representing one or more secrets required to access associated resources is provided along with secrets distribution policy data representing one or more secrets distribution factors used to control the distribution of the secrets. When a requesting virtual asset submits secrets request data, virtual asset profile data associated with the requesting virtual asset is obtained. The requesting virtual asset profile data is then analyzed using at least one of the secrets distribution factors to authenticate the requesting virtual asset. The requesting virtual asset profile data is then analyzed using one or more of secrets distribution factors to determine what secrets the requesting virtual asset legitimately needs. Authorized secrets data for the requesting virtual asset representing one or more authorized secrets is then generated. The requesting virtual asset is then provided access to the authorized secrets data.

Method and system for distributing secrets

A technique for facilitating customization of a software application is described. During this customization technique, an indicator, which indicates that a software application for an electronic device has been discovered by a user, is provided to a publisher of the software application. In response to the indicator, the publisher provides a token to the user. This token identifies a customized application-delivery service for the software application and/or a user-specific customization of the software application. Note that the customized application-delivery service and the user-specific customization are based on information about the user associated with the user's pre-existing or just-established relationship with the publisher. Next, the token is provided to an application-delivery service, and the application-delivery service provides the customized software application to the electronic device or a computer, for example, using the customized application-delivery service.

Customization of mobile-application delivery

Activities of a user are tracked while a user uses a software application. Based on the tracked user activities, a user-experience metric is determined for the user, where the user-experience metric reflects a need to modify a user experience associated with the software application. In response to the determined user-experience metric, the user experience is modified. For example, modifying the user experience may include: providing help content to the user, changing a user interface associated with the software application, and/or contacting the user.

Modifying software based on tracked activities

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates use of an application. During operation, the system obtains an activity history of interaction between the user and the application during use of the application by the user. Next, the system applies a predictive model to the activity history to predict a probability of a user action in the application. Finally, the system facilitates subsequent real-time use of the application by the user based on the probability of the user action.

Real-time user behavior prediction

Some embodiments provide a system that monitors use of an application. During operation, the system uses the application to track a set of interactions between a set of users and the application without impacting the performance of the application. Next, the system stores the interactions as the interactions are detected by the application. Finally, for each user from the set of users, the system periodically processes a subset of the stored interactions associated with the user to obtain an activity history for the user, wherein the activity history is used to facilitate subsequent real-time use of the application by the user.

Real-time tracking of user-application interaction

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Troy D Otillio