摘要:
An Internet-based customer referral system enables individuals and other business entities (“associates”) to market products sold on a merchant web site in return for commissions. Following registration, the associate sets up a web site (or other information dissemination system) to distribute hypertextual catalog documents that include marketing information (product reviews, recommendations, etc.) about selected products of the merchant. In association with each such product, the catalog document includes a hypertextual “referral link” that allows a user/customer to access the merchant web site and purchase the product. When a customer selects a referral link, the customer's computer transmits unique IDs of the selected product and of the associate to the merchant's site, allowing the merchant to identify the product and the referring associate. If the customer subsequently purchases a product from the merchant's site, a commission is automatically credited to an account of the referring associate.
摘要:
An online marketplace system provides various features for assisting users in listing products for sale, locating the listings for a product, and performing related actions. A user wishing to sell a product can browse to an existing description of the product in an electronic catalog and then select an option to create a corresponding listing. If the user previously purchased the product via the system, the user may alternatively select the product from a personal purchase history. The system may also proactively send product-specific listing requests to those predicted to own specific products. To create a listing for a selected product, the user preferably specifies the product's condition and a selling price. The pending listings for a product are preferably displayed or summarized on the product's detail page in the catalog. In one embodiment, the catalog also servers as a retail sales catalog of an online merchant.
摘要:
A network-based payment service provides various features for facilitating online, user-to-user payments. One feature involves the ability for users to define customized pay pages for receiving payments from other users. The pay pages are preferably hosted by a service provider site that handles the collection process, and may be created using pay page templates that specify the layouts and behaviors of the pay pages. In one embodiment, a pay page owner can also define one or more “pay boxes” to allow payments to be initiated from other web sites, which may include the web sites of associates who receive commissions on resulting payments. Another feature involves the ability for users to make single-action payments from web sites external to the service provider site. Also disclosed are various features for controlling access to content and services based on whether, or an extent to which, a visitor has made voluntary or mandatory payments.
摘要:
A method in a computer system for coordinating the delivery a gift given by a gift giver to a recipient when the gift giver did not provide sufficient delivery information. The gift delivery system initially receives an order from the gift giver. The order identifies a gift to be delivered to the recipient and has contact information describing the recipient. The gift delivery system stores the received order in an order database along with an order tracking number. The gift delivery system then determines whether sufficient delivery information has been provided by the recipient. If the delivery information is not sufficient, the gift delivery system sends a communications to the recipient based on the contact information. The communications requests delivery information for the gift. The communications preferably includes the order tracking number so that the recipient can include the order tracking number in a response to the communications. When the recipient does not respond to the communications, the gift delivery system attempts to collect additional information that may be relevant to the recipient from various databases. When the delivery information is sufficient, the gift delivery system verifies whether the potential delivery information is valid. When the delivery information has been verified as being valid, the gift delivery system sends the gift based on the delivery information and notifies the gift giver that the gift has been sent to the recipient. In this way, the gift giver can send the gift to recipients even when the gift giver does not know or provide sufficient delivery information.
摘要:
A Web based system provides informational services for assisting customers in selecting products or other types of items from an electronic catalog of a merchant. Users of the system can create and join user communities, such as communities based on user hobbies, localities, professions, and organizations. The system also supports implicit membership communities that are based on email addresses (e.g., all users having a “nasa.com” email address), shipping/billing addresses, and other known user information. Using purchase history data collected for online users, the system automatically identifies and generates lists of the most popular items (and/or items that are becoming popular) within particular communities, and makes such information available to users for viewing. For example, in the context of an online book store users of the nasa.com community may automatically be presented a Web page which lists the bestselling book titles among nasa.com users, or may be sent email notifications of purchase events or hotselling books within the community. Another feature involves automatically notifying users interested in particular products of other users (preferably other members of the same community) that have purchased the same or similar products. For example, in one embodiment, when a user accesses a book detail page, the detail page is customized to include the names and email addresses of other members of the user's community that recently purchased the same book.
摘要:
The determination of a gaze direction or field of view of a user with respect to a computing device can control aspects of the device, such as to reduce power or resource consumption. A computing device can include an imaging element and software for locating aspects of a user's facial features relative to the device, such that an orientation of the user's features relative to the device can be determined. Various actions on the device can be executed based at least in part upon a determined gaze direction of the user. In some embodiments, a display element of the device can turn off, and one or more inputs can be disabled, when the user is not looking at the device.
摘要:
Various computer-implemented services are disclosed for assisting users in selecting items from an electronic catalog, and for selecting merchants with which to conduct transactions. One such service enables users to share information about their respective purchases with other users. Another service enables users to share information regarding the merchants with which they have conducted transactions.
摘要:
Launch vehicle systems and methods for landing and recovering a booster stage and/or other portions thereof on a platform at sea or on another body of water are disclosed. In one embodiment, a reusable space launch vehicle is launched from a coastal launch site in a trajectory over water. After booster engine cutoff and upper stage separation, the booster stage reenters the earth's atmosphere in a tail-first orientation. The booster engines are then restarted and the booster stage performs a vertical powered landing on the deck of a pre-positioned sea-going platform. In one embodiment, bidirectional aerodynamic control surfaces control the trajectory of the booster stage as it glides through the earth's atmosphere toward the sea-going platform. The sea-going platform can broadcast its real-time position to the booster stage so that the booster stage can compensate for errors in the position of the sea-going platform due to current drift and/or other factors. After landing, the sea-going platform can be towed by, e.g., a tug, or it can use its own propulsion system, to transport the booster stage back to the coastal launch site or other site for reconditioning and reuse. In another embodiment, the booster stage can be transferred to another vessel for transport. In still further embodiments, the booster can be refurbished while in transit from a sea-based or other landing site.
摘要:
A method and system for customer incentive-based management of computing resource utilization. According to one embodiment, a method may include provisioning a computing resource according to a given level of resource utilization, and dynamically predicting utilization of the computing resource that is expected to occur during a given interval of time. In response to dynamically predicting that utilization of the computing resource will be less than the given level of resource utilization during the given interval of time, the method may further include offering an incentive to a customer to utilize the computing resource during at least a portion of the given interval of time.
摘要:
An interactive system enables users to generate and submit lists of items (e.g., products) for viewing by other users. The user-generated lists are selectively suggested to users of the system based on their respective behaviors, such as their item viewing activities, searches, and/or item purchases. The system may monitor the behaviors of users who access particular user-generated lists, and based on the monitored behaviors, generate measures of the effectiveness of particular lists (e.g., effectiveness at driving item purchases). The measures of effectiveness may be considered in selecting particular lists to suggest.