Reminding users of offers

Abstract

Provided is a computer implemented process for reminding users of offers that were discovered by the user at one location when, at a later time, the user is at another location, the process including: displaying, with a mobile device, an offer and a reminder interface to indicate that the user requests themselves or another reminder recipient to be reminded of the offer when near another computing device of the reminder recipient; receiving an interaction with the reminder interface by the user and, in response, storing a reminder request in memory, the reminder request identifying the offer; obtaining data identifying the other computing device, a geographic area of the other computing device, or a wireless environment of the other computing device; detecting, with a processor of the mobile device, that the reminder recipient has interacted with the other computing device, entered the geographic area, or entered the wireless environment; and in response to the detection, presenting a notification reminding the reminder recipient of the offer.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors effectuate operations comprising:
 receiving, via a network, with a first server system, from a first computing device of a user, a request to remind the user of an item, the item being described by content accessible via a second server system, the content accessible via the second server system including a numerical value associated with the item;   after receiving the request to remind the user of the item, determining, with the first server system, that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased;   in response to determining that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased, customizing, with one or more processors, content to remind the user of the item, the customized content including an indication that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased;   identifying, with the first server system, a second computing device of the user upon which the reminder is to be presented; and   sending, with the first server system, to the second computing device, the customized content including the indication that the numerical value has decreased.   
     
     
         2 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 sending, with the first server system, an affiliate link that causes the second computing device to request content from an affiliate network server that responds with a redirect command that causes the second computing device to request content from a first merchant web site associated with an offer.   
     
     
         3 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the first server system is a server system of a coupon publisher;   the second server system hosts a second merchant website;   the numerical value corresponds to a price of the item on the second merchant website;   the request to remind the user of the item is received from a web browser executing on the first computing device;   the second computing device executes a native application of the coupon publisher; and   sending the customized content comprises sending a push notification message that causes the native application to indicate to the user that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased.   
     
     
         4 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 sending customized content comprises sending customized content to a native application executing on the second computing device;   the native application is registered in memory of the second computing device, upon installation of the native application, to handle a type of intents associated with the first server system.   
     
     
         5 . The medium of  claim 4 , wherein:
 at least some of the customized content is sent via intents associated with the first server system; and   the intents are asynchronous requests to execute functionality and include an action and one or more parameters.   
     
     
         6 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising providing content requested by the second computing device by accessing, via an application-program interface, information stored concurrently stored in both:
 an in-memory, cache server storing references to the provided content requested by the second computing device in a hash table; and   a persistent data store having a first version of the content requested by the second computing device that is inconsistent with a second version of the content requested by the second computing device in the cache server.   
     
     
         7 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 storing information corresponding to the item in a key-value data store indexed according to a hash table to expedite access to stored data.   
     
     
         8 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 accessing information stored in a cache server, the information being stored in the cache server based on a likelihood of the being accessed, wherein inconsistent data is temporarily maintained in the cache server relative to a persistent data store to conserve computing resources; and   retrieving, by the cache server, information by determining a hash key value based on the parameter, the hash key being paired with an address of the at least one of the information.   
     
     
         9 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the first server system is configured to remind users to redeem offers on a particular device or near a particular geographic location after such a reminder is requested on another device or at another location.   
     
     
         10 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 sending the customized content causes the second computing device to present an animated movement of user interface element in which information corresponding to the item is displayed.   
     
     
         11 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 customizing content comprises initializing a webpage to a non-default state.   
     
     
         12 . The medium of  claim 1 , wherein:
 sending the customized content including the indication that the numerical value has decreased comprises sending a push notification.   
     
     
         13 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for reminding users to redeem offers on a particular computing device.   
     
     
         14 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for reminding users to redeem offers based on a geographic location.   
     
     
         15 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for obtaining and processing data related to offers.   
     
     
         16 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for correlating requests for content with sent reminders.   
     
     
         17 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for suggesting offers.   
     
     
         18 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 steps for throttling reminders.   
     
     
         19 . The medium of  claim 1 , comprising:
 sending affiliate links to the first computing device or to the second computing device.   
     
     
         20 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, via a network, with a first server system, from a first computing device of a user, a request to remind the user of an item, the item being described by content accessible via a second server system, the content accessible via the second server system including a numerical value associated with the item;   after receiving the request to remind the user of the item, determining, with the first server system, that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased;   in response to determining that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased, customizing, with one or more processors, content to remind the user of the item, the customized content including an indication that the numerical value in the content accessible via the second server system has decreased;   identifying, with the first server system, a second computing device of the user upon which the reminder is to be presented; and   sending, with the first server system, to the second computing device, the customized content including the indication that the numerical value has decreased.