Reputation management system

• US 20070294339A1
• Filed: 05/24/2007
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TOW Software Oy
• Original Assignee: Against Intuition Oy
• Inventors: Tolvanen, Sami, Ala-Kleemola, Timo
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,515 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A reliable reputation management system in which the users of the services vote for reputation. The votes are collected to a reputation server which computes reputation for specific services. When a large group of users have voted, the result will be reliable. The reputation server is independent in order to guarantee objective reputation management. If the user does not vote but keeps using the service, the system will compute a vote by itself. The user may change the vote later.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

contacting the web service;

contacting a reputation server;

retrieving reputation information assigned to the web service; and

displaying the reputation information to the user.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reputation server is a trusted third party.

3. A method comprising:

contacting the web service;

contacting a reputation server;

estimating the reputation opinion for the web service; and

storing reputation information to the reputation server.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the reputation server is a trusted third party.

5. The method according to claim 3 wherein the reputation is estimated automatically.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the reputation estimated automatically is computed using at least one of a number of pages opened during a browsing session, a time interval between the opening of a first page and a second page, and a number of browsing sessions.

7. A system for managing reputation information, which system further comprises:

a reputation server;

a service provider server;

a client device configured to communicate with the reputation server and service provider server independently.

8. The system according to claim 7, the system further comprising:

the client device configured to request reputation information from the reputation server and to access the service provider server in response to the receiving of the reputation information.

9. The system according to claim 7, the system further comprising:

the client device configured to send new reputation information to the reputation server after accessing the service provider server.

10. The system according claim 9, the system further comprising:

the client device is configured to compute the new reputation information automatically.

11. The system according claim 10, the system further comprising:

the client device is configured to compute the new reputation automatically using at least one of a number of pages opened during a browsing session, a time interval between the opening of a first page and a second page, and a number of browsing sessions.

12. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program comprising code for controlling a processor to execute a method comprising:

contacting the web service;

contacting a reputation server;

retrieving reputation information assigned to the web service; and

displaying the reputation information to the user.

14. The computer program according to claim 12, wherein the computer program is further arranged to execute a step of computing reputation information automatically.

15. The computer program according to claim 14, wherein the computer program is further arranged to execute a step of computing reputation information automatically using at least one of a number of pages opened during a browsing session, a time interval between the opening of a first page and a second page, and a number of browsing sessions.

13. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program comprising code for controlling a processor to execute a method comprising:

contacting the web service;

contacting a reputation server;

estimating the reputation opinion for the web service; and

storing reputation information to the reputation server.