Vendor-driven, social-network enabled review system and method with flexible syndication
First Claim
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1. A method implemented on a computer system, comprising:
- receiving a request for a review on a subject from a user;
retrieving reviews pertaining to the subject;
determining if the user is known or unknown; and
providing the reviews to the user in a first manner if the user is known and in a second manner if the user is unknown,wherein an author of the reviews is stored, and further wherein providing the reviews to the user in the first manner includes sorting the reviews responsive to social distance, and providing the reviews to the user in the second manner includes not sorting the reviews by social distance.
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Abstract
The embodiments of the present system include a review engine that is connected to support modules and databases that receive, store and retrieve reviews, based upon the subject and the users'"'"' relationship to the authors of the reviews. The review engine comprises a social network engine, a rate and rank engine, a credentials engine and a privacy engine. These engines allow reviews to be sorted, filtered and ordered in terms of relevance when presented to the user. Numerous methods are also provided by the system that receive, store and retrieve reviews.
171 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method implemented on a computer system, comprising:
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receiving a request for a review on a subject from a user; retrieving reviews pertaining to the subject; determining if the user is known or unknown; and providing the reviews to the user in a first manner if the user is known and in a second manner if the user is unknown, wherein an author of the reviews is stored, and further wherein providing the reviews to the user in the first manner includes sorting the reviews responsive to social distance, and providing the reviews to the user in the second manner includes not sorting the reviews by social distance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method implemented on a computer system, comprising:
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receiving a request for reviews on a subject from a user; retrieving reviews pertaining to the subject; determining if the user is registered or unregistered; providing the reviews to the user in a first manner if the user is registered and in a second manner if the user is unregistered, and wherein providing the reviews to the user in the first manner includes sorting the reviews responsive to social distance and providing the reviews in the second manner to unregistered users includes providing reviews that are not sorted by social distance, and further wherein an author of the reviews is stored. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus, comprising:
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a server; a database that contains user information, user author information, and reviews; a review engine running on said server that provides reviews from the database responsive to a user'"'"'s request and sorts by social distance between the user and an author of a review if the user is registered and does not sort the provided reviews by social distance if the user is unregistered; and at least one interface to provide reviews selected by the review engine to the user. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus, comprising:
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a web server that maintains a website; and a review provider engine sever that includes a database that contains user information, user author information, and reviews, wherein the review provider engine server provides reviews from the database to a user'"'"'s browser responsive to a user'"'"'s request and sorted by a calculated social distance between the user and an author of a review if the user is registered and not sorted by social distance if the user is unregistered. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification