Vendor-driven, social-network enabled review system with flexible syndication

• US 20060143067A1
• Filed: 12/23/2004
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chemtron Research LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Diamond Review Incorporated
• Inventors: Calabria, Hermann
• Granted Patent: US 7,409,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

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.

Claims

1. A method, 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.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein an author of the reviews is stored.

3. A method as recited in claim 2 wherein providing the reviews to the user in the first manner includes calculating a social distance between the user and the author of a review.

4. A method as recited in claim 3 wherein the reviews are provided to the user based on the calculated social distance.

5. A method as recited in claim 3 wherein the reviews are provided to the user based on the calculated social distance and at least one other parameter.

6. A method as recited in claim 5 wherein the at least one other parameter corresponds to dates of reviews.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the reviews are provided to the user based on the dates of the reviews.

8. A method as recited in claim 7 wherein the reviews are provided to the user based on the dates of the reviews and at least one other parameter.

9. A method as recited in claim 2 wherein providing the reviews to the user in the second manner includes not ordering the provided reviews.

10. A method as recited in claim 4 wherein the reviews provided are subject to privacy constraints.

11. A method as recited in claim 4 wherein the reviews are stored in a database.

12. A method as recited in claim 11 wherein the reviews are provided on a display.

13. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the reviews provided are subject to privacy constraints.

14. A method as recited in claim 13 wherein the request for a review is received by a review engine.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a database that contains user information, user author information, and reviews;

at least one interface to provide reviews from the database to a user; and

a review engine that provides reviews to the interface selected from the database based at least in part on a calculated social distance between the user and an author of a review.

16. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein the review engine provides reviews based on dates of the reviews.

17. An apparatus as recited in claim 16 wherein the review engine provides reviews based on the calculated social distance, the dates of the reviews, and at least one other parameter.

18. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein the database includes a subjects database, a user author reviews database and a users and friends database.

19. An apparatus as recited in claim 18 wherein the interface includes a display and a keyboard.

20. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 wherein the review engine further includes a privacy engine.

21. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 further comprising a reviews subset selector connected to the reviews engine.

22. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 further comprising a plurality of support modules connected to the database.

23. An apparatus as recited in claim 22 wherein the support modules include a subject control panel and a locator/verifier/incentive engine.

24. An apparatus as recited in claim 23 wherein the support modules further include a social linker, user control panel, user signup module.

25. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 further comprising an anonymous contact module connected to the reviews engine.

26. An apparatus as recited in claim 15 further comprising delivery channels connected to the reviews engine for communications with the interface.

27. An apparatus, comprising:

a user browser;

a website; and

a review provider engine that includes a database that contains user information, user author information, and reviews, wherein the review provider engine provides reviews to the user browser selected from the database based in part on a calculated social distance between the user and an author of a review.

28. An apparatus as recited in claim 27 wherein the website is a third party website.

29. An apparatus as recited in claim 27 wherein the review provider engine automatically provides a review to the user browser when a user accesses the website.

30. An apparatus as recited in claim 29 wherein the user browser simultaneously displays both the provided review and website information.

31. An apparatus as recited in claim 30 wherein the review engine includes a social network engine that sorts and provides reviews to the user browser.