Social-network enabled review system with subject-owner controlled syndication management

• US 7,822,646 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2007
• Issued: 10/26/2010
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Airapetian, Mila
• Application Number:
  US11/855,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20080195480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• 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 computer controlled method performed within a review-provider server, the method comprising:

receiving a review request by said review-provider server for a reviewed subject from a first networked computer, said review request responsive to processing of a client-side script by said first networked computer, said client-side script caused to be received by said first networked computer by a networked third-party server;

selecting by said review-provider server one or more reviews of said reviewed subject responsive to said review request; and

sending by said review-provider server at least a portion of said one or more reviews to said first networked computer.

2. The computer controlled method of claim 1, further comprising one or more steps selected from a group consisting of collecting usage information, analyzing usage information, reporting usage information, determining access permissions of a requesting user to said one or more reviews, determining whether said one or more reviews are to be filtered, and metering access to said one or more reviews.

3. The computer controlled method of claim 1, further comprising assigning by said review-provider server said review request to a channel;

and formatting said one or more reviews responsive to said channel.

4. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, and selecting further comprises filtering said second review such that said second review is not included in said portion of said one or more reviews.

5. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, said method further comprising ordering said first review and said second review responsive to a sort order.

6. The computer controlled method of claim 1, further comprising one or more operations selected from a group consisting of marking said one or more reviews as an editorial review, marking said one or more reviews as written by an expert user-author, marking said one or more reviews as authorized by a subject-owner of said one or more reviews, marking said one or more reviews responsive to whether an identity of a user-author of one of said one or more reviews has been verified, marking one of said one or more reviews as certified by a third-party certification agency, formatting said one or more reviews, determining an access right for one of said one or more reviews to said requesting user, and enabling said requesting user to supplement one of said one or more reviews.

7. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, said first networked computer is associated with a requesting user, and said method further comprises:

determining by the review provider server a first social distance between said requesting user and a first user-author of said first review;

determining by the review provider server a second social distance between said requesting user and a second user-author of said second review; and

wherein sending is responsive to said first social distance and said second social distance.

8. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said portion is associated with an advertisement.

9. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said first networked computer is associated with a requesting user and said method further comprises computing a social distance between said requesting user and a user-author of one of said one or more reviews.

10. The computer controlled method of claim 1, wherein said portion is sent as a web feed, an HTML document, an XML document, an image, as a web service, as part of an advertisement, or as part of a seal.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a database of reviews; and

a review-provider server that accepts as input a review request for a reviewed subject from a first networked computer, wherein said review request is responsive to processing of a client-side script by said first networked computer and further wherein said client-side script is caused to be received by said first networked computer by a networked third-party server;

selects one or more reviews of said reviewed subject responsive to said review request from said database of reviews; and

sends at least a portion of said one or more reviews to said first networked computer.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said review-provider server further performs one or more functions selected from a group consisting of collecting usage information, analyzing usage information, reporting usage information, determining access permissions of a requesting user to said one or more reviews, determining whether said one or more reviews are to be filtered, and metering access to said one or more reviews.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said review-provider server further assigns said review request to a channel;

and formats said one or more reviews responsive to said channel.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, and said review-provider server filters said second review such that said second review is not included in said portion of said one or more reviews.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, and said review-provider server orders said first review and said second review responsive to a sort order for sending.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said review-provider server further performs one or more functions selected from a group consisting of marking said one or more reviews as an editorial review, marking said one or more reviews as written by an expert user-author, marking said one or more reviews as authorized by a subject-owner of said one or more reviews, marking said one or more reviews responsive to whether an identity of a user-author of one of said one or more reviews has been verified, marking one of said one or more reviews as certified by a third-party certification agency, formatting said one or more reviews, determining an access right for one of said one or more reviews to said requesting user, and enabling said requesting user to supplement one of said one or more reviews.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, said first networked computer is associated with a requesting user, and further wherein said review-provider server

determines a first social distance between said requesting user and a first user-author of said first review;

determines a second social distance between said requesting user and a second user-author of said second review; and

wherein said portion is responsive to said first social distance and said second social distance.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said portion is associated with an advertisement.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said first networked computer is associated with a requesting user and further wherein said review-provider server computes a social distance between said requesting user and a user-author of one of said one or more reviews.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said portion is sent as a web feed, an HTML document, an XML document, an image, as a web service, as part of an advertisement, or as part of a seal.

21. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a review request for a reviewed subject from a first networked computer, said review request responsive to processing of a client-side script by said first networked computer, said client-side script caused to be received by said first networked computer by a networked third-party server;

means for selecting one or more reviews of said reviewed subject responsive to said review request; and

means for sending at least a portion of said one or more reviews to said first networked computer.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising one or more selected from a group consisting of means for collecting usage information, means for analyzing usage information, means for reporting usage information, means for determining access permissions of a requesting user to said one or more reviews, means for determining whether said one or more reviews are to be filtered, means for metering access to said one or more reviews, means for marking said one or more reviews as an editorial review, means for marking said one or more reviews as written by an expert user-author, means for marking said one or more reviews as authorized by a subject-owner of said one or more reviews, means for marking said one or more reviews responsive to whether an identity of a user-author of one of said one or more reviews has been verified, means for marking one of said one or more reviews as certified by a third-party certification agency, means for formatting said one or more reviews, means for determining an access right for one of said one or more reviews to a requesting user, and means for enabling a requesting user to supplement one of said one or more reviews.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, and said means for selecting further comprises means for filtering said second review such that said second review is not included in said portion of said one or more reviews.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said one or more reviews includes a first review and a second review, said first networked computer is associated with a requesting user, and said apparatus further comprises:

means for determining a first social distance between said requesting use and a first user-author of said first review;

means for determining a second social distance between said requesting user and a second user-author of said second review;

means for ordering said first review and said second review responsive to a sort order,

wherein means for sending is responsive to said first social distance and said second social distance.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said portion is associated with an advertisement and is sent as a web feed, an HTML document, an XML document, an image, as a web service, as part of an advertisement, or as part of a seal.