Review your local dry cleaner, pay $10 million?
User reviews are a hot new content area, being used by Google, Yahoo
and MSN to sweeten their local search results. But as of Thursday, such
consumer reviews could put search providers, as well as thousands of
e-commerce sites, video rental or review sites and online booksellers,
in the sights of Amazon.com's lawyers.
The online retailer of books and just about everything else was
awarded three new patents, covering its purchase circles, search and
consumer reviews. While Amazon.com's patent police would go after Web
publishers, not consumers, the review patent could put the kibosh on
the social networking components of many search services.
Amazon.com's purchase circles can be based on everything from a hobby
to an employer, or they can merely peep to see what's the hot book
among Oracle employees. The patent covers methods of forming circles
and marketing to them, for example, by showing one person looking at a
book detail page and who else in the circle has bought that book.
The second patent covers a method of discovering and delivering as
search results related products from multiple categories, such as books
written by Steve Martin, as well as DVDs of movies in which he
appeared.
The third patent is the real kicker. It covers methods for encouraging
consumers to write reviews of items they've purchased by determining
the optimal times to send them e-mails or reminders.
In one embodiment of the patent, the system sends consumers a message
inviting them to write a review in a predetermined amount of time after
the purchase. It's a method widely used by online retailers, including
Yahoo Shopping. The patent also covers the method of tracking who
returns to rate products by asking them to click on a unique link in an
e-mail.
But the patent even covers collecting reviews by letting visitors to a
Web site fill out a form.
