Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Latest patent issued to Amazon

Author:Saumil
Posted:1/8/2000; 8:29:38 AM
Topic:iReview needs a Mac
Msg #:14240 (In response to 14223)
Prev/Next:14239 / 14241

Most good search engines and news sites give related links for a query, or a related article. What Amazon.com is claiming is that they can present the related links based on the frequency with which others have been searching for.

I am not sure how other search engines present related links (maybe they are hand picked by editors). But would it not be obvious to pick something that is a hot selling product (which implies good frequency) or a story which got good hits- even though the editor may not have worked out the math accurately or put it in a table.

Or think of a situation of an actual store:

A person asks the storekeeper for a book on Greek Architecture... and the shopkeeper instead suggests a book on Greek History... which was very popular...

Of course the shopkeeper may not have a look-up table, but I think it is fairly obvious and therefore not quite patentable

Cheers, Sumi

sorry shopkeeper... you need permission from Amazon.com for suggesting a best seller...




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