Patent ID: 8671056

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for providing consumers with expert advice in an area of expertise from a reviewer having a direct or indirect social connection with the consumers as identified from a social network, comprising: receiving, by a processor configured by executing code therein, a purchase advice request (PAR) from a particular consumer over a computer network, the PAR relating to the area of expertise; for one or more reviewers in a database of reviewers, analyzing a financial transaction history concerning purchases made by a particular reviewer relating to one or more areas of expertise to determine the particular reviewer's one or more areas of expertise; comparing the area of expertise to which the PAR relates to the one or more reviewer's determined areas of expertise using a processor configured by code executing therein in order to identify a relevant set of reviewers having an area of expertise that is related to the PAR, identifying, using the configured processor, a proximity of one or more of the reviewers in at least the relevant set to the particular consumer within the social network by analyzing the particular consumer's social network to identify the reviewer therein, and calculating a number of hops within the social network from the consumer to the reviewer, wherein the number of hops represents how directly the one or more of the reviewers are connected to the particular consumer within the social network; calculating with the configured processor a trust level for each of the reviewers in at least the relevant set according to the identified proximity to the particular consumer such that the trust level is inversely proportional to the number of hops in the social network from the consumer to the reviewer; and forwarding the PAR to a particular reviewer among the reviewers in accordance with the calculated trust level.