Patent ID: 8229782

Claim:
A method of collecting and distributing information regarding items and item reviewers over a network, comprising: hosting, by a first system, the first system including one or more processors, an online catalog of items being offered for sale via the first system; receiving over a network at the first system a first review from a first reviewer for an item being offered for sale via the first system, the item included in the online catalog of items being offered for sale via the first system; via the first system, causing at least in part the first review to be displayed on the display of one or more user computer systems in association with a description of the item; receiving at the first system one or more feedback evaluations for the first review from one or more users that viewed the first review; based at least in part on the received one or more feedback evaluations, selecting by the first system an indication reflecting how well the first reviewer is perceived by users; causing at least in part, by the first system, the indication of how well the first reviewer is perceived by users to be provided for display on at least one user computer system display in association with the first review and the description of the item; automatically adding the indication of how well the first reviewer is perceived to a profile interface of the first reviewer, the profile interface providing access to a plurality of reviews of the first reviewer; providing access to the first reviewer profile to a plurality of users; providing a user interface via which a first user can specify that the first reviewer is a preferred reviewer; and customizing, by the computer system, provision of reviews to the first user based at least in part on the first user's specification that the first reviewer is a preferred reviewer and the preferred reviewer's indication that the first user has the preferred reviewer's permission to view the preferred reviewer's reviews, wherein the first user is provided with enhanced access to reviews of the first reviewer including, for one or more catalog entries, an enhanced position of a corresponding review of the first reviewer relative to one or more other reviews, wherein when the first user accesses a catalog entry for the item being offered by sale via the first system for which the first reviewer has submitted the first review, the first review of the item is automatically provided with an enhanced position relative to one or more other reviews for the item.