Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/342,173, filed Jan. 27, 2006, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/842,265, file Apr. 24, 2001 (which is now abandoned), both entitled “CREATING AN INCENTIVE TO AUTHOR USEFUL ITEM REVIEWS” which application is incorporated by reference herein its entirety. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention is directed to the fields of electronic commerce and on-line communities. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Web merchants sell items such as products, services, and data via the World Wide Web (“the Web”). Because most items sold by a web merchant result in a profit, measured by the amount by which the item&#39;s price exceeds its cost, web merchants have a strong incentive to increase the rate at which they sell items. 
     It is common for web merchants to design their web sites to include content that helps to draw interest to the web sites and to particular items in order to increase the number of customers that may buy these items. As one example of such content, some web merchants include item reviews on their web sites, which typically provide additional information about an item and, in the case of a positive review, an endorsement of the item. For example, some web merchants furnish book reviews on their web sites. 
     In some cases, web merchants pay professional reviewers to prepare item reviews. In these cases, the often-significant cost of procuring professional reviews can have a negative impact on the web merchant&#39;s profitability. Additionally, some readers of professional reviews may be distrustful of the evaluation of a professional reviewer. 
     In other cases, volunteers, such as customers, are solicited to prepare item reviews. While volunteer reviews can be procured much less expensively than professional reviews and may have more appeal to readers that prefer reviews from those they perceive to more substantially share their perspective, volunteer review programs often have significant disadvantages of their own. 
     For example, it can often be difficult to convince volunteers to prepare item reviews. Of those volunteer reviews that are prepared and submitted, a significant portion may be of little use to prospective purchasers for a variety of reasons: such reviews may be poorly written, fail to adequately support their conclusions, contain subject matter irrelevant to the item, engage in ad hominem attacks on the creator of the reviewed item, etc. 
     In view of the above-discussed disadvantages of conventional types of reviews, a more effective approach to obtaining useful item reviews from volunteers would have significant utility. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a high-level block diagram showing a typical environment in which the facility operates. 
         FIG. 2  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility showing a list of top-ranked reviewers. 
         FIG. 3  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing more detailed information about a particular top-ranked reviewer. 
         FIG. 4  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing detailed information about an item. 
         FIG. 5  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility incorporating information about two randomly-selected top-ranked reviewers. 
         FIG. 6  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility to enable a user to submit a new review. 
         FIG. 7  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing guidelines for preparing an item review. 
         FIG. 8  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing sample reviews. 
         FIG. 9  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility in order to process a new item review submitted by a reviewer. 
         FIG. 10  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility in order to process votes received for published item reviews. 
         FIG. 11  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility to update reviewer scores and rankings. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     A software facility for creating an incentive to author useful item reviews (“the facility”) is described. In some embodiments, the facility is used by a web merchant to obtain content that, when incorporated in the web merchant&#39;s web site, helps to draw interest to the web site and to increase the number of customers that may buy items from the web merchant. The facility provides such an incentive by rewarding the authors of reviews found to be useful by their readers, such as by prominently displaying their names and ranks as authors of useful reviews prominently on the web merchant&#39;s web site. 
     In some cases, review authors (also called “reviewers”) submit reviews each relating to a specific item sold by the web merchant. The web merchant displays these reviews to customers in conjunction with the items to which they relate, together with a control—such as buttons—that may be used by viewing customers to vote on how useful the review is to them. For example, in some embodiments, the control enables viewing customers to specify either that they found the review useful or that they did not find the review useful. The facility stores these votes, and periodically uses them to score each reviewer in terms of the number of reviews that the reviewer submitted and their level of usefulness. 
     Each time new scores are generated, the facility ranks the reviewers in descending order of their scores. These rank values are then typically displayed liberally in conjunction with information about the top-ranked reviewers. For example, the facility may display a list of the top-ranked reviewers, in which the rank of each reviewer is indicated. The facility may also display a shorter list of reviewers randomly selected from among the top-ranked reviewers, such as from the top 100 reviewers. Such displays may include such information as the names of these reviewers, their pictures, and biographical sketches. The facility may display in conjunction with any occurrence of a top-ranked reviewer&#39;s name an indication of that reviewer&#39;s rank. For example, occurrences of the name of the reviewer having rank  1  may be accompanied by a “#1 Reviewer” message, which the name of the reviewer having rank  89  may be accompanied by a “Top 100 Reviewer” message. Such displays may occur on pages such as a home page for the reviewer, or in conjunction with the reviewer&#39;s reviews. 
     By promoting reviewers that submit reviews that prove to be useful to their readers, the facility motivates many of the users visiting the web merchant&#39;s web site to prepare and submit useful item reviews. This in turn typically increases the level of traffic to the web merchant&#39;s web site (in terms of number of visitors, average frequency with which a single user visits, and average duration of a visit), the number of sales completed and therefore the profitability of the web merchant, and the level of satisfaction of item purchasers, both with respect to their purchases specifically and with respect to the web merchant generally. 
       FIG. 1  is a high-level block diagram showing a typical environment in which the facility operates. The block diagram shows several client computer systems, such as client computer systems  110 ,  120 , and  130 . Each of the client computer systems has a web client computer program for browsing the World Wide Web, such as web clients  111 ,  121 , and  131 . The client computer systems are connected via the Internet  140  to a server computer system  150  hosting the facility. Those skilled in the art will recognize that client computer systems could be connected to the server computer system by networks other than the Internet, however. 
     The server computer system  150  contains a memory  160 . The memory  160  preferably contains web merchant software  161  incorporating both the facility  162  and data typically used by facility, such as item reviews  163 , votes  164  on item reviews, and item order and/or sales data  165 . The memory preferably further contains a web server computer program  166  for delivering web pages in response to requests from web clients. While items  161 - 166  are preferably stored in memory while being used, those skilled in the art will appreciate that these items, or portions of them, maybe be transferred between memory and a persistent storage device  172  for purposes of memory management and data integrity. The server computer system further contains one or more central processing units (CPU)  171  for executing programs, such as programs  161 ,  162 , and  166 , and a computer-readable medium drive  173  for reading information or installing programs such as the facility from computer-readable media, such as a floppy disk, a CD-ROM, or a DVD. 
     While various embodiments are described in terms in the environment described above, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the facility may be implemented in a variety of other environments including a single, monolithic computer system, as well as various other combinations of computer systems or similar devices connected in various ways. 
       FIGS. 2-5  show examples of ways in which the facility promotes, and thereby rewards, top-ranked reviewers.  FIG. 2  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility showing a list of top-ranked reviewers. The display  200  is displayed as part of the web site of web merchant Amazon.com. The display includes to laudatory language  201  congratulating the top-ranked reviewers. The display also includes an ordered list  210  of the top-ranked reviewers. List  210  is comprised of ordered entries, each corresponding to one top-ranked reviewer, such as entries  220 ,  230 , and  240 . As an example, entry  220  contains information about the highest-ranked reviewer, Harriet Klausner. This entry contains the reviewer&#39;s rank  221 , as well as a graphical characterization  222  of the rank. The entry further contains the name of the reviewer  223 , which is a link that the user can select in order to view more detailed information about this reviewer. The entry further contains an indication  224  of the total number of reviews authored by this reviewer. The entry also contains further information  225  about the reviewer, typically provided by the reviewer him or herself. This information includes a link  226  that may be selected by the user to display additional information about the reviewer. Some entries contain an image of the reviewer, such as image  237  shown in entry  230 . 
     In addition to the list  210  of detailed entries about the top-ranked reviewers, the display also contains a more abbreviated list  250  of the top-ranked reviewers. In this list, each entry is merely the rank value and the name of the reviewer, which is a link that may be selected by the user to display additional information about the reviewer. 
       FIG. 3  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing more detailed information about a particular top-ranked reviewer. In particular, the display  300  shown in  FIG. 3  is displayed by the facility when the user selects link  243  for the reviewer Frank Behrens shown in  FIG. 2 . The display includes a profile  310  for the reviewer, which include such information as the reviewer&#39;s name  311 , a nickname  312  for the reviewer, an email address  313  for the reviewer, the current rank  314  of the reviewer, the beginning of a biographical sketch  315  of the reviewer, a link  316  to the entire biographical sketch of the reviewer, a count  317  of the number of reviews submitted by this reviewer, a count  318  of the number of positive votes cast for the reviews of this reviewer, and a graphical indication  319  of the rank of the reviewer. The display further contains each of the reviews submitted by the reviewer. As an example, the display contains information  320  about the reviewer&#39;s most recent review. This information includes information  321  about the reviewed item, such as the title, artist, format, price, and availability of the item, as well as a link  322  that may be used to display more information about the item, and a control  323  that may be used to place an order for the item. The information  320  also includes a grade  324  assigned by the reviewer to the item as part of the review—here the grade shown is four stars out of five stars; the review&#39;s title  325 ; the date 326 on which the review was submitted; and the text  327  of the review. The display also contains a section  330  containing links to item categories for which the reviewer has submitted reviews. 
       FIG. 4  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing detailed information about an item. In this case, the item is the Tchaikosvky Symphony No. 6 DVD whose review is shown in  FIG. 3 . The display  400  shown in  FIG. 4  is displayed in response to the selection of link  322  shown in  FIG. 3 . In addition to other information about the item, the display includes a list of reviews submitted for the item. These include review  413  submitted by the reviewer Frank Behrens. The review  410  includes the reviewer&#39;s name  411 , which is a link to the display shown in  FIG. 3 ; a graphical indication  412  for the current rank of the reviewer; the item grade  413  assigned to the item as part of the review; the review title  414 ; the text of the review; and voting buttons  415  and  416 . A user that is undecided about buying this item may read review  410 . Based upon various aspects of the review, the user may either find the review helpful in deciding whether to purchase the item or unhelpful in deciding whether to purchase the item. Such a user may select button  415  if the review was helpful, or button  416  if the review was not helpful. In some embodiments, such votes are the basis on which the facility scores and ranks this reviewer. The display further includes a link  421  that the user may select to submit his or her own review of the Tchaikosvky Symphony No. 6 DVD item. 
       FIG. 5  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility incorporating information about two randomly-selected top-ranked reviewers. The display  500  includes a list  510  of randomly-selected top-ranking reviewers. The list is comprised of one or more entries, such as entries  520  and  530  shown here, which each relate to one randomly-selected top-ranked reviewer. For example, entry  520  relates to reviewer number  14 , and includes the reviewer&#39;s rank value  521 ; the reviewer&#39;s name  522 , which is a link which that the user may select in order to display more information about this reviewer; the number of reviews submitted by this reviewer  523 ; and the number of positive votes  524  received by this reviewer&#39;s reviews. Some entries contain an image of the corresponding reviewer, such as image  535  in entry  530 . The display also includes a link  540  to the top reviewer&#39;s list shown in  FIG. 2 . 
       FIGS. 6-8  show an example of an approach to obtaining an item review submitted by a reviewer.  FIG. 6  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility to enable a user to submit a new review. The user typically selects this display in conjunction with a particular item, for which the user can submit a review. For example, display  600  is displayed in response to the user&#39;s selection of link  421  in the display containing detailed information about the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 DVD shown in  FIG. 4 . 
     The display includes the identity of the user, which is attributed as the identity of the reviewer. To attribute a different identity to the reviewer, the user can select link  602 . The display includes information  603  identifying the item to be reviewed. The display includes a control  604  used by the user to specify a grade or rating for the reviewed item. The display includes field  605  for entering a title for the review. The display includes field  606  for entering the text of the review. The user may select radio button  607  in order to display a reviewer name with the review, which may edited in field  608 . Alternatively, the user may select radio button  609  to make the review anonymous and prevent the review from being associated with the reviewer&#39;s name. The display also includes field  610  for entering the author&#39;s location. Before preparing the review as described, the user may select link  621  in order to display guidelines for preparing the review. The user may also select link  622  in order to display one or more example customer reviews demonstrating compliance with the review guidelines. When the user has assembled the review to be submitted using the above described aspects of the display, the user selects button  611 . 
       FIG. 7  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing guidelines for preparing an item review. The display  700  contains typical guidelines for this activity. 
       FIG. 8  is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by the facility containing sample reviews. The display  800  includes sample reviews, such as sample review  810 . In some embodiments, sample reviews are chosen from among the reviews of top-ranked reviewers, such as from the reviews of the top-ranked  100  reviewers. 
       FIG. 9  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility in order to process a new item review submitted by a reviewer. In step  901 , the facility receives a new item review from a reviewer. Such a new item review may be received in a variety of ways, including receiving it using a web-based form as shown in  FIG. 6 , receiving it via electronic mail, receiving it in a document uploaded to an FTP server, receiving it in paper form, receiving it in audio form, etc. 
     In step  902 , the facility assigns the review identifier to the review that will be used to identify the review and stores the received review in conjunction with the assigned review identifier. In step  903 , the facility creates an association between the assigned review identifier and an identifier for the reviewer. As an example, Table 1 below shows information stored in a data structure, and, in particular, rows stored in a table, in order to create such an association. 
                                 TABLE 1                       review identifier   reviewer identifier                           . . .   . . .           96335807   449603151134           96335808   230651087912           96335809   449603151135           . . .   . . .                        
For example, the first row shown in Table 1 indicates that the item review having review identifier 96335807 was submitted by the reviewer having reviewer identifier 449603151134.
 
     In step  904 , the facility obtains editorial approval for the review. As an example, the facility may in step  904  add the review or its review identifier to a queue of new reviews to be subjected to a manual editorial review process. Step  904  is optional, and may be applied selectively, such as to reviews submitted by reviewers that have a reviewer score below a certain threshold, or a reviewer rank value above a certain threshold. Alternatively, the new review may be added to such a queue at different points depending upon the score or rank of the submitting reviewer. 
     In step  905 , after editorial approval has been received for the review, the facility makes the review available on the web site. This may involve, for example, incorporating the review in a display such as those shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  8 . Again, step  905  may be performed in a manner sensitive to the score and/or rank of the submitting reviewer. After step  905 , these steps typically conclude. 
       FIG. 10  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility in order to process votes received for published item reviews. In step  1001 , the facility receives a vote on a review from a voter. For example, the facility may receive an indication that a user pressed a button like button  415  shown in  FIG. 4  indicating that a review was helpful to the user, or a button like button  416  shown in  FIG. 4  indicating that a review was not helpful to the user. Such a vote typically identifies a review to which the vote relates, an identifier identifying the voter, the date and time at which the vote was cast, and the value of the vote, i.e., whether the voter indicated that the review was helpful or not helpful. In step  1002 , the facility stores this information together. For example, this information may be stored in an entry of a data structure, such as a row of a table, as shown below in Table 2. 
                                 TABLE 2               review identifier   voter identifier   date/time   helpful                   . . .   . . .   . . .   . . .       96335807   919654002315   Apr. 11, 2001 16:04:02   yes       43227116   310956681822   Apr. 11, 2001 16:04:02   yes       84325510   919654002315   Apr. 11, 2001 16:04:03   no       . . .   . . .   . . .   . . .                    
For example, it can be seen from the first row shown in Table 2 that a vote on the review having review identifier 96335807, cast by a voter having voter identifier 919654002315, was cast at 16:04:02 on Apr. 11, 2001, and that this vote indicated that the review was helpful. After step  1002 , these steps typically conclude.
 
       FIG. 11  is a flow diagram showing steps typically performed by the facility to update reviewer scores and rankings. The facility typically performs these steps periodically, such as once per day. In step  1101 , the facility identifies reviewers whose reviews have received at least one new vote. In some embodiments, step  1101  involves selecting from the stored votes those votes cast on the date immediately preceding the current date. The review identifiers in the selected votes are used to identify the reviewer identifiers corresponding to the selected votes. 
     In steps  1102 - 1104 , the facility loops through each reviewer identified in step  1101  as having received at least one new vote. In step  1103 , the facility calculates an updated reviewer score for the current reviewer. The facility is preferably configurable to use a wide variety of different approaches to determining reviewer scores. In one approach, the facility calculates a reviewer score based upon scores calculated for each review of the reviewer. In accordance with this approach, for each review, the facility applies formula (1) below.
 
Score review =2( A+B+C )−( D+E )  (1)
 
where A is the number of reviews submitted by the author for which at least 3 positive indications were received, B is the number of reviews submitted by the author for which at least 10 positive indications were received, C is the number of reviews submitted by the author that were the first reviews submitted for the corresponding item and for which at least 3 positive indications were received, D is the number of reviews submitted by the author for which at least 3 more negative indications than positive indications were received, and E is the number of reviews submitted by the author for which at least 10 more negative indications than positive indications were received.
 
     In some embodiments, the facility excludes from values A through E any votes that (1) were subsequent to the first vote cast by the same voter on the same review, or (2) were subsequent to the fifth vote by the same voter on any review by the same reviewer. Various other approaches to calculating a score for a review may also be employed by the facility, such as those in which fewer or more factors are considered, or such factors are weighted differently. Additional factors that various embodiments may consider includes such factors as whether the review is the first review submitted for a particular item, and the number of orders that have been placed for an item by a customer to which the review has been displayed. 
     The score for a reviewer is generated by summing the scores of the reviewer&#39;s reviews as shown below in formula (2). 
                     Score   reviewer     =       ∑         reviewer   &#39;     ⁢   s     ⁢     
     ⁢   reviews       ⁢           ⁢     Score   review               (   2   )               
In various embodiments, a reviewer&#39;s score may be determined by combining the scores for the reviewer&#39;s reviews in a variety of other ways.
 
     After step  1103 , the facility continues in step  1104 . In step  1104 , if additional identified reviewers remain for processing, the facility continues in step  1102  to process the next identified reviewer, else the facility continues in step  1105 . In step  1105 , the facility attributes a rank value to each reviewer based upon their reviewers scores, as updated. In step  1106 , the facility proceeds to utilize the reviewer rank values attributed in step  1105  in any web pages of the web&#39;s web site that reference these rank values. This may involve, for example, utilizing the attributed reviewer rank values in a display such as those shown in  FIGS. 2-5 . After step  1106 , these steps typically conclude. 
     It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the above-described facility could be adapted or extended in various ways. For example, the facility may be operated by others besides web merchants. A variety of different types of rewards may be offered to reviewers submitting useful reviews. The usefulness of reviews may be discerned in a variety of different ways. While the foregoing description makes reference to preferred embodiments, the scope of the invention is defined solely by the claims that follow and the elements recited therein.

Technology Category: g