Comments on: Comments on 1905

Post number 1905

mmanning — Wed, 31 May 2000 15:57:52 -0800

amazon patents personalized recommendations. here we go again...

By: wiremommy

wiremommy — Wed, 31 May 2000 16:18:22 -0800

One word: FatBrain.

By: snarkout

snarkout — Wed, 31 May 2000 16:20:25 -0800

Sigh. Here we go, once again forced to ride the prior art train by Amazon. That's five, and there are at least a dozen more here. Does Amazon own Alexa? Is that the flimsy basis for their patent? This is particularly grating because I've been pontificating about the possibility of intelligently filtered weblogs--an improvement on how Slashdot does it--and have read a teeny-tiny slice of the vast amount of research on the topic.

By: snarkout

snarkout — Wed, 31 May 2000 16:25:07 -0800

This appears to be the patent in question. I know patent law is tough, but this can't be "novel", can it?

By: tomalak

tomalak — Wed, 31 May 2000 16:53:03 -0800

FatBrain has their own patents pending. And the latest patent was filed on March 17, 1998. Amazon purchased Alexa a year later, so I doubt their patent is related to Alexa.

By: tomalak

tomalak — Wed, 31 May 2000 17:12:47 -0800

Further background on Amazon's Bookmatcher service... A Net Perceptions Press Release mentions Amazon created the service with their technology. In another story about Amazon's introduction of Bookmatcher, it was mentioned B&N was using Firefly's collaborative filtering technology at the time.

By: Freakho

Freakho — Wed, 31 May 2000 17:54:20 -0800

Cdnow has done the same thing for at least a year and a half, I know. Are patents getting so specific they can get away with saying "..for books"? Can I get away with a patent on a service that matches users with a lawyer specializing in prior-art defenses?

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Wed, 31 May 2000 23:35:50 -0800

It seems to me that the art of recommending other goods and services based on prior happiness with another good or service was master LONG before the internet was even concieved. Of course, I can't prove that. Or, maybe I just don't care to prove it. Regardless, amazon is evil. I will never buy anything from them.

By: howa2396

howa2396 — Wed, 31 May 2000 23:42:09 -0800

I don't care to proofread either. I will never proofread!