11-12-2005, 09:58 AM
Quote:User reviews are a hot new content area, being used by Google , Yahoo and MSN to sweeten their local search results. But as of Thursday, such consumer reviews could put search providers, as well as thousands of e-commerce sites, video rental or review sites and online booksellers, in the sights of Amazon.com's lawyers.
The online retailer of books and just about everything else was awarded three new patents, covering its purchase circles, search and consumer reviews. While Amazon.com's patent police would go after Web publishers, not consumers, the review patent could put the kibosh on the social networking components of many search services.
full article: http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3563396