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Another Rank Amazon Patent

from the couldn't-wait-any-longer dept

Mon, Jun 12th 2006 1:05am — Mike Masnick

Professional Amazon/Jeff Bezos hater theodp writes "March 2000: Jeff Bezos countered that Amazon has made countless other innovations in Web commerce that it didn't patent, and that have been widely copied. For one example, he pointed to the way that they publish sales rankings. October 2002: Bezos counters that Amazon has made numerous innovations in web commerce that have been widely copied which it didn't patent, such as virtual shopping baskets, sales rankings and customer reviews. June 2006: US Patent No. 7,058,599 - Increases in sales rank as a measure of interest - issued to Amazon.com."

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shohat, 12 Jun 2006 @ 5:39am

But ... ermm....

Music "Charts" , Book rankings ....

Are.... ummmm like ...Old .... and are um.... like ... use sales rank.... as ... ummm.. measure of interest ...
and stuff ...
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Thomason, 12 Jun 2006 @ 6:06am

Weeklies, dailies..
Bezos may've been overlooking that patent app filed in 2001, when he commented in 2000.
Shohat has some legit inquiries. Seems, for example, that the NY Times Bestseller list was not a real-time measure, and who would've thought of such an upgrade - geniuses in Seattle, natch.
Here's a tidbit from the patent that spells out the once-secret "formula." The "formula involves dividing the difference between the current ranking value for an item and the largest (worst) ranking value for the item over the course of the past day by the current ranking value for the item."
Only those of you who complete middle-school may comprehend how this business method achieves its inventive purpose.
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