Amazon appears to have been granted a patent for Facebook. Strange as it sounds, that essentially what the patent for a “Social Networking system”, granted on 15 June, is.
The patent, reported by Network World, grants the online retail giant (via its Reno-based Amazon Technologies arm) control of the concept of “A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users.”
That sounds a lot like what Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and many others have been doing for a long time. Indeed, the patent’s abstract essentially describes what Facebook does.
“Users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations. The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user.”
Sound like Facebook to you? It even has the same kind of granular privacy. One of the supporting images in the patent document suggests travel planning service that allows you to see which of your friends are going to be in the same city at the same time, similar to Nokia-owned Dopplr.
One thing’s for sure, Amazon may have vaguely social elements to its service (wish lists, for example) but it’s certainly never run a full-on social network. It makes us wonder whether the folks at the US Patent Office have an internet connection. Facebook and many other online social networks are an inescapable part of life and everything about this patent screams “Prior Art!” Even when the application was submitted in May 2008, social networking was already well established.
The only prior art acknowledged by Amazon in the application is “Personal information management software” like Microsoft Outlook, “Groupware” like Lotus Notes and online ‘white pages’ and email services.
Although submitted in 2008, the patent has a long history. Forbes notes that:
“The patent was created by Brian Robertson and Warren Adams, co-founders of PlanetAll, which is often cited as the first social network. They sold it to Amazon in 1998, which held onto it for only two years before selling the company.”
The question is, will Amazon do anything with their patent? They could try to get Facebook and others to pay a license fee for running social networks, but we imagine that lawyers would stop that from happening. As Network World points out, Friendster patented a very similar social system four years ago and that hasn’t stopped other social services from flourishing.
It’s possible that Amazon is planning on turning its service into a fully social experience. That would be an interesting path for the company although why it would need a patent for already well established technologies isn’t clear.
We’ve asked Amazon for comment and will let you know what we hear back. Below are some images from the application.
It would make sense for Amazon to try and enter the social networking space. Think about it…how many hundreds of thousands of reviews exist in Amazon today. I never buy anything without visiting Amazon first to find out if there is anything negative about the product. If amazon leverages it’s massive data centers and starts allowing people to share pictures and “friend’ people, which they kinda of do because you can “Add to Interesting People”…which is sort of a Follow…they just haven’t done anything with status updates or messaging to other members.
All they have to do is start doing that and the millions of people who use Amazon can start using it as another social service…
Do you think Amazon can be the next Facebook?
Can’t say that they would ever get as large as facebook, just due to them already being the incumbent, but it could become a viable competitor.
Good insight – I don’t think this is ever a patent Amazon will try and use in court. Rather it could be a precedent to protect itself when launching a new revenue-generation model. Amazon could be entering social-networks-backed-selling in a big way (Shelfari may just be scratching the surface) and this patent allows them to buy some time in case a competitor beats them to it.
That being said, to use a patent like this – which sort of borders violating a basic right ! – I think Amazon will need to be pretty desparate !
At least Amazon patented it before some idiotic corporate jerk. Hopefully this is merely something to protect themselves from someone else patenting it and attacking them and in turn protects everyone else as well.
Yes, looks like a move to protect themselves from being accused of stealing ideas from other social networks. Keep in mind that they’ve already gone social by acquiring Shelfari. Maybe they have plans to integrate Shelfari and Amazon.com and don’t want to run into problems to do with unfair competition.
Wow, thats scary. I thought only Google could do stuff like that? I mean we all know Google is going to rule the world one day!
http://www.big-bro-watching.tk
Yeah amazon gets to make money off Facebook. haha.
Friendster may have a similar patent, but friendster doesn’t have a similar bank account and lawyers ready to sue.
I really really hope Amazon sends the dog after Facebook. Please Amazon pretty please gets your licensing fee. You deserve it.
Now we have to wait and see what innovative stuff will amazon brings in its social networking site. Hope its better than facebook.
More evidence that the patent system is totally, irretrievably and tragically b-r-o-k-e-n.
Prior art — phooey! This is all totally obvious to any software design engineer with half a brain.
My goodness, a patent which has your privacy your way
Can’t see any comparison with what Facebook dump on us
Amazon was one of the original social networks with these services being used in Amazon.com site since 2000 or earlier. The wishlists were very social and sharable. Amazon had school affiliation lists and community lists that were tied to post codes. In the last 4 years or so they have changed the functionality of these tools to make them a little less social and interactive. Amazon has paid attention to privacy for a long time as well ease of sharing with people you connect with.
But Amazon had a 4 to 6 year jump on Facebook. Ryze one of the first, one of the first social networks admittedly copied some features and functionality from Amazon. Friendster openly admitted to stealing similar features and functionality from Ryze. Facebook stole from Friendster.
Sounds like they’re also going to kick Expedia’s ass sooner or later with “social features” to me. Am I just failing to read between the lines?
Soon someone will try to patent two people meeting over coffee at a starbucks.
Lol does that mean Bebo and Myspace will have to start paying royalties?
Amazon hasn’t heard about copy and paste either. RE: first image, “CALSS A and B can see but not CLASS C” just two lines above they managed to spell it correctly.
“One thing’s for sure, Amazon may have vaguely social elements to its service (wish lists, for example) but it’s certainly never run a full-on social network.”
They actually did when they acquired a full-on social network in the late 90s. They shut it down after some years.