Network-based interaction and review service for facilitating communication in a network-based commerce environment

摘要

A network-based interaction and review server allows a user (e.g., a purchaser) to obtain reviews, collaboratively shop and consult experts with respect to a topic, web domain, website or product without being limited to engaging a service specific to a particular web domain, website or the network location. An interaction companion to a web browser may capture a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a website or web domain, currently being accessed via a web browser. This URL is communicated back into an interaction system, which performs a lookup to identify other users that are currently accessing the website or web domain, reviews relevant to the website or web domain, and experts associated with the website or web domain. The user then has the option of accessing such reviews, or engaging in communications (e.g., a web chat session or collaborative browsing) with the identified users or an expert. When engaging an expert, the expert assumes a leadership role in a collaborative browsing session. When collaboratively browsing with users, the user assumes a leadership within the collaborative session.