Prospector

Reminder: Time to spend more money

Here is an article about software recently patented by Amazon. Based on your buying patterns the software can figure out why you are buying. Then it can predict what and when you need to buy again. The software can 'help' you buy.

Shopping can be such drudgery. All that deciding when to buy and what to buy. That's something we should get a computer to do for us.
How convenient! Amazon's software can do that for us! We should give it our credit card number and let it do the hard part of spending our money. They should also have a service to automatically send thank you notes from the people to whom we send gifts.

Maybe we should outsource the whole holiday and gift-giving process to Amazon.
"Thank you. Based on your profile we have shipped a fine array of Presidents Day gifts to all your friends and family. The spring equinox season is coming. Update your profile before the gifting fun begins!"

Online purchase could give you away
13:16 15 March 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Celeste Biever

Retailers could guess your age, sex, birthday and wedding anniversary simply from the types of gifts purchased for you online and their timing, according to a patent granted to online retail giant, Amazon.

The information could be used to remind your loved ones of an impending special occasion and offer gift suggestions.

The patent describes software that automatically guesses when a gift is being purchased by extracting key words such as "birthday" or "anniversary" from an attached message.

"Customers may be provided with reminders of important events, thereby avoiding the embarrassment that ensues when one forgets such events," the patent declares.

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New Scientist Breaking News - Online purchase could give you away

posted by Prospector @ 9:05 AM