Social Networking System Patented

It’s finally happened. Eight years on from Friendster, seven years since MySpace opened it’s virtual doors and after six years of Facebook domination, somebody’s finally managed to patent social networking.

And it’s none of the above.

The US Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the following patent to online retailers Amazon. And it sounds awfully like something Mark Zuckerberg or Tom Anderson would have written down when they outlined their initial plans for their websites:

“A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users. For example, in one embodiment, 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. The system may also include features for enabling users to identify contacts of their respective contacts. In addition, the system may automatically notify users of personal information updates made by their respective contacts.”

So what odds on Facebook attempting to patent “a networked computer system that allows users to locate and purchase products from a range of suppliers and manufacturers“?