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Improving online credibility

If you’ve browsed Amazon’s product reviews recently you may have noticed an interesting new feature: Badges, little icons displayed below certain people’s names. This isn’t a new idea by any means—many online communities use special icons as rewards for members who make valuable contributions (SitePoint is a good example). What’s interesting about Amazon’s badges is that one of them is “Real Name”. Amazon’s Real Names FAQ explains the badge, and includes the following:

Why is Amazon.com encouraging the use of Real Names?

In general, we believe that a community in which people use their Real Names will ultimately have higher quality content, since an author willing to sign his or her real-world name on a piece of content is essentially saying “With my real-world identity, I stand by what I have written here.”

Real names certainly add credibility to online discussion: I for one find it much easier to trust information if the author appears to have signed their real name to it. The challenge is verifying that the name is accurate, and Amazon’s solution is so simple-but-smart that I kicked myself: they match the name against the user’s credit card details. Genius.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this trick taking on a key role in the field of online identity management—provided Amazon’s patent lawyers don’t get there first.

Posted 29th July 2004 at 5:45 am

This is Improving online credibility by Simon Willison, posted on 29th July 2004.

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15 comments

  1. Patenting the displaying of real names, or patenting the use of a credit card to confirm the real name? Is the latter even possible? That would be bizzare at the least

    Marc - 29th July 2004 12:37 - #

  2. It would be ludicrous - but that didn't stop the 1-click patent.

    Simon Willison - 29th July 2004 16:15 - #

  3. What if more than one person share the same name?

    Chris Hester - 29th July 2004 16:26 - #

  4. What if more than one person share the same name?

    Why not appending the credit card number to the name to avoid such name collisions ? ^__^

    Mathieu 'P01' HENRI - 29th July 2004 17:49 - #

  5. Well, they could add "from [location or hometown]."

    Oh, and I couldn't help but notice, these two posts in the "related entries" are very humorous:

    • Real girls eat beef - 7th February 2003
    • Why MSN Messenger sucks - 9th December 2002

    Tom - 29th July 2004 19:53 - #

  6. I can easily imagine them getting a patent on it. Because it's likley that nobody else has ever bothered to patent "A method for verifying a person's real name for online display on a web site by confirming private financial data."

    Nevermind the fact that it's not really an earth-shattering example of a "novel idea". The U.S. patent office seems fairly oblivious to any definition of novelty when it comes to software patents.

    Dougal Campbell - 29th July 2004 21:14 - #

  7. American Airlines has been using credit cards to verify your name at the electronic checkin kiosks for well over 3 years now. Paypal uses bank accounts and credit cards to verify names and has been doing so for quite some time as well. These methods of verification are nothing new.

    Scott Johnson - 30th July 2004 17:13 - #

  8. I think Dougal and Scott are missing the point. We all know that credit card verification has been around for years, but this "badge" feature is nothing to do with authenticating users, as such.

    Amazon are indicating users that using their real name as their screen name - for the benefit of other users. Like Simon points out, not everyone is willing to use their real name on a website. Those people who do are more likely to be submitting quality content as it reflects upon themselves personally.

    Chris Beach - 31st July 2004 12:30 - #

  9. But what if you don't want your real name to go public? Surely there is issues here?

    David Jones - 1st August 2004 07:19 - #

  10. Then you don't get the privilege of getting a "real name" badge.

    Of course, this system automatically makes everyone without a "real name" less credible. =)

    starvingartist - 2nd August 2004 05:27 - #

  11. ...not to mention people without a credit card. Hard though it may be to believe when you're white, middle-class, and college-educated, a credit card is not issued at birth.

    E. Naeher - 23rd August 2004 22:47 - #

  12. That's right, E Naeher, credit cards are not issued at birth. But there's no need for your bleeding-heart liberalist rhetoric.

    Amazon's system will not prevent anyone from participating, it will merely put a little graphic next to certain people to indicate they are using their real name. But to be honest, if the system functions in a way that favours well-eductated adults then that's fine by me. Sadly I don't think this will be the case as I know plenty of dumbass kids that have credit cards (I had one myself at the age of 16)

    I don't know where your "white" reference comes from but I assume it's just because you're merely using a cliche. There's no need for racially paranoid speculation. Imagine the fuss that would be kicked up if a bank was to refuse a credit card on racial grounds!

    Chris Beach - 24th August 2004 10:12 - #

  13. Hello. Humble Idea to upgrade MSN Web Search: Use Dewey Decimal System for ALL MSN Web searches. Please do not lump All roten Tomatos together. Be the First to Update Web site searches. Apple does not equal Ant: Please don't list all A items together: Classifie items using the Dewey Decimal System. Set up a Google Dewey Decimal search listing. YOU CAN DO IT. It's 2006: Time for Something New. r.k.

    Bobby Kennedy - 29th December 2005 23:42 - #

  14. Real names can also get those spammers to email you with your real name thinking they know you. Take for instance, paypal. People try to email me saying i have or someone have tried to access my paypal account. They don't know my name, so this way i know they are not real, only hackers. Give them your name, and you can guess what happens next.

    Online Credibility - 23rd May 2006 02:18 - #

  15. Amazon may or may not be working on getting a patent for verifying someone's identity from a credit card, but they've already done something ludicrous: obtained a trademark registration from the US Patent and Trademark Office on the Real Name designation itself. Yes, using the words "Real Name" to indicate that a name is someone's real name is a truly original and proprietary idea. What'll they trademark next, the use of the word "book" to refer to a book?

    Christopher DeMille - 16th September 2006 18:44 - #

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