Contacts affinity used to prioritize display of content item reviews in online store

1. A method to display prioritized reviews on a display of a mobile electronic device, the method comprising:

sending from a mobile electronic device a request over a network to an online storefront for content item information relating to a content item;

receiving at the mobile electronic device over the network from the online storefront the requested content item information, wherein the received content item information includes reviews of the content item and indications of identities of a plurality of reviewers who provided the reviews;

retrieving contacts information from a contacts database maintained within a memory of the mobile electronic device, wherein the contacts information indicates identities of contacts identified in the contacts database;

sending over the network from the mobile electronic device to the online storefront the retrieved contacts information;

receiving at the mobile electronic device over the network from the online storefront indications of matches between a plurality of contacts identified in the contacts information and the plurality of reviewers indicated in the content item information;

determining, at the mobile electronic device, a priority of the reviews of the content item, the priority based at least partially upon a respective social affinity between a matched respective reviewer in the plurality of reviewers and a user of the mobile electronic device; and

displaying, on the mobile electronic device, the reviews of the content item based on the determined priority.

2. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication of the determined prioritization includes a displaying of reviews by reviewers who are identified in the contacts database ahead of reviews by reviewers who are not identified in the contacts database.

3. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein determining priority of received reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of frequency of interaction indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

4. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein determining priority of received reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of recentness of interaction indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein determining priority of received reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of number of interactions indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein determining priority of received reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of type of interaction indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

7. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the contacts information sent over the network from the electronic device to the online storefront that indicates identity of contacts includes unique device identifiers of one or more of the contacts.

8. The method of claim 1 further including:

receiving over the network from the online storefront by the electronic device an indication of contacts who have the content item; and

displaying on the device UI an indication of the number of contacts who have the content item.

9. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein determining priority of received reviews includes determining by the electronic device as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information database between a user of the device and contacts indicated by the received indications of matches as matching reviewers of the content item.

10. A method to generate prioritized reviews of a content item offered through an online storefront and accessible through a user interface (UI) display of a mobile electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving a request over a network from a mobile electronic device to an online storefront for content item information relating to a content item;

receiving over the network from the mobile electronic device by the online storefront contacts information obtained from a contacts database maintained within a memory of the mobile electronic device, wherein the contacts information includes information identifying contacts of a user of the mobile electronic device and information indicating a social affinity between the user of the mobile electronic device and a plurality of the identified contacts;

obtaining from a content information database the requested content item information including reviews of the content item and indications of identities of a plurality of reviewers who provided the reviews;

determining matches between one or more contacts identified in the sent contacts information and one or more reviewers indicated in the obtained content item information;

determining, by the online storefront, a priority of at least some of the matched reviewers as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information between the user of the mobile electronic device and the matched reviewers of the content item;

sending over the network from the online storefront to the mobile electronic device the requested content item information, wherein the content information includes prioritized reviews of the content item and indications of identities of a plurality of the reviewers who provided the reviews.

11. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein determining priority of reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of frequency of interaction indicated in the contacts database between the user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

12. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein determining priority of reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of recentness of interaction indicated in the contacts database between the user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

13. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein determining priority of reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of number of interactions indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

14. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein determining priority of reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information includes determining social affinity at least in part as a function of type of interaction indicated in the contacts database between a user of the device and respective contacts in the contacts database.

15. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein the contacts information received over the network by the online storefront from the electronic device that indicates identity of contacts includes unique device identifiers of one or more of the contacts.

16. The method of claim 10 further including:

sending over the network by the online storefront to the electronic device an indication of contacts who have the content item.

17. A method to display prioritized reviews on a user interface (UI) of a mobile electronic device, the method comprising:

sending a request over a network from a mobile electronic device to an online storefront for content item information relating to a content item;

sending over the network by the online storefront to the mobile electronic device the requested content item information, wherein the sent content information includes reviews of the content item and indications of identities of a plurality of reviewers who provided the reviews;

retrieving contacts information from a contacts database maintained within a memory of the mobile electronic device, wherein the contacts information indicates identities of contacts identified in the contacts database;

sending over the network from the mobile electronic device to the online storefront the retrieved contacts information;

determining matches between one or more contacts identified in the sent contacts information and one or more reviewers indicated in the obtained content item information;

sending over the network from the online storefront to the mobile electronic device indications of matches between one or more contacts identified in the sent contacts information and one or more reviewers indicated in the received content item information;

determining a priority of received reviews as a function of social affinity indicated in the contacts information database between the user of the mobile electronic device and contacts indicated by the received indications of matches as matching reviewers of the content item; and

displaying the reviews on the UI of the mobile electronic device with an indication of the determined prioritization.

18. The method of claim 17 ,

wherein determining matches is performed by the electronic device.

19. The method of claim 17 ,

wherein determining matches is performed by the online storefront.