Method and system for authorizing and enabling anonymous consumer internet personalization

Abstract

A system and method for customizing information presented to a user based on user preferences and/or interests. The system receives user preferences and/or interests and builds a user profile for the user based on those preferences and/or interests. The system receives a request from a website or application to access the user's profile. In response to this request, the system provides the website or application with access to the user's profile and generates one or more customized content items based on the user's profile, which may be embedded into, overlaid on the website or graphical user interface of the application. The system also allows the user to personalize their profile to generate customized content items on websites and applications that the user visits or uses.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method of building a user profile and regulating access of a requesting party to the user's profile comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, information about a user's interests;   b. building, by a processor, a profile for the user based on the received information, wherein the profile is configured to allow the user to regulate access to the user's profile by the requesting party, wherein the requesting party is selected from a group consisting of:
 i. a first website; 
 ii. a first application; and 
 iii. a first web service; 
   c. receiving, by a processor, a request from the requesting party to access the user's profile; and   d. at least partially in response to receiving the request from the requesting party, providing, by a processor, access to at least some of the information in the user's profile to the requesting party.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of receiving a request from the requesting party to access the user's profile is at least partially based on a fee set by one of the user or the requesting party. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein providing access to at least some of the user's profile further comprises:
 a. receiving, by a processor, the fee from one of the user or the requesting party; and   b. at least partially in response to receiving the fee, providing, by a processor, access to at least some of the information in the user's profile to the requesting party.   
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein
 a. the fee is set by the user; and   b. the fee is $0.01 per each access to the user's profile.   
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, a sample profile, a matching criteria and the fee by the requesting party;   b. comparing, by a processor, the sample profile to the user's profile;   c. at least partially in response to comparing the sample profile to the user's profile, determining, by a processor, whether the comparison of the user's profile to the sample profile meets the matching criteria; and   d. at least partially in response to determining that the user's profile meets the matching criteria, offering the fee to the user for compensation for the user to allow the requesting party access to the user's profile.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein the fee is based on how well the user's profile meets the matching criteria. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein building the profile further comprises:
 a. analyzing, by a processor, one or more social networking sites on which the user has an account to determine particular interests of the user;   b. categorizing, by a processor, the user's interests into one or more categories;   c. facilitating, by a processor, generation of a frequency of keywords associated with the one or more social networking sites; and   d. ranking, by a processor, the importance of the keywords based at least in part on the frequency of the keywords.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein building the profile further comprises:
 a. monitoring, by a processor, the online activity of the user;   b. capturing, by a processor, at least some of the online activity of the user;   c. categorizing, by a processor, the at least some of the online activity of the user; and   d. updating, by a processor, the user's profile with the categorized online activity of the user.   
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein building the profile further comprises:
 a. receiving, by a processor, a request from the user to link one or more social media accounts to the user's profile;   b. receiving, by a processor, account username and password information associated with the user for the one or more social media accounts;   c. linking, by a processor, the one or more social media accounts to the user's profile;   d. facilitating, by a processor, a search of the user's one or more social media accounts to determine a histogram of word clusters used in the user's one or more social media accounts to categorize the received information into one or more topics and one or more subtopics.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein determining a histogram of word clusters further comprises:
 a. analyzing, by a processor, one or more words used in the linked one or more social media accounts to determine the frequency of keywords used in the linked one or more social media accounts;   b. at least partially based on analyzing the one or more words, determining, by a processor, the relative importance of each keyword based on its frequency of use in the linked one or more social media accounts;   c. at least partially in response to determining the relative importance of each keyword, building, by a processor, a histogram of keywords used or associated with the linked one or more social media accounts in order to determine a histogram of word clusters.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein providing access to at least some of the user's profile further comprises:
 a. sending, by a processor, a notice to the user requesting authorization from the user to allow the requesting party to access the user's profile for the fee;   b. receiving, by a processor, authorization from the user to allow the requesting party to access the user's profile; and   c. providing, by a processor, the requesting party access to at least some of the information in the user's profile.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating, by a processor, one or more customized content items based on the user's profile, wherein the one or more customized content items are configured to be integrated into the requesting party. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 12 , wherein the customized content items further comprises coupons. 
     
     
         14 . A computer-implemented method of building a user profile that is used by websites, applications, or web services to generate customized content for the user comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, information selected from a group consisting of:
 i. at least one of a user's preferences, a user's interests, or a user's demographic information, wherein the at least one of the user's preferences, the user's interests, or the user's demographic information is obtained by tracking the user's activities on at least one of one or more websites, one or more applications, or one or more web services, 
 ii. at least one of the user's preferences, the user's interests, or the user's demographic information obtained manually from the user; and 
 iii. user interests obtained from at least one social media account of the user; 
   b. at least partially in response to receiving the information, building, by a processor, a profile for the user based on the received information, wherein the profile is configured to allow the user to control access to the profile by one or more websites, one or more applications, or one or more web services;   c. categorizing the received information into topics and subtopics; and   d. generating, by a processor, a visualization of the user's profile and displaying the visualization to the user.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 a. tracking, by a processor, at least one of website usage, application usage, or web service usage by the user; and   b. at least partially in response to tracking the at least one of website usage, application usage or web service usage by the user, updating, by a processor, the user's profile based on information obtained from the at least one of website usage, application usage, or web service usage.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15 , wherein tracking the user's website usage, application usage, or web service usage further comprises providing the user with a browser plugin that is configured to capture information about the user's preferences as the user searches on one or more websites, one or more applications, or using one or more web services. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , wherein
 a. the visualization comprises a series of colored boxes adjacent to each other,   b. each colored box represents a category of interest for the user, and   c. the width of a respective one of the colored boxes is based on the number of times the user engaged in an activity related to a particular category.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , wherein:
 a. the visualization is configured to allow the user to click on a discrete one of the colored boxes to open a second website that contains customized information associated with the category linked to the discreet colored box; and   b. at least partially in response to receiving an indication that the user clicked on the discrete one of the colored boxes, opening, by a processor, the second website containing customized information.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, a request from the one or more websites, the one or more applications, or the one or more web services to generate customized content for the user for a set fee offered by one of the user or the one or more websites, the one or more applications, or the one or more web services; and   b. at least partially in response to receiving the request from the one or more websites, the one or more applications, or the one or more web services, providing, by a processor, access to at least some of the information in the user's profile to the one or more websites, the one or more applications, or the one or more web services to allow the one or more websites, the one or more applications, or the one or more web services to generate customized content for the user.   
     
     
         20 . A computer-implemented method of customizing information presented to one or more users comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, one or more user profiles for one or more users;   b. analyzing, by a processor, the one or more user profiles to determine particular common interests of the one or more users;   c. at least partially in response to analyzing the one or more user profiles, determining a common interest between the one or more users based on at least one predetermined criterion; and   d. at least partially in response to determining the common interest of the one or more users, presenting, by a processor, customized information to the one or more users.   
     
     
         21 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 20 , further comprising:
 a. receiving, by a processor, a request from one or more users to create a group at least partially based on the common interest of the one or more users; and   b. at least partially in response to receiving the request, creating, by a processor, the group of one or more users based on the common interest.   
     
     
         22 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 21 , wherein receiving the request to create the group further comprises:
 a. receiving, by a processor, from one or more users a hashtag character; and   b. at least partially in response to receiving the hashtag character, creating, by a processor, a group consisting of all users who sent the hashtag character.   
     
     
         23 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 20 , wherein the predetermined criteria is that the common interest satisfies at least 70% of the interests for the one or more users. 
     
     
         24 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 20 , wherein the customized information further comprises one or more recommendations, wherein the one or more recommendations is selected from a group consisting of:
 a. restaurant recommendations;   b. activity recommendations;   c. connection recommendations between the one or more users; and   d. coupon recommendations.