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 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.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , 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.   
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , 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.   
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , 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.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , 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.   
     
     
         7 . 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.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , 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.   
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , 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.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , wherein the predetermined criteria is that the common interest satisfies at least 70% of the interests for the one or more users. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , 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.