System for creating customized web content based on user behavioral portraits

• US 8,666,835 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 4, LLC
• Original Assignee: 7 Billion People Incorporated
• Inventors: Minnis, William Charles, Nagaitis, Mark, Pokorney, Trevor, Cowin, Richard, Gugliemetti, Brian, Miers, Steven, Schank, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunham, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Civan, Ethan D
• Application Number:
  US13/276,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20120036449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 705 26- 272
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A method is provided for determining a website user behavioral portrait based on navigation on the website and dynamically reconfiguring web pages based on those portraits. In accordance with the method, data relating to the progress of a user through a website is recorded, and an ongoing behavioral portrait of the user is built based on the data. The portrait is then used to dynamically reconfigure web content.

Claims

1. A system for providing customized web pages, comprising:

a first server adapted to provide web pages to a client associated with a user and being further adapted to receive input from the user when the user accesses features on the web pages;

a software program adapted to (a) receive user input from the first server, (b) create a behavioral portrait of the user based on the user input, and (c) dynamically update the behavioral portrait as additional user input becomes available, thereby creating an updated behavioral portrait; and

a second server adapted to alter the content of the web pages displayed by said first server based on the updated behavioral portrait;

wherein the behavioral portrait is a psychological profile of the user as it pertains to the user'"'"'s preferences, including the user'"'"'s preferred decision-making approach, the user'"'"'s motivation for making a purchase, and the manner in which the user prefers to have information presented to them, wherein the software program creates a behavioral portrait of the user, or dynamically updates an existing behavioral portrait of the user, based on the user'"'"'s clickstream as the user navigates the web pages, and wherein the clickstream includes items selected from the group consisting of the pages a user navigates, the items the user clicks on, search terms entered by the user, check-out information, pages abandoned by the user, and the selection of “

top 10”

items by the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the software resides in a dedicated server appliance equipped with an application programming interface, and wherein the updated behavioral portrait is stored in a database maintained by the dedicated server appliance.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user input includes data relating to items selected from the group consisting of mouse clicks and field entries.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is a numerical score, and wherein the software program is adapted to derive the numerical score based on the user'"'"'s navigation through the web pages hosted by the first server.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the software program is adapted to derive the numerical score through neural linguistic programming.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the software program is adapted to derive the numerical score based attaching weights to possible actions taken by a user as the user navigates through the web pages, and wherein the user'"'"'s actions are weighted by category and lexical analysis.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the weights are reset to default values when the user portrait exhibits exceptional behavior.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein altering the content of the web pages includes dynamically reconfiguring web content, and wherein the web content is reconfigured only when the weighting reaches a predefined tipping point.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is built by applying psychological portrait scoring to each selection made by the user as the user accesses features on the web pages.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is built by applying a psychological behavior model scoring system to each selection made by the user as the user accesses features on the web pages.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is a numerical score derived from applying meta linguistic psychological analysis to each selection made by the user as the user accesses features on the web pages.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is a numerical score derived from the user'"'"'s actions on the web pages, wherein the user'"'"'s actions are weighted by category and lexical analysis, and wherein the weights are based on possible actions that can be taken by a user as the user navigates the web pages.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is the psychological profile of the user as it pertains to the user'"'"'s preferences in a particular situation.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program is adapted to create a behavioral portrait of the user based solely on user input, and wherein user input is in the form of selections made by the user as the user browses the web pages.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program is adapted to dynamically update the behavioral portrait of the user based solely on user input, and wherein user input is in the form of selections made by the user as the user browses the web pages.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait is the psychological profile of the user as it pertains to the user'"'"'s preferences in a buying situation.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program creates a behavioral portrait of the user based solely on the user'"'"'s clickstream as the user navigates the web pages.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program dynamically updates the behavioral portrait based solely on the user'"'"'s clickstream as the user navigates the web pages.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program creates a behavioral portrait of the user based solely on the user'"'"'s clickstream as the user navigates the web pages, and wherein the software dynamically updates the behavioral portrait based solely on the user'"'"'s clickstream as the user navigates the web pages.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the web pages belong to an e-commerce site.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program categorizes selectable items on the web pages into a plurality of categories, and wherein the plurality of categories are mapped to a set of psychological attributes.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of categories are mapped to a set of psychological attributes by way of a set of rules.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the set of rules assigns a weight to a psychological attribute in the behavioral portrait of a user in response to the user'"'"'s selection of an item in one of the plurality of categories.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the set of rules assigns the same weight to the same psychological attribute in response to the user'"'"'s selection of any item in one of the plurality of categories.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait of a user contains a plurality of psychological attributes, and wherein the software uses a set of rules to assign a weight to a psychological attribute in the behavioral portrait of a user in response to the order in which items were selected by the user.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavioral portrait of a user contains a plurality of psychological attributes, and wherein the software uses a set of rules to assign a weight to a psychological attribute in the behavioral portrait of a user in response to items on a web page which are not selected by the user.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the software program assigns a weight to a psychological attribute in the behavioral portrait of a user based on the speed of the clicks in the click stream.

28. A system for providing customized web pages, comprising:

a server in communication with a client over a network; and

a software program adapted to develop a behavioral portrait of a user associated with the client based on captured data relating to the online behavior of the user;

wherein the behavioral portrait is a psychological profile of the user as it pertains to the user'"'"'s preferences, including their preferred decision-making approach, their motivation for making the purchase, and the manner in which they prefer to have information presented to them, and wherein the captured data includes items selected from the group consisting of the pages a user navigates, the items the user clicks on, search terms entered by the user, check-out information, pages abandoned by the user, and the selection of “

top 10”

items by the user.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the software program is further adapted to dynamically modify web content based on the behavioral portrait of the user and to provide the server with the modified web content in real-time, and wherein the server is adapted to transmit the modified web content to the client.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the server is in communication with a plurality of clients over the network, and wherein the software is adapted to develop behavioral portraits of a plurality of users associated with the plurality of clients.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the server is adapted to provide the client with web pages having software embedded therein, and wherein the embedded software is adapted to (a) monitor client activity, (b) capture data relating to the monitored client activity, and (c) transmit the captured data to the server.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the embedded software is JavaScript.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the server is adapted to store the captured data in a database, and wherein the software program is adapted to develop a behavioral portrait for a user based on the captured data stored in the database.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein the server is adapted to receive requests for web pages from the client, wherein the server is adapted to receive from the software program modified versions of the requested web pages, wherein the server is further adapted to transmit the modified versions of the requested web pages to the client, and wherein the modified versions of the requested web pages are original versions of the requested web pages which have been modified in light of the behavioral portrait of the user.

35. The system of claim 28, wherein the software resides in a dedicated server appliance equipped with an application programming interface, wherein the updated behavioral portrait is stored in a database maintained by the dedicated server appliance, and wherein the dedicated server appliance comprises (a) an application programming interface adapted to receive and analyze user input from the server;

(b) a portrait database which stores existing user portraits; and

(c) a portrait generator which generates new user portraits based on the user input.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the portrait generator is adapted to determine whether a user already has a portrait stored in the portrait database, and is further adapted to modify the existing user portrait as new information about the user'"'"'s behavior becomes available.

37. The system of claim 35, further comprising an application server, wherein the application server is adapted (a) to act upon a user portrait by generating re-mashed web content which is personalized to the user'"'"'s behavioral portrait, and (b) to pass the re-mashed web content to the web server for transmission to the client.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the dedicated server appliance continuously updates the user portrait database in real-time as new input from a user becomes available, and passes updated portrait information for the user to the application server.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the application server serves up re-mashed content to the user based on the updated portrait information.

40. The system of claim 35, wherein the dedicated server appliance is adapted to (a) receive and analyze user input from the server, (b) build a behavioral portrait for the user, (c) generate a portrait enhanced web page, and (d) provide the portrait enhanced web page to the client.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the dedicated server appliance further comprises:

a customer portrait engine which assembles and modifies customer portraits based on behavioral data captured from the server;

a page interpreter which interprets the various objects present on a web page;

a portrait enhanced page (PEP) generator which utilizes the customer portrait to generate PEPs; and

a PEP database where PEPs are stored.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the dedicated server appliance is further adapted to communicate customer portraits to third parties upon demand.

43. The system of claim 28, wherein the software is injected into a client'"'"'s website using JavaScript snippets placed in the client'"'"'s web page templates, and wherein the software is further adapted to capture data relating to the online behavior of the user.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the JavaScript snippets are adapted to be activated in real-time to insert the most current JavaScript code from the host system into the web page on demand.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the dedicated server appliance comprises a portrait engine, wherein the JavaScript is adapted to send a user'"'"'s click stream back to the portrait engine, and wherein the portrait engine utilizes the click stream to generate a behavioral portrait for the user.