Keeping up with the joneses

• US 9,576,030 B1
• Filed: 05/07/2014
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Kapczynski, Mark Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Vy, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US14/271,741
• Time in Patent Office: 1,021 Days
• Field of Search: 707/748, 707/758
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Consumers often desire to compare themselves to other individuals. Disclosed herein are systems and methods of generating and displaying comparison information to users so that they can determine if they are “keeping up with the Joneses.”

Claims

1. A computing system for providing user comparison information to a user, the computing system comprising:

a user computing device;

one or more demographic databases each storing demographic attributes for each of a plurality of users;

a server computing system comprising;

one or more computer processors configured to execute first software instructions; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage device configured to store the first software instructions executable by the one or more computer processors in order to cause the server computing system to;

serve a website or mobile application content to the user computing device, the website or mobile application content comprising user interface controls usable by a user of the user computing device to;

provide identification information of the user;

provide identification information of a comparison individual; and

perform a comparison of each of multiple demographic attributes of the user with the corresponding of the multiple demographic attributes of the comparison individual identified by the user;

wherein the user computing device executes second software instructions to;

render the website or mobile application content served by the server computing system;

receive from the user and provide to the server computing system, via the rendered website or mobile application content, user identification information identifying the user of the user computing device;

receive from the user and provide to the server computing system, via the rendered website or mobile application content, comparison individual identification information identifying the comparison individual; and

receive from the user and provide to the server computing system, via the rendered website or mobile application content, a request to compare each of multiple demographic attributes of the user with corresponding of the multiple demographic attributes of the comparison individual identified by the user; and

wherein the stored first software instructions executed by the server computing system further cause the server computing system to;

access demographic data from the one or more demographic databases regarding the user of the user computing device, based on the user identification information, the demographic data including one or more demographic attribute in each of three or more categories selected from;

marital status, friends, profession, children, automobile, income level, residence, or education level;

receive, from the user, an indication of the comparison individual;

access comparison demographic data from the one or more demographic databases regarding the comparison individual, based on the comparison individual identification information, the comparison demographic data including one or more comparison demographic attribute in each of the three or more categories selected from;

marital status, friends, profession, children, automobile, income level, residence, or education level;

access a data structure storing information regarding most favorable levels of respective demographic attributes, wherein for a first category of demographic attributes the data structure indicates that a higher number is more favorable and for a second category of demographic attributes the data structure indicates that a lower number is more favorable;

for each of the three or more categories;

compare a value of the demographic attribute of the user with a value of the comparison demographic attribute of the comparison individual; and

based on the information stored in the data structure regarding most favorable levels of demographic attributes associated with the category, determine which of either the user or the comparison individual has a most favorable demographic attribute for the category;

generate a comparison user interface indicating;

each of the three or more categories,

for each of the three or more categories;

the one or more demographic attribute for the user;

the one or more comparison demographic attribute for the comparison individual; and

,

a visual indication of which of the user or the comparison individual is associated with most favorable demographic attributes; and

transmit the comparison user interface to the user computing device, wherein the user computing device is configured to render the comparison user interface for display to the user.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

calculate a plurality of category scores for respective categories of the three or more categories based on the demographic attribute for the category; and

calculate a plurality of comparison category scores for the respective categories of the three or more categories based on the comparison demographic attributes for the category.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the first software instructions are further configured to cause the server computing system to:

receive one or more selections, from the user computing device, of categories to include in calculation of an overall rating and a comparison overall ratings; and

adjust a model used to calculate the overall rating and the comparison overall rating to consider only the categories indicated by the user-provided one or more selections.

4. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the first software instructions are further configured to cause the server computing system to:

calculate an overall rating of the user based on the plurality of category scores; and

calculate a comparison overall rating of the comparison individual based on the plurality of comparison category scores.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein the comparison user interface further comprises an indication of one or more actions that may be performed by the user to increase the overall rating of the user.

6. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

generate a second comparison user interface comprising a chart depicting changes of the overall rating of the user and/or changes of the comparison overall rating of the comparison individual over a time period; and

transmit the second comparison user interface to the user computing device.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the time period is one year.

8. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

calculate an overall rating of the user based on the demographic attributes for each of the three or more categories; and

calculate an overall rating of the comparison individual based on the comparison demographic attributes for each of the three or more categories.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein said calculating the overall rating of the user is further based on a comparison of the demographic attributes of the user with the corresponding comparison demographic attributes of the comparison individual.

10. The computing system of claim 1, wherein a most favorable level for a particular demographic attribute indicates that the most favorable level is socially sought after.

11. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first category is income level and the second category is quantity of children.

12. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the comparison individual resides within a same ZIP-9 area as the user.

13. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

determine that a first demographic attribute for the first category is either missing or incorrect;

communicate an update instruction to the user computing device causing the user computing device to update the comparison user interface to include a data input field in place of the first demographic attribute, wherein the data input field is configured to receive the first demographic attribute from the user.

14. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the comparison individual is a movie star that has played a leading role in one or more full length movies played at more than one hundred public movie theaters.

15. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

receive input from the user computing device regarding values of particular demographic attributes that are most favorable to the user, wherein the data structure is updated with the received input such that said comparison demographic data of the user and of the comparison individual is based on the updated information.

16. A server computing system for providing user comparison information to a user, the server computing system comprising:

one or more computer processors configured to execute first software instructions; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage device configured to store the software instructions executable by the one or more computer processors in order to cause the server computing system to;

serve a website or mobile application content to a user computing device, the website or mobile application content comprising user interface elements configured to;

provide first identification information comprising first demographic attributes of the user;

provide second identification information comprising second demographic attributes of a group of comparison individuals, wherein the group of comparison individuals each having one or more demographic attributes in common with the user; and

perform a comparison of the first demographic attributes with corresponding demographic attributes of the second demographic attributes;

render the website or mobile application content served by the server computing system;

receive, via the rendered website or mobile application content, the first identification information identifying the user of the user computing device and the second identification information identifying the group of comparison individuals;

provide to the server computing system the first identification information and the second identification information; and

receive, via the rendered website or mobile application content, a request to compare the first demographic attributes of the first identification information with the corresponding second demographic attributes of the second identification information; and

access demographic data of the user from a demographic database storing demographic attributes for a plurality of users, the demographic data including demographic attributes in three or more of the following categories;

marital status, friends, profession, children, automobile, income level, residence, or education level;

access comparison demographic data of the group of comparison individuals from the demographic database, the comparison demographic data including comparison demographic attributes in three or more of the following categories;

marital status, friends, profession, children, automobile, income level, residence, or education level;

access a data structure storing rules for ranking levels of respective demographic attributes, wherein for a first category of demographic attributes the data structure indicates that rankings in the first category increase as values of demographic attributes increase, and for a second category of demographic attributes the data structure indicates two or more possible values of demographic attributes in the second category and an indication of relative rankings of the two or more possible values with reference to one another;

for each of the three or more categories;

compare a value of the demographic attribute of the user with a value of the comparison demographic attribute of the group of comparison individuals; and

based on the ranking information, determine which of either the user or the group of comparison individuals has a higher rank for the category;

generate a comparison user interface indicating;

each of the three or more categories, and

for each of the three or more categories;

the first demographic attributes of the user in each of the categories and the second demographic attributes of the group of comparison individuals, and

a visual indication of which of the user or the group of comparison individuals has a demographic attribute that is highest rated; and

transmit the comparison user interface to the user computing device, wherein the user computing device is configured to render the comparison user interface for display to the user.

17. The server computing system of claim 16, wherein the user and each of the comparison individual of the group of comparison individuals reside in a common geographic area.

18. The server computing system of claim 17, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

calculate a plurality of category scores for respective categories based on the demographic attribute for the category; and

calculate a plurality of comparison category scores for respective categories based on the comparison demographic attributes for the category;

wherein the comparison user interface includes at least some of the category scores and comparison category scores.

19. The server computing system of claim 18, wherein the first software instructions further cause the server computing system to:

receive a selection of the common geographic area from the user computing device; and

update the category scores and the comparison category scores in response to a change in the common geographic area in the received selection.

20. The server computing system of claim 16, wherein the user and each of the comparison individual of the group of comparison individuals have at least following demographic attributes in common:

an occupation, an employer, an income level, or an education level.