System for creating customized web content based on user behavioral portraits
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.
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.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the software resides on the second server.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the software resides in a dedicated server appliance.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the dedicated server appliance comprises an application programming interface.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the updated behavioral portrait is stored in a database maintained by the dedicated server appliance.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said dedicated server appliance is disposed on the same side of a common firewall.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first server is in electronic communication with a client device over a wide area network (WAN).
8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the WAN is the Internet.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the user input includes data relating to mouse clicks.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the user input includes data relating to field entries.
11 . 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.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the software program is adapted to derive the numerical score through neural linguistic programming.
13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the numerical score is determined by assigning weights to a user's actions as the user navigates through the website.
14 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the weights are based on possible actions that can be taken by a user as the user navigates through the web pages.
15 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the user's actions are weighted by category and lexical analysis.
16 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the weights are reset to default values when the user portrait exhibits exceptional behavior.
17 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the web content is dynamically reconfigured only when the weighting reaches a predefined tipping point.
18 . 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.
19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the software program is further adapted to modify web content based on the behavioral portrait of the user.
20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the server is adapted to transmit the modified web content to the client.
21 . The system of claim 19 , wherein the software is adapted to modify web dynamically and to provide the server with modified web content in real-time.
22 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the software resides in a dedicated server appliance.
23 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the software resides in the server.
24 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the server is in communication with an e-commerce website.
25 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the software program is adapted to capture data relating to the behavior of the user on a website.
26 . The system of claim 25 , wherein the website is an e-commerce web site.
27 . The system of claim 18 , 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.
28 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the server is adapted to provide the client with web pages having software embedded therein, and wherein the embedded software is adapted to monitor client activity.
29 . The system of claim 28 , wherein the embedded software is adapted to capture data relating to the monitored client activity.
30 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the embedded software is adapted to transmit the captured data to the server.
31 . The system of claim 29 , wherein the embedded software is JavaScript.
32 . The system of claim 30 , wherein the server is adapted to store the captured data in a database.
33 . The system of claim 32 , 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 19 , 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, and wherein the server is further adapted to transmit the modified versions of the requested web pages to the client.
35 . The system of claim 34 , 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.
36 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the dedicated server appliance comprises:
an application programming interface adapted to receive and analyze user input from the server;
a portrait database which stores existing user portraits; and
a portrait generator which generates new user portraits based on the user input.
37 . The system of claim 36 , 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.
38 . The system of claim 36 , 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.
39 . The system of claim 36 , 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.
40 . The system of claim 39 , wherein the application server serves up re-mashed content to the user based on the updated portrait information.
41 . The system of claim 22 , 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.
42 . The system of claim 41 , wherein the dedicated server appliance comprises an application programming interface that receives user input from the server and outputs portrait enhanced page is to the server.
43 . The system of claim 42 , 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.
44 . The system of claim 43 , wherein the server appliance further comprises a portrait database for storing customer portraits generated by the customer portrait engine.
45 . The system of claim 43 , wherein the dedicated server appliance is further adapted to communicate information pertaining to customer portraits to third parties upon demand.
46 . The system of claim 43 , wherein the dedicated server appliance is further adapted to communicate customer portraits to third parties upon demand.
47 . The system of claim 22 , wherein the dedicated server appliance resides at an Internet service provider.
48 . The system of claim 47 , wherein the software is injected into a client's website using JavaScript snippets placed in the client's web page templates.
49 . The system of claim 48 , wherein the software is further adapted to capture data relating to the online behavior of the user.
50 . The system of claim 48 , 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.
51 . The system of claim 50 , 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.
52 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the software is disposed on the server side of the network.