System and method of determining user profiles
View Patent ↗A method determines a user demographic profile of a user that visits one or more websites of a predetermined group of websites. The method includes generating a first record of visits by the user to the websites of the predetermined group of websites. The method further includes providing one or more website profiles comprising demographic characteristics of each website visited by the user of the predetermined group of websites. The method further includes calculating an estimated user demographic profile of the user by using the first record of visits by the user and the one or more website profiles.
1. A method of estimating a demographic profile of a user that visits one or more websites of a preset group of websites, the method comprising:
accessing a record of visits by the user, wherein the user is an anonymous user to the one or more websites;
accessing a record of demographic characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites; and
calculating an estimated demographic profile of the user using the accessed record of visits and the accessed record of demographic characteristics.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said accessing the record of visits by the user to the one or more websites comprises accessing for each visit a date, a time, a URL address of the visited website, and a unique identification of the user.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated demographic profile comprises a set of probabilities that the user is in one or more subgroups of one or more categories.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more categories are selected from the group consisting of: age, gender, education level, ethnicity, income level, and presence of children in the user's household.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated demographic profile comprises a dataset comprising a plurality of values, each value corresponding to a subgroup of one or more categories, each value indicative of a probability that the user is in the subgroup corresponding to the value.
6. A method of estimating a profile of a user that visits one or more websites of a present group of websites, the method comprising:
(a) accessing a record of visits by the user to the one or more websites;
(b) accessing a record of characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites, wherein said accessing the record of characteristics of visitors to the one or more websites comprises:
accessing profiles of a preset group of users;
accessing a record of visits by the preset group of users to a preset group of websites; and
calculating the characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites using the profiles of the preset group of users and the record of visits by the preset group of users to the preset group of websites; and
(c) calculating an estimated profile of the user using the accessed record of visits and the accessed record of characteristics.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the preset group of users are non-anonymous, and said accessing profiles for the preset group of users comprises accessing information obtained from the preset group of users regarding the profiles of the preset group of users.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the preset group of users are anonymous, and said accessing profiles of the preset group of users comprises:
accessing a record of visits by the preset group of users to a plurality of preset websites with known website profiles weighted towards at least one subgroup of at least one category;
assigning at least some of the users of the preset group of users to one or more subgroups by analyzing the record of visits by the preset group of users to the plurality of preset websites; and
accessing the assignments of the at least some of the users of the preset group of users to the one or more subgroups.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein each known website profile comprises a plurality of elements, each element indicative of a probability that a random user visiting the website is in a subgroup corresponding to the element.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the subgroups are subgroups of at least one category selected from the group consisting of: age, gender, education level, ethnicity, income level, and presence of children in the user's household.
11. The method of claim 6 , wherein each website profile comprises a plurality of datasets, each dataset corresponding to a weekday and daytime range, each dataset comprising a plurality of values corresponding to subgroups of one or more categories, each value indicative of a probability that a random user visiting the website during the weekday and range of time of day corresponding to the dataset is in the corresponding subgroup.
12. A method of presenting information to a user visiting one or more websites of a preset group of websites, the method comprising:
accessing an estimated demographic profile of the user wherein the user is an anonymous user, wherein the estimated demographic profile has been previously determined by a method comprising:
accessing a record of visits by the user to the one or more websites;
accessing a record of demographic characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites; and
calculating the estimated demographic profile of the user using the accessed record of visits and the accessed record of demographic characteristics;
selecting information to be presented to the user in response to the estimated demographic profile of the user; and
causing the information to be transmitted to the user's computer.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein accessing the estimated demographic profile further comprises:
in response to the user visiting the one or more websites, determining whether the user's computer comprises a stored unique identification of the user; and
causing the unique identification of the user to be stored on the user's computer if the user's computer does not comprise the stored unique identification of the user.
14. A non-transient computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which cause a general-purpose computer to perform a method of determining a demographic profile of a user that visits one or more websites of a preset group of websites, the method comprising:
accessing a record of visits by the user wherein the user is an anonymous user to the one or more websites;
accessing a record of demographic characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites; and
calculating an estimated demographic profile of the user using the accessed record of visits and the accessed record of demographic characteristics.
15. A computer system for determining a demographic profile of a user that visits one or more websites of a preset group of websites, the computer system comprising:
means for accessing a record of visits by the user wherein the user is an anonymous user to the one or more websites;
means for accessing a record of demographic characteristics of visitors of the one or more websites; and
means for calculating an estimated demographic profile of the user using the record of visits and the accessed record of demographic characteristics.
16. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein the means for accessing the record of visits by the user to the one or more websites comprises the Internet.