Patent ID: 11972460
Assignee: OVERSTOCK.COM, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 10:
11. A method of personalizing electronically generated content for display on a user computer, said method comprising:
(A) tracking user data based on one or more online identifiers, wherein the one or more online identifiers may include one or more of a tracking cookie, email address, user account information, additional tracking cookies based on login into a user account, matching user accounts based on personal information, email addresses matched based on personal information, and IP addresses;
(B) storing the tracked information on a server;
(C) processing by a processor one or more user online identifiers under a master ID by matching at least one attribute associated with a first user online identifier to at least one attribute associated with a second user online identifier and placing the master IDs and associated plurality of user online identifiers in a database that comprises user online identifiers organized under master IDs;
(D) tracking, storing, and maintaining user data under the master ID, wherein the user data comprise user interaction information that has a connection to at least one of the user online identifiers matched to said master ID;
(E) generating a user ID confidence level for each user online identifier associated under a master ID based on the likelihood that a given online identifier is relevant to the identification of the user;
(F) defining by the processor content usage parameters to associate them with the plurality of user online identifiers, wherein the content usage parameters are based on the user ID confidence level for each of the plurality of user online identifiers;
(G) processing a target user online identifier to match it with one of the plurality of user online identifiers;
(H) obtaining preliminary personalized electronic content from a content server operable to generate and provide to the server personalized electronic content based on behavior and user demographic information for each of the online identifiers;
(I) processing preliminary personalized electronic content and the content usage parameters associated with one or more of the user online identifiers to generate personalized content.