Patent ID: 7346548

Claim:
A client computing device operable by a user to interact with network sites over a network interface, the client computing device comprising: a processor; a communication port coupled to said processor of the client computing device and adapted to communicate with a plurality of network sites over said network interface; and a storage device coupled to said processor of the client computing device and storing browser software adapted to control said processor of the client computing device to download and display information from said plurality of network sites, characteristic information associated with each of a plurality of network sites, preference information including a ranking of preferred ones of said plurality of network sites as measured by said characteristic information for automatically configuring user preferences indicated by said browser software, and instructions adapted to be executed by said processor of the client computing device to: detect network activity of said user associated with said client computing device when said user operates said browser software to interact with said plurality of network sites; update said characteristic information based on said detected network activity of said computing client device, said characteristic information including information identifying a duration and frequency of visits to each of said plurality of network sites; update said ranking preferred ones of said plurality of network sites based on said updated characteristic information to automatically reconfigure user preferences for said user associated with said client computing device as indicated by said browser software; and repeatedly detect and update as said user operates said client computing device such that said user preferences indicated by said browser software automatically reflect usage patterns of said user associated with said client computing device.