Patent ID: 7590615

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a service provider computing device from a user computing device, a first input, relating to a first vertical, that populates a first vertical attribute in a first vertical profile the first vertical attribute holding a first value for a user characteristic; receiving, at the service provider computing device from the user computing device, a second user input, relating to a second vertical, that populates a second vertical attribute in a second vertical profile the second vertical attribute holding a second value for the user characteristic; assigning, via the service provider computing device, the first value of the first vertical attribute to an attribute in a generic profile if the first vertical attribute is determined to have a greater reliability weight than a reliability weight of the second vertical attribute; assigning, via the service provider computing device, the second value of the second vertical attribute to an attribute in the generic profile if the second vertical attribute is determined to have a greater reliability weight than the reliability weight of the first vertical attribute; assigning, via the service provider computing device, a heavy reliability weight to the first attribute in the first vertical if it is established, based on behavioral data for the user, that the user will provide reliable data for the second attribute in the second vertical; and assigning, via the service provider computing device, a heavy reliability weight to the second attribute in the second vertical if it is established, based on behavioral data for the user, that the user will provide reliable data for the second attribute in the second vertical.