Patent ID: 7921124

Claim:
A method for filtering online content, comprising: identifying, by a desktop financial application executing on a hardware processor and operated by a first owner of a first business, a plurality of business data items comprising a business industry of the first business, a number of employees employed by the first business, and an annual revenue corresponding to the first business; uploading the plurality of business data items from the desktop financial application to a web application comprising a message board for users of the desktop financial application; designating the plurality of business data items as a message filtering criteria for the message board; assigning a filtering weight to the message filtering criteria, wherein the filtering weight indicates an importance of the message filtering criteria; identifying, based on the message filtering criteria and on the message board, a plurality of business profiles of businesses operating in the business industry; identifying a message posted on the message board by a second owner of a second business corresponding to a business profile of the plurality of business profiles; and displaying the message to the first owner.