Patent ID: 7844588

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 the 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 the 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 a heavy reliability weight to the first attribute in the first vertical if it is established that the user will provide reliable data for the second attribute in the second vertical; and assigning a heavy reliability weight to the second attribute in the second vertical if it is established that the user will provide reliable data for the second attribute in the second vertical.