Patent ID: 8812532

Claim:
A method of rewarding a user of a search engine, comprising: receiving secure identification information from a user client application identifying a user account; retrieving user account information from said user account using the secure identification information; receiving an instruction from the user client application to enable tracking of the user via an interface that enables the user to toggle tracking on and off during the user's browsing activity, wherein: the instruction includes authorization from the user to track at least one type of information selected by the user from a plurality of categories of information; the plurality of categories of information comprise search data and browsing data automatically recorded during the user's browsing activity; and the user's browsing activity comprises actions taken with respect to a plurality of web sites using the user client application; receiving instructions from the user client application related to user browsing activity including receiving a search query from the user client application, where the search query comprises a set of search keywords utilized by a search engine to return search results, where the search results comprise: a set of search results retrieved by the search engine utilizing at least one search algorithm; when tracking is toggled on advertisement data associated with the search terms and based on the user's browsing activity is provided in addition to the set of search results; and when tracking is toggled off advertisement data associated with the search terms is provided in addition to the set of search results; adding information concerning the user's browsing activity to said user account including information tracking the request to perform the search query from the user client application and the search query received from the user client application within said user account; crediting said user account with a reward for allowing tracking of the user's browsing activity in a manner that is directly related to tracking the request to perform the search query provided by the user client application and is independent of search results returned to the user based upon the search query received from the user client application.