Internet-audiotext electronic advertising system with psychographic profiling and matching

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic advertising system. More specifically, the present invention provides a computer based psychographic matching system that is significantly more effective and convenient for the advertiser. In the present invention, when a person places a personal ad on the system, either via a telephone or via the Internet, the person creates a personal psychographic profile (a subjective makeup of preferences) of himself by selecting his preference for various items, such as musical pieces, environmental sounds, poetry selections, etc. At the conclusion of the profiling process, the system automatically finds other advertisers (whether they placed their ad via audiotext or the Internet) whose profiles match the new advertiser's profile. The system then gives the new advertiser information on how to contact all of the recorded matches.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08 / 744,879, filed Nov. 8, 1996.TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to audiotext systems designed to provide full access to traditional databases and telecommunications systems, such as local area networks, the Internet, other external databases, telephones and fax machines, etc., and more specifically to audiotext personal ad services. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Audiotext personal ad services are a popular way for people to meet, and are available in most newspapers and on many cable television systems. In a typical service, an advertiser calls a live operator and places a text personal ad. An advertiser then calls an audiotext system and records an audio message, often referred to as a greeting, which expands upon the advertiser's text ad by describing in more detail the advertiser and the type of person he is seeking. Personal ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] To be effective, a psychographic profiling service must accommodate users of both traditional audiotext-based personal ad services as well as Internet-based personal ad services. Since large numbers of individuals continue to use each type of service on a more or less exclusive basis, failure to integrate the two environments significantly limits the database pool of potential matches. The current invention accommodates these needs by incorporating a matching feature based on psychographic profiling. Users are asked to indicate their preference for certain individual audio and/or visual elements which are presented in a series. A user's preferences are then stored in a database where they can be used to match with other users. In addition, the present invention allows both telephone and Internet users to take the same psychographic inventory and to match it with the psychographic profile of other individuals regardless of the medium (telephone or Internet) through which they enter the system. The benefit of this invention is that it provides a more powerful basis for matching individuals than has been available in the art while maximizing the pool of potential matches through the deployment of the service on a fully integrated Internet/audiotext platform.

[0012] The present invention relates to an electronic advertising system. More specifically, the present invention provides a computer based psychographic matching system that is significantly more effective and convenient for the advertiser. In the present invention, when a person places a personal ad on the system, either via a telephone or via the Internet, the person creates a per

Problems solved by technology

The limitation of this approach is that an Internet user cannot listen to an audio recording of an advertiser, a feature that is the central to audiotext personal ad services.

Another limitation is that telephone users cannot exchange messages with Internet users.

Another limitation is that many people do not have Internet access, thus limiting the number of advertisers and respondents.

This approach still has the disadvantage of not allowing an Internet user to listen to an advertiser's voice greeting via the Internet.

Moreover, an Internet user can only respond to a personal ad via a telephone.

To summarize, existing Internet personal ad services are limited in that they lack many of the features available on audiotext personal ad services.

Also, existing personal ad services do not provide a means for those using an audiotext personal ad service to effectively communicate with those using an Internet personal ad service and visa versa.

A basic problem with the prior services is that when a person places an ad, he must wait for his ad to be published and then for someone t

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