FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a computer implemented system and method for generating a screened and consolidated social media feed. In particular, the system and method of the present invention provides users of multiple social media platforms with consolidated information of interest in a single data feed according to the user’s preferences.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The internet, and in particular, online social media platforms, have vastly expanded the way individuals are able to receive information in relation to one or more areas of interest. For example, the substantial amounts of advertising that are typically digitally posted to a user’s account based on an analysis of a user’s online search history makes it difficult for social media users to efficiently and effectively navigate information displayed in their social media feeds and, as a result, such users experience frustration and/or lose interest in social media.

[0003] Another problem faced by users of social media is the preference for such users to access multiple different platforms to receive the information they seek. This problem is further exacerbated when users receive unwanted and/or repeated advertisements and other information, particularly in response to queries (for example, a request for a recommendation regarding a Japanese Restaurant in their local area), thereby reducing the value/benefit of submitting queries to social media and related platforms and contributing to the current phenomena known as “lost consumer syndrome”.

[0004] Furthermore, social media platforms also require users to spend considerable time and effort to navigate such platforms to attain the information they require, and even in the event users are prepared to spend the time and effort to navigate substantial amounts of information, including unwanted and irrelevant advertising material, the user’s request for information may remain unfulfilled in the event the user is not sufficiently skilled in searching and/or does not have the patience to continue to search through the substantial amounts of information in response to their queries.

[0005] The amount of time and effort that a consumer is required to devote navigating their different social media platforms and scrolling through large amounts of information/advertising also causes a wastage in computing processing and networking resources which is clearly undesirable, particularly when considering that there are millions of social medial users around the world. Accordingly, the unnecessary wastage of computing resources and computer network bandwidth is significant as a result of the aforementioned problems.

[0006] The present invention seeks to mitigate the problems discussed herein, or at least seeks to provide an alternative solution for users to perform search queries and/or receive information of interest using online social media platforms, systems and methods.

[0007] The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgement, or any suggestion, that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge or is known to skilled readers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] In one aspect, the present invention provides a computer-implemented method for generating a screened and consolidated social media data feed, the method including, receiving, by one or more processors, details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user, each of the social media accounts having an individual data feed, receiving, by one or more processors, details regarding the user’s preferences including at least products and/or services of interest to the user, receiving, by one or more processors, individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts including items of interest relevant to the user in view of their preferences, generating, by one or more processors, a single screened data feed of interest removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material according to the user’s preferences and combining the screened individual data feeds into a single screened data feed thereby enabling the user to access the single screened data feed and review items of interest, and based on the single screened data feed indicating a new item or information of interest, generating, by one or more processors, a notification to the user regarding the identification of the new item or information of interest in the single screened data feed.

[0009] According to various embodiments of the system and method of the present invention, data from a user’s individual social media platforms is effectively “screened” to remove unwanted advertisements and other irrelevant information and combined to create a single data feed relating to items of interest in accordance with the user’s preferences. In this regard, it will be appreciated that any unwanted advertisements and other irrelevant information usually included in data feeds as a result of payments received by social media platforms to promote products and/or services to social media users irrespective of the relevance of the paid advertisement to the user’s preferences and interests is removed.

[0010] The generation, by the one or more processors, of a single screened data feed not only avoids the user wasting time switching between various social media platforms to identify items of interest, it also avoids the user searching for items of interest amongst substantial amounts of unwanted advertisements and/or irrelevant information and conserves otherwise wasted computer processing and network resources. [0011] In an embodiment, the method further includes storing, by one or more processors, the received individual data feeds.

[0012] In an embodiment, the method further includes processing, by one or more processors, the stored individual data feeds to identify advertising material displayed in each data feed, and editing, by one or more processors, the stored individual data feeds prior to combining same, including removing the identified advertising material.

[0013] In an embodiment, the method further includes processing, by one or more processors, the stored individual data feeds to identify irrelevant material according to the user’s preferences in each data feed, and editing, by one or more processors, the stored individual data feeds prior to combining same, including removing the identified irrelevant material.

[0014] In an embodiment, identifying advertising material and/or irrelevant material in the stored individual data feeds is achieved using one or more character recognition techniques.

[0015] In an embodiment, the stored data feeds are updated regularly or in substantially real time such that the stored data feeds are maintained substantially in accordance with the corresponding live feeds.

[0016] In an embodiment, the stored feeds are updated based on manual and/or automatic synchronization between the stored and live data feeds.

[0017] In an embodiment, identifying a new item of interest in the single screened data feed includes, identifying, by one or more processors, the presence of any new items or information of interest according to the user’s preferences in the stored individual data feeds, and updating, by one or more processors, the single screened data feed with any identified new items or information of interest.

[0018] In an embodiment, generating a notification to the user regarding the identification of the new items or information of interest includes transmitting the notification to a data communications device of the user by one or more of push notification, email and text message.

[0019] In an embodiment, the method further includes, prompting, by one or more processors, the user to upload the details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user, and determining, by one or more computers, that the receipt of details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user includes authority from the user to access the data feeds associated with the one or more social media accounts.

[0020] In an embodiment, the method further includes, based on a determination that the details received from the user do not include authority from the user to access the data feeds associated with the one or more social media accounts, prompting, by one or more processors, the user to provide said authority.

[0021] In an embodiment, the received details regarding the user’s preferences further include one or more of, topics of interest, people of interest, venues and institutions of interest, brands of interest, discounts pertaining to the products and/or services of interest to the user, sales and/or promotions relating to the products and/or services of interest to the user (e.g. flights, travel, new product promotions etc), and details relating to news data feeds and/or news items from one or more preferred sources of news.

[0022] In an embodiment, when the user’s preferences include details relating to data feeds and/or news items from one or more preferred sources of news, the method further includes, generating, by one or more processors, summaries of the news data feeds and/or news items including links to full details relating to same, and incorporating, by one or more processors, the summaries into the single screened data feed (enabling users to perform a brief review of news items received from a range of individual news platforms but retaining the ability to access the full details of the news item irrespective of the individual platform from which the news item was sourced, thereby providing the user with an up to date resource regarding local and global events).

[0023] In an embodiment, the details regarding the user’s preferences are received based on one or more of, the user uploading details regarding the user’s preferences, processing the received individual data feeds to identify details regarding the user’s preferences, and scanning historical online search information associated with the user to identify details regarding the user’s preferences.

[0024] In an embodiment, the method further includes, providing, by one or more processors, a filtering facility for display to the user that enables the user to filter results listed in the single screened data feed, including based on the category of item or information.

[0025] In an embodiment, the method further includes, providing, by one or more processors, a search/request facility that enables the user to enter a search query or request for information, and based on the entered search query or request for information, processing the items and/or information presented in the generated single screened data feed to establish a match of one or more of the items and/or information with the search query or request for information, and filtering results listed in the single screened data feed such that only the items and/or information that match the search query or request are displayed in the listed results.

[0026] In an embodiment, the method further includes, providing, by one or more processors, a user interface configuration facility that enables the user to edit attributes of the single screened data feed to create a preferred user interface that displays information preferred by the user (eg utilizing a scroll feature), including information pertaining to the social media platform from which particular items and/or information were received.

[0027] In an embodiment, the method further includes, providing, by one or more processors, a geo-map facility that associates geo-locations with individual items and/or information displayed in the single, screened data feed (eg. items such as places, experiences, businesses, etc), and associating, by one or more processors, a link with one or more of the individual items and/or information displayed in the single screened data feed, each link being selectable by the user to enable a map location to be displayed including a pin identifying the precise geo-location associated with the selected item and/or information. [0028] In another aspect, the present invention provides a computer-implemented system for generating a single screened data feed of interest to a user, the system including one or more processors operable to, receive, by one or more processors, details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user, each of the social media accounts having an individual data feed, receiving, by one or more processors, details regarding the user’s preferences including at least products and/or services of interest to the user, receiving, by one or more processors, individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts including items of interest relevant to the user in view of their preferences, generating, by one or more processors, a single screened data feed of interest removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material according to the user’s preferences and combining the screened individual data feeds into a single screened data feed thereby enabling the user to access the single screened data feed and review items and/or information of interest, and based on the single screened data feed indicating a new item and/or information of interest, generating a notification to the user regarding the identification of the new item and/or information of interest in the single screened data feed.

[0029] In a further aspect, the present invention provides a non-transitory computer- readable medium including computer instruction code that, when executed on a computer, causes one or more processors of the computer to perform the steps of, receiving details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user, each of the social media accounts having an individual data feed, receiving details regarding the user’s preferences including at least products and/or services of interest to the user, receiving individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts including items of interest relevant to the user in view of their preferences, generating a single screened data feed of interest by removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material according to the user’s preferences and combining the screened individual data feeds into a single screened data feed thereby enabling the user to access the single screened data feed and review items and/or information of interest, and based on the single screened data feed indicating a new item and/or information of interest, generating a notification to the user regarding the identification of the new item and/or information of interest in the single screened data feed. [0030] In a still further aspect, the present invention provides a portable electronic device for generating a single screened data feed of interest to a user, the device including, a touch screen configured to receive an input corresponding to a touch operation of the user on an area of the touch screen, and a processor connected to the touch screen, wherein the processor is configured to detect the input to the touch screen and perform operations including, detecting a first input, via the touch screen, of, details regarding one or more social media accounts of the user, each of the social media accounts having an individual data feed, detecting a second input, via the touch screen, of, details regarding the user’s preferences including at least products and/or services of interest to the user, retrieving individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts including items of interest relevant to the user in view of their preferences, generating a single screened data feed of interest removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material according to the user’s preferences and combining the screened individual data feeds into a single screened data feed, providing, for display on the touch screen, a graphical user interface (GUI) including the single screened data feed and based on the single screened data feed indicating a new item and/or information of interest, generating a notification to the user regarding the identification of the new item and/or information of interest in the single screened data feed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] Embodiments of the invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying Figures in which:

[0032] Figure 1 provides an overview of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention showing, in particular, the interaction between various system components;

[0033] Figure 2 illustrates a diagram associated with an exemplary server component of the system illustrated in Figure 1 ;

[0034] Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of a process that enables users to download and install a software application, and subsequently access, or register to use, the software application for interaction with the system illustrated in Figure 1 , including to establish a user account and profile and to specify user preferences;

[0035] Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of a process that enables individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts to be received and screened to remove advertising and other irrelevant information, and consolidated into a single screened data feed of interest to the user;

[0036] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of a process that enables a user to access additional application functionality including to conduct searching in respect of their single screened data feed, to receive a notification to advise the user regarding the identification of a new item of interest in the feed, to engage in chats with other users, and to provide general feedback; and

[0037] Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary flow diagram of a process that enables a user to access additional application functionality, including to gain access to a purchasing/payment facility and a geo-map feature. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT(S) OF THE INVENTION

[0038] For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure is described by referring to embodiment(s) thereof. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a better understanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparent, however, that the current disclosure may be practiced without limitation to the specific details. In other instances, some features have not been described in detail to avoid obscuring the present disclosure.

[0039] According to an embodiment, the present invention relates to a computer- implemented system and method for generating a single screened social media data feed (190) to a user (30) enabling the user (30) to view consolidated information from multiple social media platforms in accordance with interests of the user (30). The system and method provide a platform that hosts a computer-executable software application (40), wherein the application (40) is accessible by a plurality of registered users (30) seeking more efficient interactions with their social media accounts (60). In particular, the system utilises a central server (20) in communication with data communication devices (50) associated with users (30).

[0040] The central server (20) maintains one or more processors and/or databases for performing functions, including receiving details regarding the one or more social media accounts (60) of a user (30), wherein each of the social media accounts (60) includes an individual data feed, and receiving details regarding the user’s preferences including at least products and/or services of interest (70) to the user (30). The received individual data feeds from the user’s individual social media accounts (60) will include items of interest (80) relevant to the user (30) in view of their preferences. In this way, the central server (20) subsequently generates a single screened data feed (190) by removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material (90) according to the user’s preferences such that the screened individual data feeds are combined into a single screened data feed (190). In this way, the user (30) may access the single screened data feed (190) to review items and/or information of interest. Further, in the event the data feed (190) indicates a new item of interest (95), the server (20) will generate a notification to advise the user (30) regarding the identification of the new item and/or information of interest (95). The user (30) may also conduct searches and enter queries (questions etc.) in order to locate items of interest and/or relevant information in response to queries, in accordance with items/information presented in the feed (190).

[0041] The skilled person will appreciate that the platform provides a means of channeling data streams from user’s individual social media platforms (60) to create a single ‘curated’ data feed whereby the curation of the data feed is effected by taking into account user preferences (eg. preferred items of interest, preferred news items, preferred sources of information, etc) thereby enabling the plurality of data feeds to be consolidated into a single feed (190). The single feed (190) includes screened data based upon the removal of unwanted advertisements and other information (90) that is usually included in data feeds (as a result of payments received by social media platforms to promote products and/or services) irrespective of relevance of such material to the user’s preferences and/or interests. This also enables users (30) to receive more relevant and focused responses to search other queries presented by the user (30).

[0042] Accordingly, the present invention addresses a problem encountered by users of social media wherein users are required to access multiple platforms to receive the information they seek and whilst accessing existing platforms, receive unwanted advertisements and other information, including in response to queries, thereby reducing the value I benefit of submitting queries to social media and other online platforms. The technical problem of wasted computer processing and networking resources is also addressed since the user (30) is no longer required to switch between various social media platforms to identify items of interest, and the searching for and/or identification of items of interest may occur more efficiently for reasons described herein.

[0043] Figure 1 is divided into Segments which are further expanded in subsequent Figure 2-6. In particular, Segment 200 of Figure 1 shows the sever component (20) with which the software application (40) operating on data communication devices (50) are configured to communicate. It will be apparent to the person skilled in the relevant field of technology that the software application (40) may be a mobile application or a web application and that, similarly, the data communication device (50) utilised by users (30) may be a portable mobile device such as a phone, tablet or laptop, or alternatively a fixed location device such as a personal computer. The server component (20) is additionally detailed in Figure 2. [0044] The skilled person will appreciate that the steps described herein may be executed by the devices (50), wherein such operations are facilitated by the software application (40) operating on each device. According to another implementation of the present invention, the server (20) is programmed to provide all of the functions described herein where they cannot be provided locally on the user devices (50), or where it may be impractical or commercially infeasible to provide such a configuration. In other words, the steps described herein as performed by the device (50), or components thereof that are described as implementing the invention, may be associated with hardware that is located externally to the device (50) such as the remote central server (20) for example (i.e. in a distributed architecture). Different arrangements are possible in this regard, and alternate variations will be apparent to the person skilled in the relevant field of technology.

[0045] Segment 300 of Figure 1 shows a user (30) downloading and installing the application (40) and subsequently accessing the application (40) in order to establish an account and user profile, including to enter preferences relating to products and/or services of interest (70), and to enter details relating to their social media accounts (60) which may also be used to enable the identification of user interests (80), i.e. from items displayed in the social media account data feeds, as further detailed in Figure 3. Segment 400 of Figure 1 illustrates how the individual social media data feeds may be received and screened by removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material (90) prior to generating a single screened data feed (190) of interest, as further detailed in Figure 4.

[0046] Segment 500 of Figure 1 illustrates additional functionality of the software application (40) including functionality that provides the user (30) with the ability to receive a notification advising the user (30) regarding the identification of a new item of interest in the single screened data feed (190), a search facility enabling the user to conduct searches or enter queries in respect of their single screened data feed (190), a chat/sharing facility, and provision for providing feedback such as an app rating, as further detailed in Figure 5. Finally, Segment 600 of Figure 1 illustrates further functionality of the software application including interfaces relating to payments and the provision of a geomap feature, as further detailed in Figure 6.

[0047] As mentioned above, Figure 2 shows in greater detail Segment 200 of Figure 1 and, in particular, Figure 2 shows the server component (20) which includes infrastructure upon which the platform of the present invention operates. The infrastructure may be local or cloud-based.

[0048] The central server (20) may operate one or more computer processors and maintain one or more databases to enable the following functionality and/or storage:

• User account register (100) storing user details such as name, age, address, contact details, identifiers such as driver’s license or passport details, and any additional data which may be relevant for the purpose of identifying each user (30);

• Register (105) storing user preferences which are used to establish the user profiles, including for example details relating to products and/or services of interest (70) to the user (30) (or preferred categories thereof), interests (80) as identified in individual data feeds associated with the existing social media accounts (60) of the user (30), etc. Preference data may also include details such as topics of interest, people of interest, interest in discounts pertaining to any one or more products or services, venues and institutions of interest, brands of interest and interest in any sales and/or promotions regarding products and/or services (eg. flights, travel, new products/promotions etc.);

• Social media account and data feed register (1 10) enclosing details and links to social media accounts (60) associated with each user (30), and received data feeds associated therewith (to the extent that storage of such data is preferred I required);

• Notification functionality (115) to enable notifications to be issued to users (30) when, for example, new items of interest are detected as being present in the curated data feed (190);

• Data processing functionality (120) for processing user input commands and data received, to generate relevant outputs for display. For example, data processing functionality (120) may be responsible for generating the single screened data feed (190) by identifying and removing any advertising and/or irrelevant material (90) according to the user’s preferences, and combining the screened individual feeds into a single screened data feed (190). The functionality (120) is also responsible for providing the data feed as an interface that is available for display on the user devices (50), and for processing any additional queries from the user (30) including queries received via the search facility which enables users (30) to search for items and information within the single screened data feed (190), including with the assistance of generative Artificial Intelligence (Al) such as Chat GPT, etc;

• Library (data structure) (125) that identifies the relationship between users (30) and other stored data such as user preferences, linked social media accounts, location data, etc, to facilitate the efficient location and retrieval of such data as and when required;

• Payment gateway functionality (130) that enables financial transactions to be conducted through the software application (40), including enabling the user (30) to pay any subscription fees, purchase products and/or services listed in the generated data feed (190), etc; and

• Geo-map functionality (135) which may be utilized to store a GPS location of the user (eg. home address, current location or proposed future location), and to associate geo-locations with items and information contained in the single screened data feed (190) such as places, for example, experiences, businesses, etc, located as a result of a search query. The result of a search query may include the provision of a map location associated with the item(s) and/or information located, as described in further detail below.

[0049] Figure 2 also depicts that server (20) is configured to enable communication (140) with the user devices (50) and, in particular, the software applications (40) operating on each device (50). Such communications may occur via the internet or similar network.

[0050] Figure 3 shows in greater detail Segment 300 of Figure 1 and, in particular, the steps associated with a user (30) installing the application (40) which may be achieved by downloading the application (40) from an application store. Each user (30) may create an account using the application (40) and the account information may be stored in the account register (100). As described above, the account register (100) may capture information sufficient to enable each user (30) to be correctly identified.

[0051] The process of downloading the application (40) is indicated by arrow (150), and interface (160) is also shown which enables each user (30) to install the application (40) in order to access the functionality thereof, including to create and maintain a user profile specifying preferences of the user (30). Such preferences may be entered through additional interfaces (170) which may prompt the user (30) to enter their preferences. In other words, once the application (40) has been accessed by a user (30), the user (30) may be presented with an interface, identical or similar to the interfaces (170), to allow the user to add preferences to their profile including the ability to edit profile details. Once sufficient information is provided by the user (30) and such information is verified, the user (30) will be successfully registered such that the user (30) becomes a registered user who may then utilise the functionality of the application (40), which may be in accordance with a subscription level of the user (30).

[0052] As previously described, the user preferences specified by user (30) may relate to products and/or services, categories of products and/or services, as well as any other items of potential interest to the user (30) including some of the additional items described above (eg. topics of interest, people of interest, venues and institutions of interest, brands of interest, etc). As described further below, the preferences/interests of the user (30) may also be ascertained based on processing the individual social media feeds associated with the user (30). The preferences/interests of the user may also be ascertained by other means, eg. by causing a scan of historical online searching conducted by the user (30).

[0053] The user’s preferences may also indicate news items and/or news sources of relevance and/or interest to the user (30). In this way, any news items presented to the user (30) through the single curated data feed (190) may include news items that enable the user (30) to remain up to date regarding local and global events from sources that are selected according to preferred data feeds of the user (30). The curated feed (190) may present summaries of news items and provide links to the details of a news item, thereby enabling users (30) to perform a brief review of news items received from a range of individual news platforms whilst retaining the ability to access the details of one or more news items by selecting same in the data feed (190), thereby revealing the full details of the news item irrespective of the individual platform from which the news item was sourced.

[0054] Figure 4 shows in greater detail Segment 400 of Figure 1 and, in particular, the use of the application (40) and in particular interface (180) to retrieve and store individual data feeds from the social media accounts (60) associated with the user (30) (eg. data feeds from the user’s Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc, accounts) and to ‘screen’ the stored feeds (eg. using character recognition) in order to remove unwanted advertisements and other irrelevant information (90). Subsequently, the stored feeds are combined into a single data feed (190) relating to items of interest in accordance with the user’s preferences. In one example, the user preferences may indicate that the user 930) has an interest in Japanese restaurants under the category of “food”. Accordingly, when screening the individual feeds of the user with respect to the food category, all cuisines other than Japanese may be disregarded and the single feed (190) will only include the items/information relevant to Japanese cuisine. It will be appreciated that the user’s preferences may specify interest across a plurality of different categories, including, for example, food, art, movies, travel, etc.

[0055] It will be appreciated that the individual live social media feeds (60) will regularly be updated with new items and information. The single screened data feed (190) may also be updated in accordance with the updates to the live social media feeds. This may be achieved by ensuring that the stored data feeds are updated regularly or in substantially real time such that the stored data feeds are maintained substantially in accordance with the corresponding live feeds. In this regard, the stored feeds may be updated based on manual and/or automatic synchronization between the stored and live data feeds. When new items and/or information of interest are detected in the stored individual data feeds, the single screened data feed (190) may also be updated accordingly.

[0056] It is to be understood that the interface (210) may be configurable by the user (30) using a user interface configuration facility such that the resulting display is appropriate to the user’s requirements/preferences. For example, the interface (210) may be configured to identify each of the individual social media platforms for which items have been received, and the user (30) may also select the manner in which the items are displayed including, for example, utilizing a scroll feature that enables the user (30) to review the data feed (190) by scrolling through the displayed list of items, and sorting the items/information by category, date, etc.

[0057] Figure 5 shows in greater detail Segment 500 of Figure 1 and, in particular, a software application interface (210) which enables additional functionality that may be of interest and/or assistance to the user, including the provision of a search request facility that enables users (30) to conduct searches of items and/or information within their single screened data feed (190) and present queries to enable retrieval of relevant (matching) information from the feed (190) and/or assistance from a chatbot. The interface (210) may also alert or provide a notification to the user (30) when one or more new items and/or information of interest are detected in the data feed (190) (eg. opening of a new Japanese restaurant within proximity of the user). The interface (210) may also provide access to additional software application functionality, including functionality enabling users (30) to chat with other users (and/or an administrator of the platform), and to provide feedback including to rate the platform, specify problems associated with the platform and seek technical assistance, etc.

[0058] In relation to the abovementioned chatbot feature, it will be appreciated that Al, including generative Al solutions such as ChatGPT, may be utilized to assist users (30) with general queries and enhance engagement with the platform including based on machine learning analytics. For example, the chat bot may assist the search request facility to explore deeper for options, solutions or products based on the user’s requirements.

[0059] The chatbot may be configured to prompt the user (30) regarding their interests, mood, thoughts, or if they have a query or a problem that needs to be solved. For example, the chatbot may query the user “How are you feeling today?”, and the user (30) may respond with “A bit overwhelmed - I am trying to renovate my bathroom but need some inspiration”. The chatbot may then respond with “Okay, let me pull up some inspiration from Pinterest and Tik Tok” and may request additional information from the user such as preferred aesthetics , colours, etc.

[0060] The chatbot may subsequently cause an automatic search of the screened data feed (190) pertaining to the user’s Pinterest and Tik Tok accounts, and in relation to the category “bathroom renovation”, in order to provide the user (30) with an advertising free feed of information and items that are relevant to solving the user’s problem. The search conducted by the chatbot and the results presented to the user (30) may also extend beyond the screened data feed (190). [0061 ] It will be appreciated that the use of an Al powered chatbot may provide additional features of interest to the user, including the ability to send instructions to third party platforms to add reminders to schedules, auto buy or add to a shopping card (eg. Amazon), add a song to a playlist (eg. Spotify), and action several other commands without requiring the user to leave the software application (40). The skilled address would understand that the addition of such a chat bot and the use of personalized AU responses and machine learning will further improve the user experience and hence further addresses problems associated with “lost consumer syndrome”.

[0062] Figure 6 shows in greater detail Segment 600 of Figure 1 and, in particular, interface (220) providing a payment facility, as well as interface (230) providing a geomap feature.

[0063] Regarding the payment interface (220), this interface enables users (30) to conduct financial transactions utilising the software application (40) including, for example, to register credit card details (or other payment means such as PayPal, etc) to enable purchases using the software application including based on responses received via the search request facility and chatbot interaction. For example, the user (30) may prefer to utilize the platform to attend to payment of subscription fees and/or payments in respect of the purchase of individual products and/or service items appearing in the user’s feed (190).

[0064] The geo-map feature of interface (230) may associate geo-locations to items and/or information contained in the single screened data feed (190), such as places, experiences, businesses etc. For example, a user (30) may enter a search query through interface (210) and each listed result may include an associated geo-location such as the address of a Japanese restaurant for example. The result of the search query may further include the provision of an interactive map, as shown in Figure 6, in which a pin (97) may be illustrated to identify the precise geolocation associated with an item located in the data feed (190) arising from the user’s query. The interactive map may be utilised for additional purposes including to provide the user (30) with directions to a particular item, eg. from a user’s existing location to the address of a shop, restaurant, etc.

[0065] As used herein, the term “server”, “system”, “computer”, “computing system” or the like may include any processor-based or microprocessor-based system including systems using microcontrollers, reduced instruction set computers (RISC), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), logic circuits, and any other circuit or processor including hardware, software, or a combination thereof capable of executing the functions described herein. Such are exemplary only, and are thus not intended to limit in any way the definition and/or meaning of such terms.

[0066] The one or more processors as described herein are configured to execute a set of instructions that are stored in one or more data storage units or elements (such as one or more memories), in order to process data. For example, the one or more processors may include or be coupled to one or more memories. The data storage units may also store data or other information as desired or needed. The data storage units may be in the form of an information source or a physical memory element within a processing machine.

[0067] The set of instructions may include various commands that instruct the one or more processors to perform specific operations such as the methods and processes of the various embodiments of the subject matter described herein. The set of instructions may be in the form of a software program. The software may be in various forms such as system software or application software. Further, the software may be in the form of a collection of separate programs, a program subset within a larger program or a portion of a program. The software may also include modular programming in the form of object- oriented programming. The processing of input data by the processing machine may be in response to user commands, or in response to results of previous processing, or in response to a request made by another processing machine.

[0068] The diagrams of embodiments herein illustrate one or more control or processing units. It is to be understood that the processing or control units may represent circuits, circuitry, or portions thereof that may be implemented as hardware with associated instructions (eg., software stored on a tangible and non-transitory computer readable storage medium, such as a computer hard drive, ROM, RAM, or the like) that perform the operations described herein. The hardware may include state machine circuitry hardwired to perform the functions described herein. Optionally, the hardware may include electronic circuits that include and/or are connected to one or more logic-based devices, such as microprocessors, processors, controllers, or the like. [0069] Optionally, the one or more processors may represent processing circuitry such as one or more of a field programmable gate array (FPGA), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), microprocessor(s), and/or the like. The circuits in various embodiments may be configured to execute one or more algorithms to perform functions described herein. The one or more algorithms may include aspects of embodiments disclosed herein, whether or not expressly identified in the figures or a described method.

[0070] It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant field of technology that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as detailed in the embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive.

[0071] Throughout this specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word “comprise”, and variations such as “comprises” and “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated feature or step, or group of features or steps, but not the exclusion of any other feature or step or group of features or steps.