A method for grouping computer subscribers by common preferences to
establish non-intimate relationships. The method of the present invention
provides a subscriber access to a computerized database having stored
non-intimate profile information from fellow subscribers. The user
registers and stores non-intimate profile information into a database.
The present invention groups the user with at least two of the fellow
subscribers to form at least one group based on similarities between the
subscriber's profile information and the fellow subscriber's profile
information. The present invention utilizes an algorithm to determine a
level of similarity between the subscriber's profile information and the
fellow subscribers' profile information, wherein preferences are assigned
integer values concatenated to form a lookup key and used to access an
entry in a table containing the corresponding similarity value between
two preferences. The similarity values between all profile preferences
are added to create a final similarity total for the subscribers.
Multi-way matching is also employed to ensure that similarity values for
each subscriber in the group and all other subscribers in said group
exceeds a threshold value. The list of subscribers in the group as well
as similarities between the subscribers in the group are displayed for
viewing and for editing by the subscriber.