Targeted, competitive offers while browsing

A computer-based method for sending offers to a user who is viewing a web page through a web browser on a computing device of the user, wherein the computing device of the user is connected to an offer engine proxy device maintained by a third party, wherein the offer engine proxy device is interposed between the computing device of the user and a destination web server and wherein the offer engine proxy device has a communication link with the computing device of the user and a communication link with the destination web server across a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving, by the offer engine proxy device, a first message comprising user browsing information from the computing device of the user;
• b) sending, by the offer engine proxy device, the first message comprising the user browsing information to the destination web server;
• c) receiving, by the offer engine proxy device, a resulting web page that corresponds to a web page requested by the user browsing information from the destination web server;
• d) determining, by the offer engine proxy device, at least one topic of the user browsing information;
• e) determining, by the offer engine proxy device, an offer to be sent to the user that is based on the at least one topic of the user browsing information;
• f) modifying, by the offer engine proxy device, the resulting web page to include an offer to be sent to the user;
• and
• g) sending, by the offer engine proxy device, a second message comprising the modified webpage including the offer to the computing device of the user across the computer network.