Method of configuring a personalized consumer rating area

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of defining and applying a geographical area personalized to a user, the method comprising:

• identifying a plurality of locations associated with the user, which comprises:
• identifying the plurality of places at which the user has spent time, and
• for each identified place, defining a corresponding location to include a limited geographical area encompassing the place, wherein each location includes an area of a size and shape, the size and shape determined based at least in part on an amount of time the user has spent in the identified place;
• defining for the user an irregular personalized geographical area comprising the plurality of locations;
• receiving from the user one of:
• a request for consumer ratings of one or more establishments;
• and
• a request to identify establishments matching one or more specified criteria;
• and
• presenting the user with responses to the received request for one or more establishments within said personalized geographical area.

A computer system for defining a user's personalized geographical area, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled with the processor;
• an identifying mechanism configured to identify a plurality of places at which the user has spent time;
• a defining mechanism configured to define, for each identified place, a corresponding location to include a limited geographical area encompassing the place, wherein each location includes an are of a size and shape, the size and shape determined based at least in part on an amount of time the user has spent in the identified place;
• and wherein the defining mechanism is further configured to define a personalized area of interest of the user that comprises the defined geographical areas;
• and
• a communication module configured to serve to the user information customized to said personalized area of interest.