Visual indication of user interests in a computer-generated virtual environment

A method of providing dynamically selected interest information in a computer-generated virtual environment, the method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a first user interest profile for a first user of the computer-generated virtual environment, the first user interest profile specifying a first set of interests of the first user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
• establishing a second user interest profile for a second user of the computer-generated virtual environment, the second user interest profile specifying a second set of interests of the second user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
• receiving input, by a first user virtual environment client, from the first user defining the dynamically selected interest information of the first user while a first Avatar associated with the first user is interacting with other Avatars in the computer-generated virtual environment, the dynamic selected interest information identifying a subset of interests of the first set of interests of the first user in the first user interest profile;
• upon encountering a second Avatar associated with the second user by the first Avatar associated with the first user, obtaining by the first user virtual environment client, the second set of interests of the second user from the second user interest profile;
• filtering, by the first user virtual environment client, the obtained second set of interests of the second user based on the first set of interests of the first user and the dynamic selected interest information to identify a subset of the second set of interests of the second user from the second user interest profile that match the dynamic selected interest information;
• and
• generating, by the first user virtual environment client, a set of interest icons representing the identified subset of the second set of interests of the second user for display to the user in association with the second Avatar associated with the second user of the computer-generated virtual environment;
• wherein the set of interest icons generated for display to the first user in association with the second Avatar are selected individually for the first user and are not provided to other users of the computer-generated virtual environment.