1. A machine-implemented method of ranking products, the method comprising: outputting to the consumer data identifying a plurality of suggested weighting factor paradigms, each said paradigm representing a plurality of suggested weighting factors for possible use as said set of weighting factors corresponding to stored comparison data, each said paradigm representing a different preference set; receiving, from a consumer using a data processing device, a set of weighting factors pertaining to a query related to a product, at least one of the weighting factors having been input by the consumer prior to execution of the query, the weighting factors corresponding to stored comparison data related to a plurality of products; receiving the query; accessing the stored comparison data in response to the query; generating a ranking of the plurality of products based on the set of weighting factors and the comparison data; and returning the ranking to the consumer as a response to the query.