1. A method of creating a personalized user profile implemented on a computer for searching a database comprising: (a) displaying to the user an index of choices representing content items stored in the database, wherein each choice of the index is associated with a set of related keywords representing categories for the content items stored in the database; (b) establishing a personal profile for the user comprising keywords compiled from selections made by the user from the displayed index and entered as user input on the computer; (c) receiving a first user input of a selection of a choice from the displayed index, and retrieving the associated keywords related to the selected choice in order to generate a set of search phrases using the associated keywords; (d) conducting a search of the database using the set of search phrases as search queries to the database, and returning one or more objects from the database in response to the search queries; (e) displaying to the user a new index of choices representing the objects returned from the database, wherein each choice on the displayed index is associated with the keywords used in the search phrase that returned the object represented; (f) receiving a subsequent user input of a selection of a choice from the displayed index, and updating the user's personal profile with the keywords used in the search phrase that returned the selected object; (g) retrieving associated keywords related to the keywords used in the search phrase that returned the selected object in order to generate a subsequent set of search phrases using the associated keywords; (h) conducting a subsequent search of the database using the subsequent set of search phrases as further search queries to the database, and returning one or more objects from the database in response to the search queries; (i) displaying to the user a new index of choices representing the objects returned from the database, wherein each choice on the displayed index is associated with the keywords used in the search phrase that returned the object represented; and (j) iteratively continuing the cycle of user input by selection from the displayed index of choices, updating the user's personal profile with keywords used in the search phrase that returned the object selected by the user, using associated keywords related to the selected keywords to generate a subsequent set of search phrases, and conducting a further search of the database with the subsequent set of search phrases, thereby enhancing the depth of the personal profile and allowing it to be used to uniquely characterize the particular interests of the user in computerized applications that are to be personalized to the user.