26. The method of claim 20 wherein at least some of the multiple computer programs running on the multiple user computers are running independently of browser programs on said multiple user computers.
20. A method comprising the steps of: (A) obtaining consumer navigation data from computer programs running on multiple user computers, said navigation data comprising data identifying a plurality of web pages viewed at said user computers; (B) obtaining behavioral data from said multiple user computers, said behavioral data relating to said plurality of web pages identified by said consumer navigation data; (C) for each of the plurality of web pages identified by the navigation data, using said navigation data and said behavioral data to determine corresponding implied consumer preference data; (D) building a search engine index using at least the consumer navigation data and the implied consumer preference data, said step of building comprising, for each particular web page of the plurality of web pages identified by the navigation data: (d1) parsing a copy of the particular web page to determine the occurrence of one or more keywords in the particular web page; and (d2) ranking the particular web page relative to at least some of the one or more keywords, said ranking being based at least in part on results of the parsing and on implied consumer preference data associated with the particular web page; and (E) in response to a search request based on a search keyword, retrieving results from the search engine index, said results identifying a plurality of web pages, and (F) providing the results ordered, at least in part, by a ranking of the plurality of web pages relative to the search keyword.