Detecting digital content visibility

• US 10,152,554 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2016
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Justin, Durbin, Robert Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Moser, Bruce M
• Application Number:
  US15/050,810
• Publication Number:
  US 20170242931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying a set of digital content that are responsive to a search query; detecting an electronic tag within the set of digital content; automatically converting the electronic tag to a frame element; generating and transmitting to an user device a composite page that: is hosted at a different domain than at least some digital content; includes different digital content from the set of digital content; and initially hides presentation of the frame element in the composite page; receiving a request for additional content generated by the frame element that identifies one of the various digital content sources; embedding observation code into the additional content; and determining that the additional content was visually perceptible on a display of the user device based on an electronic message received from the intersection observer code executing at the user device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

electronically crawling various digital content sources, by one or more servers, to identify and store, by the one or more servers, various digital content from the various digital content sources in a repository;

identifying a set of the digital content that are responsive to a search query;

detecting, by the one or more servers, an electronic tag within at least one portion of digital content in the set of the digital content;

automatically converting, by the one or more servers, the electronic tag to a frame element;

generating, by the one or more servers, and transmitting, to a given user device that is remotely located relative to the one or more servers, a composite page that;

is hosted at a different domain than at least some digital content in the set of the digital content;

includes different digital content from the set of the digital content that are identified and stored from the various digital content sources; and

initially hides presentation of the frame element in the composite page;

receiving, by the one or more servers, an electronic request for additional content that was generated by the frame element and that identifies one of the various digital content sources;

embedding, by the one or more servers and in response to the electronic request, observation code into the additional content provided responsive to the electronic request;

determining that the additional content was visually perceptible on a display of the given user device based on an electronic message received from the observation code executing at the given user device; and

modifying a log based on the visual perception of the additional content with the digital content that was identified in the electronic request.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing, by the given user device and within the frame element, the observation code, wherein execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including registering the observation code within a parent window within which the frame element is located.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including accumulating, by the observation code, information specifying a location of the frame element in the composite page and specifying a portion of the composite page that is presented within the display.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including determining, based on the information specifying the location of the frame element and specifying the portion of the composite page presented within the display, that at least a specified portion of the additional content was presented within the display for at least a specified amount of time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including:

generating the electronic message specifying that the additional content was presented within the display; and

transmitting the electronic message to the one or more servers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the electronic request, updating, by the user device, the composite page to reveal the digital content from the set of the digital content associated that is selected, wherein updating the composite page is independent of an additional request for the digital content.

7. A system, comprising:

one or more computers including;

an electronic document inspection device that electronically crawls various digital content sources to identify and store various digital content from the various digital content sources in a repository;

a tag converter device that detects an electronic tag within at least one portion of digital content in the set of digital content and automatically converts the electronic tag to a frame element;

a composite page generator that generates and transmits the composite page to a given user device that is remotely located relative to the one or more servers, wherein;

the composite page is hosted at a different domain than at least some digital content in the set of the digital content,

includes different digital content from the set of digital content that are identified and stored from the various multiple different digital content sources, and

initially hides presentation of the frame element in the composite page;

an embedding device that embeds an observation code into additional content in response to a request for additional content that was generated by the frame element and that identifies one of the various digital content sources; and

a visibility tracking device that determines that the additional content was visually perceptible on a display of the given user device based on an electronic message received from the observation code executing at the given user device, and that modifies a log based on the visual perception of the additional content with the digital content that was identified in the request.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the observation code is registered within a parent window within which the frame element is located.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the observation code accumulates information specifying a location of the frame element in the composite page and specifies a portion of the composite page that is presented within the display.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the observation code determines, based on the information specifying the location of the frame element and specifying the portion of the composite page presented within the display, that at least a specified portion of the additional content was presented within the display for at least a specified amount of time.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the observation code generates the electronic message specifying that the additional content was presented within the display and transmits the electronic message to the one or more computers.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

electronically crawling various digital content sources, by one or more servers, to identify and store, by the one or more servers, various digital content from the various digital content sources in a repository;

identifying a set of the digital content that are responsive to a search query;

detecting, by the one or more servers, an electronic tag within at least one portion of digital content in the set of the digital content;

automatically converting, by the one or more servers, the electronic tag to a frame element;

generating, by the one or more servers, and transmitting, to a given user device that is remotely located relative to the one or more servers, a composite page that;

is hosted at a different domain than at least some digital content in the set of the digital content;

includes different digital content from the set of the digital content that are identified and stored from the various digital content sources; and

initially hides presentation of the frame element in the composite page;

receiving, by the one or more servers, an electronic request for additional content that was generated by the frame element and that identifies one of the various digital content sources;

embedding, by the one or more servers and in response to the electronic request, observation code into the additional content provided responsive to the electronic request;

determining that the additional content was visually perceptible on a display of the given user device based on an electronic message received from the observation code executing at the given user device; and

modifying a log based on the visual perception of the additional content with the digital content that was identified in the electronic request.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

executing, by the given user device and within the frame element, the observation code, wherein execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including registering the observation code within a parent window within which the frame element is located.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the execution of the observation code causes operations to be performed at the user device, including accumulating, by the observation code, information specifying a location of the frame element in the composite page and specifying a portion of the composite page that is presented within the display.