Method and system for characterization of online behavior

• US 20030110255A1
• Filed: 09/20/2002
• Published: 06/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Connexity Audience, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hitwise Pty. Ltd. (Experian plc), Plurimus Corporation
• Inventors: Tarquini, Maureen Mendick, Sandefur, Robert Asheville Jr., Robertson, Michael Chad
• Granted Patent: US 7,533,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Data about computer network traffic is collected as user website visit recording sessions. The data captured is analyzed and organized with sufficient level of detail or granularity to determine a single request from a server. Each data request is analyzed to determine if it comes from a server with which an ongoing end user interaction or open site visit is occurring. If not, a new site visit is created as a general proposition. If the data request is part of an open site visit, then the time is compared to the time of the last interaction and if the interval is sufficiently small, the data request is treated as a continuation of the visit. If the interval is large, a new site visit is created.

Claims

1. A method of collecting and classifying data about computer network traffic as user website visit recording sessions, comprising:

determining whether a data request to at least one website comprises a user ongoing interaction with a website or whether it is a new site visit by a user;

if it is a new visit, create a record of a new site visit;

if it is a user ongoing interaction which occurred more than a predetermined amount of time since the last visit, create a record of the data request as a new site visit;

if it is a user ongoing interaction occurring at less than a predetermined amount of time since the last visit, create a record of the visit as a continuation of the prior visit; and

characterize the network traffic based on the records created based on the type of visit to at least one website.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said recording sessions further comprise:

assembling a data table made up of all known hosts that direct a user to a specific website;

collecting and classifying the computer network traffic corresponding to said sessions by tracking each user request to all known hosts for each specific website; and

characterizing the network traffic for each website independent of which host is used by a user to request data from each website.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating records of a website visit which includes components of a website visit originating from hosts that are not members of a specified website.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said components of a website visit originating from hosts that are not members of a specific website comprise forced content and images, and are recorded as data requests to the specific website.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting and classifying computer network traffic for said sessions by concurrently running said sessions for each browser opened by users having multiple browsers open.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting and recording the port numbers of each data request and determining whether the data requests are secure socket layer transactions.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the duration of a website visit by subtracting the start time of a session for a user from the latest end time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the end of a website visit by a user is determined by detecting when a user closes a session.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the end of a website visit is determined by detecting when a predetermined amount of time of inactivity occurs.