Method And System For Centralized Network Usage Tracking

• US 20060179133A1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Published: 08/10/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Najm, Tarek, Mariani, Rico, Wang, Lee, Manne, Ramesh, Subhas, Madhan, Prakriya, Tara S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,430,599 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

In accordance with a method and system for centralized network usage tracking, documents on a network server include a reference to content on a centralized logging server. When one of the documents is accessed by a client computer, the process of rendering the content at the client computer includes requesting the content from the logging server. The logging server, upon receipt of such a request, logs information embedded in the request and returns a trivial response which requires little time and which rendering of need not be perceivable by the user.

Claims

1. A method for centralized network usage tracking, comprising:

configuring a webpage to include a tracking tag, wherein the tracking tag comprises information about transmission of the webpage from a server to a client;

transmitting, in response to a request by the client, the webpage including the tracking tag from the server to the client;

rendering the webpage on the client, wherein the rendering comprises requesting delivery, by a logging server, of content identified by the tracking tag; and

receiving the tracking tag at the logging server and logging the information included within the tracking tag.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the webpage to include the tracking tag comprises:

locating the tracking tag at the end of the webpage outside of formatting of the webpage.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein logging the information on the tracking tag is performed by the logging server for tracking tags sent by a plurality of servers to a plurality of clients.

5. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising:

sending a trivial response from the logging server to the client to minimize resource expenditures by the client in rendering the response.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering additionally comprises:

displaying portions of the webpage;

receiving a trivial response from the logging server in response to the requested delivery; and

rendering the trivial response.

2. The method of claim 2, wherein the tracking tag additionally comprises:

identification of the server.