First-party cookie for tracking web traffic

• US 20060265495A1
• Filed: 05/19/2006
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WebTrends Incorporated (WebTrends Holding, Inc.)
• Inventors: Teddy, John, Waugh, Martin, Butler, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,131,861 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Web traffic reporting methods that rely upon third-party cookies suffer in accuracy when those tracking cookies are frequently refused by web users or deleted once they have been accepted. The invention described herein circumvents this problem by employing first-party cookies instead. This is accomplished by a client-side script that maintains the first-party cookie (as placed by the web site in question) and sends a site-maintained visitor ID to a tracking service for analysis. The effect is to improve the accuracy of traffic statistics that rely on that cookie.

Claims

1. A method for tracking activity on a web site comprising:

storing a web site on a first server coupled to a network;

using a second server to place a third-party cookie on a visitor computer to track activity of the visitor computer on the first server;

loading a web page from the web site on the visitor computer;

executing computer code associated with the web page at the visitor computer;

sending a data request to the second server responsive to execution of the computer code;

sending the third-party cookie with the data request;

opening the third-party cookie at the second server;

reading an identification code in the third-party cookie;

sending the identification code to the visitor computer with the requested data; and

associating the identification code with a first-party cookie at the visitor computer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said method further comprises associating visitor computer activity on the second server with the identification code.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said method further comprises:

again loading a web page from the web site on the visitor computer;

storing information about the visit to the web site in the first party cookie;

opening the first party cookie at the visitor computer; and

sending the information about the web visit to the second server.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein opening the first party cookie at the visitor computer and sending the information about the web visit to the second server are done in response to execution of computer code associated with at least one of the web pages loaded from the web site on the visitor computer.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein said method further includes associating information at the second server from both the third party cookie and the first party cookie with the identification code.

6. A method for storing information about activity of a visitor computer at a web site comprising:

creating a data-base entry of such information associated with an identification code from a first cookie created by a first domain;

collecting information about the activity of the visitor computer at the web site using a second cookie created by a second domain;

replacing an identification code associated with the second cookie with the identification code from the first cookie; and

storing information collected using the second cookie in the data-base entry.

7. A method for processing cookies generated by two different domains comprising:

generating a first identification code associated with a first cookie created by a first domain;

generating a second identification code associated with a second cookie created by a second domain; and

replacing the first identification code with the second identification code.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said method further includes:

tracking activity of a visitor computer to the first domain during a first time period;

using the first cookie to track the activity during the first time period;

tracking activity of the visitor computer to the first domain during a second time period; and

using the second cookie after replacing the identification code to track the activity during the second time period.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said method further includes:

creating a data-base entry for the visitor computer using the first identification code; and

storing information collected by both the first and second cookies in the data-base entry.

10. A method for tracking a visitor computer across multiple domains on a network comprising:

loading a web page from a first web site at a first domain on the visitor computer;

reading an identification code in a first-party cookie set by the first domain at the visitor computer;

sending a data request to a server coupled to the network;

sending the identification code with the data request;

creating a third-party cookie using the identification code;

placing the third-party cookie on the visitor computer;

loading a web page from a second web site at a second domain on the visitor computer;

sending the third party cookie to the server; and

storing visitor computer activity across both domains at the server.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the stored activity at the server is associated with the identification code.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the data request is an image request.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein after storing visitor computer activity across both domains at the server the third party cookie is deleted or the visitor computer begins to reject the third party cookie, said method further comprising:

loading another page from one of the first and second web sites;

reading the identification code in the first party cookie associated with the one web site;

sending the identification code to the server; and

creating a new third party cookie using the identification code.

14. A method for tracking activity of a visitor computer across multiple domains on a network comprising:

setting the identification code in a cookie set by each domain to the same value;

creating a database entry for the visitor computer in which such activity is stored; and

associating the database entry with the identification code.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said method further includes creating a third party cookie shared by each domain.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said method further includes setting the identification code of the third party cookie to said value.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein setting the identification code of the third party cookie to said value comprises reading the identification code of a first party cookie at the visitor computer and sending the code to a server that creates the third party cookie.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said method further comprises creating the first party identification code at the visitor computer.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein said method further comprises sending the first party cookie identification code to the server in response to each visit to a tracked web page on one of the tracked domains.