Method & System for Providing Centralized Web Usage Tracking

• US 20070233882A1
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• 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 7,457,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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, implemented in a logging server, comprising:

receiving a request for content, the request having been submitted so that access to a web page on another server could be logged;

logging information embedded in the request; and

responding to the request with the content.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the request from a client computing device.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information embedded in the request comprises information regarding what content was being rendered when the web page was accessed.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information embedded in the request comprises information identifying usage of the web by a user initiating the request.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a cookie along with the request; and

logging information included in the cookie.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the content comprises a transparent graphic image.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the responding comprises returning a small response to a device the request was received from.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the responding comprises returning a response of less than 50 bytes to a device the request was received from.

9. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 1.

10. A method comprising:

sending a request to access a web page at a first server;

receiving the web page including an indication of additional content to be obtained from a second server so that access to the web page can be logged at the second server; and

sending another request to the second server for the additional content.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the other request has embedded therein information identifying usage of the web by a user initiating the request.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, further comprising sending, as part of the other request, a cookie that is associated with a plurality of servers including the second server.

13. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 10.

14. A method of tracking web usage, the method comprising:

adding, to each of a plurality of web pages, a reference to content stored at a central logging server; and

logging, at the central logging server, information embedded in the reference, wherein the central logging server is accessed by a remote device to obtain the content when any of the plurality of web pages is rendered.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the information regarding the request comprises information identifying usage of the web by a user initiating the request.

16. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the adding comprises, for each web page, adding the reference in an area outside of the formatting of the web page

17. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the adding comprises, for each web page, adding the reference at the end of the web page.

18. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 14.

19. A method comprising:

including, in a web page to be stored at a web server, a reference to content stored on a logging server, the reference having embedded therein an indication to the logging server that the web server was accessed.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the reference further has embedded therein information identifying usage of the web by a user initiating the access to the web server.

21. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the reference comprises a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tag.

22. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 19.