WEB-BEACON PLUG-INS AND THEIR CERTIFICATION

• US 20070299964A1
• Filed: 06/26/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Wong, Catherine, Error, Brett Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

Tools and techniques are provided to allow partners of analytics providers and others who use web-beacons to submit web-beacon plug-ins for scrutiny, and for the plug-in to either be refused or else to be certified for use in a core JavaScript file or similar component. Analytics providers and others may also write web-beacon plug-ins. Certified plug-ins are executed in response to page loads, visitor clicks, and other visitor and programmatic actions at a website that has been tagged by the analytics provider'"'"'s web-beacon, without requiring re-tagging of the website with a separate web-beacon for the partner. This allows the partner to obtain analytics data by piggybacking on the analytics provider, without re-tagging, and without compromising the availability and accuracy of the analytics data already being gathered. To be certified, web-beacon plug-ins must satisfy specific criteria as to their size, behavior, namespace, and the like.

Claims

1. A method for use in certifying web-beacons, the method comprising:

obtaining a web-beacon plug-in; and

scrutinizing the web-beacon plug-in to determine the extent to which the web-beacon plug-in complies with at least one predetermined certification criterion for interfacing with a core component of a web-beacon-based system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein avoiding web-beacon plug-in changes to values of variables of the core component is a certification criterion, and the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting web-beacon plug-in function names and web-beacon plug-in variable names to a specific namespace is a certification criterion, and the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein avoiding web-beacon plug-in execution errors is a certification criterion, and the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein avoiding web-beacon plug-in writes of HTML code to a web page after the web page has been loaded into a display memory of a user'"'"'s device is a certification criterion, and the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a combination of the web-beacon plug-in with the core component has a size constraint as a certification criterion, and the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein web-beacon plug-in compatibility with at least one of the following is a certification criterion:

a specified JavaScript level, a specified set of web browsers, and wherein the scrutinizing step determines whether the web-beacon plug-in complies with this criterion.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

certifying the web-beacon plug-in as compliant with a plurality of predetermined certification criteria; and

permitting execution of the web-beacon plug-in in conjunction with execution of the core analytics component in the web-beacon-based system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the permitted execution has an execution order in which analytics provider server calls precede partner server calls.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising tracking at least one of:

the number of executions of the web-beacon plug-in in conjunction with execution of the core component in the web-beacon-based analytics system, the number of web pages from which execution of the web-beacon plug-in was invoked.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the permitted execution comprises at least one of:

making a web-beacon request to a server of the partner;

tracking website user behavior based on a query string;

tracking website user behavior based on interaction with a DOM object;

tracking website user behavior based on viewing of specific website content;

using an event listener;

writing data to a cookie;

reading data from a cookie;

placing an advertisement in a web page for display to a website user;

writing HTML to a web page;

submitting text to be displayed in a web page;

submitting an image to be displayed in a web page;

returning a value;

returning a base URL value;

returning an array of name-value pairs.

12. A method for using web-beacons, the method comprising:

sending a web-beacon plug-in to an entity for scrutiny; and

learning the extent to which the scrutinized web-beacon plug-in complies with a set of predetermined certification criteria for interfacing with a core component in a web-beacon-based system.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving an accounting indicating at least one of:

the number of executions of the web-beacon plug-in in conjunction with execution of the core component in the web-beacon-based system, the number of web pages from which execution of the web-beacon plug-in was invoked.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising modifying a previously scrutinized web-beacon plug-in to bring it into compliance with at least one certification criterion that it did not previously comply with.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the modifying step comprises modifying the web-beacon plug-in to comply with at least one of the following criteria:

the web-beacon plug-in shall avoid changing the value of any variable that is defined outside the web-beacon plug-in;

the web-beacon plug-in shall limit its own function names and variable names to an assigned namespace;

the web-beacon plug-in shall avoid writing any HTML code to a web page after the web page has been loaded into a display memory of a user'"'"'s device, if that HTML code can change what is displayed to the user;

the web-beacon plug-in shall meet a specified size constraint.

16. A system employing web-beacons, the system comprising:

web-beacon code to be pasted into web pages of a co-customer website;

core code invoked through the web-beacon code, the core code having an interface for passing control and data to a plug-in and for limiting the effect of the plug-in on the core code outside the plug-in; and

web-beacon plug-in code which is configured to plug into the core code to receive control and data from the core code through the interface and to send control and data only in conformance with the interface.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the web-beacon plug-in code consists essentially of a JavaScript function.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one variable is defined and written by the core code, is read by the web-beacon plug-in code, and is not written by the web-beacon plug-in code.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the web-beacon plug-in code comprises a permitted execution means for providing analytics information flow control.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is configured to send an image request to a server of an analytics provider, to receive a response, and to then send a different image request to a server of a partner of the analytics provider.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is configured with unique visitor IDs which are generated by a co-customer, which are used by the core code, and which are also used by the web-beacon plug-in code.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the web-beacon plug-in code is configured as a function which returns a base URL and an array of name-value pairs.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein the web-beacon plug-in code is invoked in response to at least one of the following events:

page event, visitor action event, programmatic event.