METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DATA PROCESSING

• US 20080222613A1
• Filed: 03/06/2008
• Published: 09/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AddThis, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Reverte, Carlos F., Keesan, Matthew J., Greene, Dylan J., Cosby, Scott F., Radfar, Hooman, Allen, Stewart O., Labarca, Richard Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,266,274 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A method and system can include multiple data handling stages for manipulating tracked information associated with content distributed to users and/or computers, such as static objects, media objects, and/or software objects, for example. The content can be distributed as widget instances and the associated tracked information can be received over a network. The information received can be associated with a session corresponding to each widget instance and/or with multiple identifiers, such as widget, user, content, session, content aggregation point, processor, and/or placement identifiers, for example. Data handling processes, including sorting, storing, filtering, combining, queuing, and/or authenticating, for example, can be performed during the data handling stages. The processed information can be used to determine modifications to a behavior associated with widgets and/or widget containers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving tracked information associated with a plurality of instances of a widget, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information being associated with a plurality of identifiers, the plurality of identifiers including at least a widget identifier and a session identifier;

processing the tracked information based on the plurality of identifiers; and

modifying a behavior associated with an instance of a widget from the plurality of instances of the widget based on the processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of identifiers further includes at least one of a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracked information associated with the plurality of the instances of the widget includes at least one of widget information, user information, placement information, content information, content aggregation point information, or processor information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, an analysis process, or a queuing process, the processing is performed at one or more stages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing includes filtering the tracked information based on at least one of:

a validation of a source of at least a portion of the tracked information,

a validation of at least a portion of the tracked information, or

a validation of a session associated with at least a portion of the tracked information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracked information is a first received information,

the method further comprising:

receiving a second information including at least one of demographic information, behavioral information, optimization information, or validation information; and

collectively processing the first received information and the second received information based on the plurality of identifiers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying includes modifying a behavior associated with a widget container based on the processing, the widget container being associated with the instance of the widget from the plurality of instances of the widget, the widget container being a procedural software framework including a widget reference and a service module.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the instance of the widget is a first instance of the widget, the first instance of the widget is placed at a first content aggregation point in response to a sharing request associated with a second instance of the widget placed at a second content aggregation point, the second instance of the widget being from the plurality of instances of the widget.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is a first widget, the tracked information is associated with a plurality of instances of a second widget, the first widget and the second widget being different.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a first data handling stage configured to receive tracked information associated with a plurality of instances of a widget, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information being associated with a plurality of identifiers;

a second data handling stage configured to receive the tracked information from the first data handling stage and configured to process the tracked information based on the plurality of identifiers; and

a third data handling stage configured to modify a behavior associated with at least one instance of the widget from the plurality of instances of the widget based on the processing performed at the second data handling stage.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the plurality of identifiers includes at least one of a widget identifier, a session identifier, a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, or the third data handling stage includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, or a queuing process.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising performing one or more of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, and the third data handling stage in a single computing entity.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a function associated with the first data handling stage is performed at a first portion of a plurality of computing entities and a function associated with the second data handling stage is performed at a second portion of a plurality of computing entities, the first data handling stage and the second data handling stage are pipelined stages.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a function associated with the first handling stage is performed at a plurality of computing entities, the at least one instance of the widget is configured to exclusively send information associated with the at least one instance of the widget to a specified portion of the plurality of computing entities.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, and the third data handling stage is a pipelined stage.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving tracked information associated with one or more instances of at least one widget, each widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the received information including information associated with a session corresponding to each instance of the at least one widget, the session information corresponding to each instance of the at least one widget having information associated with a plurality of identifiers;

processing the received information based on the plurality of identifiers, the processed information being stored in one or more data structures; and

determining a modification to a behavior associated with one or more instances of at least one specific widget based on the processed information.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising modifying the behavior associated with the one or more instances of the at least one specific widget based on the determined modification.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising processing the session information for one instance of one of the at least one widget when one of the following occurs:

a predetermined time is reached after a last occurrence of an activity associated with the instance of the widget,

a content aggregation point into which the instance of the widget is loaded is closed,

a predetermined time is reached after the instance of the widget is loaded into a content aggregation point, or

a signal indicative of a session termination is received from the instance of the widget.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of identifiers includes at least one of a widget identifier, a session identifier, a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the processing includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, an analysis process, or a queuing process.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more data structures include at least one of:

a hierarchical time-based data structure,

a hierarchical user-based data structure,

a hierarchical widget-based data structure,

a hierarchical content-based data structure,

a hierarchical session-based data structure,

a hierarchical placement-based data structure, or

a hierarchical content-aggregation-point-based data structure.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising modifying the behavior associated with one instance of one the at least one of the specific widget based on the determined modification, wherein the modifying occurs during at least one of:

a load time of the instance of the specific widget,

a rendering time of the instance of the specific widget, or

a lifetime of the instance of the specific widget.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the receiving is performed by a plurality of computing entities, further comprising:

sending information associated with instances of a specified one of the at least one widget to a specified portion of the plurality of computing entities.

25. A system, comprising:

one or more servers,

wherein the one or more servers are configured to receive tracked information associated with one or more instances of at least one widget, each widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the received information being associated with a plurality of identifiers, the plurality of identifiers including at least a widget identifier and a session identifier,

wherein the one or more servers are configured to process the received information based on the plurality of identifiers, and

wherein the one or more servers are configured to modify a behavior associated with one or more instances of at least one specific widget based on the processed information.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein at least one of the one or more servers is a virtual server.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the one or more servers are configured to modify a behavior associated with a widget container based on the processed information, the widget container being associated with an instance of one of the at least one specific widget, the widget container being a procedural software framework including a widget reference and a service module.