SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING USER INTERACTION WITH WEB PAGES

• US 20090271514A1
• Filed: 03/04/2009
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beal, Steven K., Wilson, Steve, Thomas, Oran M., Gorman, Robert F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,958,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring usage of an electronic device are disclosed herein. A client component in stalled in a client device is operative to monitor usage of the client device in accordance with a monitoring profile, and to generate corresponding usage data. The monitoring profile typically includes information specifying which features of which application programs are to be disabled on the client device. A server component, installed on a server device in communication with the client device, provides the monitoring profile to the client device and receives the usage data from the client device.

Claims

1. A method for restricting computer usage comprising the steps of:

generating a monitoring profile which identifies prohibited usage of a client computer;

transmitting said monitoring profile to said client computer from a server computer; and

disabling, in accordance with said monitoring profile, at least certain functionality of an application program executing on said client computer.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing said monitoring profiles remote from said client computers, and the step of storing said usage data provided to said server component from each of said client computers.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of creating each of said monitoring profiles such that each of said monitoring profiles includes a plurality of application profiles, each of said application profiles being associated with one of said associated application programs.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of associating each user of one or more of said client computers with one of said monitoring profiles.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of monitoring usage statistics for specified features of said application programs via predefined application programming interfaces of said application programs.

6. A system for restricting computer usage comprising:

a client component installed on a client device, said client component being operative to identify prohibited usage of said client device in accordance with a monitoring profile, to disable at least certain functionality of an application program executing on said client computer, and to generate corresponding usage data; and

a server component, installed on a server device in communication with said client device, for providing said monitoring profile to said client device and for receiving said usage data from said client device.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising a data management component disposed to store said monitoring profile and to store said usage data provided to said server device.

8. The system of claim 6 further comprising a profile management component for creating said monitoring profile, said monitoring profile including a plurality of application profiles each associated with one of said application programs.

9. The system of claim 6 further comprising a data analysis component for, based upon said usage data, determining usage statistics associated with application programs installed on said client device, wherein said usage statistics include measurements of usage time, number of uses, and sequence of usage of specified one of said application programs.

10. The system of claim 6 further comprising a profile management component for creating and editing said monitoring profile, said monitoring profile specifying which application programs installed on said client device are to be monitored and a frequency with which said usage data is to be reported to said server component.

11. The system of claim 6 wherein said profile management component allows for definition of a set of users of said client device to be monitored in accordance with said monitoring profile.

12. The system of claim 6 wherein said client component includes a client monitoring agent for collecting said usage data in accordance with said monitoring profile and for providing said usage data to said server component, said client component further including a client service for requesting said monitoring profile from said server component and for starting said client monitoring agent upon receipt of said monitoring profile from said server component.

13. The system of claim 6 wherein the client component comprises a hooks dynamic linked library injected into one or more application programs activated by a user.

14. The system of claim 6 wherein the client component comprises an application features dynamic linked library injected into one or more application programs activated by a user.

15. The system of claim 6 wherein said client component includes means for monitoring usage statistics for specified features of said application programs via predefined application programming interfaces of said application programs.