CONTENT DISPLAY MONITOR

• US 20100299604A1
• Filed: 08/03/2010
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc., nuWeb Co.
• Original Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Inventors: Blumenau, Trevor
• Granted Patent: US 8,769,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/348 Circuit details, i.e. tracer hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

The invention can enable monitoring of the display of content by a computer system. Moreover, the invention can enable monitoring of the displayed content to produce monitoring information from which conclusions may be deduced regarding the observation of the displayed content by an observer. The invention can also enable monitoring of the display at a content display site of content that is provided by a content provider site over a network to the content display site. Additionally, the invention can enable the expeditious provision of updated and/or tailored content over a network from a content provider site to a content display site so that the content provider'"'"'s current and appropriately tailored content is always displayed at the content display site. Aspects of the invention related to transfer of content over a network are generally applicable to any type of network. However, it is contemplated that the invention can be particularly useful with a computer network, including private computer networks (e.g., America Online™) and public computer networks (e.g., the Internet). In particular, the invention can be advantageously used with computer networks or portions of computer networks over which video and/or audio content are transferred from one network site to another network site for observation, such as the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.

Claims

1-66. -66. (canceled)

67. A method comprising:

receiving a communication from a content provider;

in response to the communication from the content provider, providing a reference instruction to the content provider for inclusion in media content to be provided to a content display site by the content provider, wherein the reference instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to make a request to a monitoring provider;

receiving the request from the content display site at the monitoring provider; and

in response to the request, sending a monitoring instruction to the content display site, wherein the monitoring instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to transmit monitoring information to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the media content to the content display site.

68. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the communication is a request for a monitoring provider to monitor the media content.

69. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring information indicates that the content display site accessed the media content.

70. A method as defined in claim 67, further comprising establishing an account identifier for the content provider at the monitoring provider.

71. A method as defined in claim 70, further comprising including the account identifier in the monitoring instruction.

72. A method as defined in claim 70, wherein the monitoring information includes the account identifier.

73. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the request is a hypertext transport protocol request.

74. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the media content is a webpage.

75. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to send the monitoring information to the monitoring provider by making a hyper text transport protocol request to the monitoring provider.

76. A method as defined in claim 75, wherein the hyper text transport request specifies a file that does not exist at the monitoring provider.

77. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the reference instruction is a hypertext markup language tag.

78. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring instruction generates monitoring information for a subset of the media content.

79. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the media content is displayed on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the media content was displayed.

80. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the media content is at least partially covered by another object on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the media content was displayed.

81. A method as defined in claim 80, wherein the object is a window in a graphical user interface.

82. A method as defined in claim 67, further comprising receiving identification information for the content display site.

83. A method as defined in claim 82, wherein the identification information is an internet protocol address and the internet protocol address is included in the monitoring information.

84. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to determine that a user at the content display site selected the media content.

85. A method as defined in claim 67, wherein the monitoring provider provides a report based at least partially on the monitoring information to a third party that pays for an advertisement to be included in the media content.

86. A method comprising:

receiving a communication from a content provider;

in response to the communication from the content provider, instructing the content provider to insert a reference instruction in media content to be provided to a content display site, wherein the reference instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to make a request to a monitoring provider;

receiving the request from the content display site at the monitoring provider; and

in response to the request, sending a monitoring instruction to the content display site, wherein the monitoring instruction, when executed by the content display site, causes the content display site to transmit monitoring information to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the media content to the content display site.

87. A method comprising:

receiving a communication from a content provider; and

in response to the communication from the content provider, instructing the content provider to insert a monitoring instruction in media content to be provided to a content display site, wherein the monitoring instruction, when executed by a content display site, is to cause the content display site to transmit monitoring information to a monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the media content to the content display site.

88. A method comprising:

receiving a communication from a content provider at a monitoring provider;

in response to the communication from the content provider, cooperating with the content provider to include a reference instruction in media content to be provided to a content display site, wherein the reference instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to make a request to the monitoring provider;

receiving the request from the content display site at the monitoring provider; and

in response to the request, sending a monitoring instruction to the content display site, wherein the monitoring instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to transmit monitoring information to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the media content to the content display site.

89. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a content provider at a monitoring provider;

in response to the communication from the content provider, providing a reference instruction to the content provider for inclusion in the media content, wherein the reference instruction, when executed by a content display site, is to cause the content display site to make a request to the monitoring provider;

receiving the request from the content display site at the monitoring provider;

in response to the request, sending a monitoring instruction to the content display site, wherein the monitoring instruction, when executed by the content display site, is to cause the content display site to transmit monitoring information to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the media content to the content display site;

combining the monitoring information with further monitoring information from other content display sites; and

generating a report that indicates a number of times that the media content was accessed.