Measuring Quality of User Interaction with Third Party Content

• US 20120030037A1
• Filed: 08/02/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carriero, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,747,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.73
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

An online services system provides monitoring of user interaction with third-party content. The monitoring is performed by a script in a web page provided by the online services system, which script provides a timer invoked when the browser leaves the online services system'"'"'s page for a page comprising third party content. When the online services system serves the page, the browser reads the HTML to render the page, including the script with the timer. When the user leaves the online services system page, the timer begins, and when the browser returns to a page provided by the online services system, the timer ends and duration information from the timer is provided to the online services system. Applications include measurement of the quality of interaction between users and a third party advertisers, in which time spent viewing third party content is a proxy for the quality of the interaction.

Claims

1. A method for measuring a user'"'"'s interaction with third party content, the method comprising:

sending a web page in an origin domain to a user device, the web page including a third party link, the third party link directed to a third party page of information in an external domain;

detecting a user selection of the third party link on the web page;

responsive to the user selection of the third party link;

directing the user device away from the origin domain to the third party page in the external domain, the third party page configured to be displayed on the user device, and

sending an instruction for the user device to start a timer at the user device;

receiving a communication from the user device indicating return to the origin domain; and

receiving from the user device information from the timer indicating a duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the third party link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party page of information in the external domain is a pop-up window.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving a communication from the user device indicating return to the origin domain, sending an instruction to the user device to stop the timer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a quality score for the user'"'"'s interaction with the third party page based on the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain to a threshold duration; and

classifying the user'"'"'s interaction with the third party page based on the comparing.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

storing the classification as data associated with the user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the threshold duration is determined based on a correlation between, for a plurality of users, an average duration that user devices are away from the origin domain as a result of selection of third party links and a conversion rate for third party content associated with the third party links.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page in the origin domain sent to the user device further comprises a script for enabling the timer on the user device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein web pages in the origin domain are served by a plurality of servers in the origin domain, and the web page in the origin domain sent to the user is served by a first of the plurality of servers in the origin domain, further comprising:

sending a subsequent web page in the origin domain to the user device, thereby triggering the communication received from the user device indicating return to the origin domain, wherein the subsequent web page is served by a second of the plurality of servers in the origin domain.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and the second of the plurality of servers in the origin domain are not the same.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first and the second of the plurality of servers in the origin domain are not in time synch.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the web page in the origin domain sent to the user and the subsequent web page in the origin domain are the same page.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the third party link is an advertisement link.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining an advertising price for display of the advertising link on the web page in the origin domain based on the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining whether to charge an advertiser providing the advertising link for the user selection of the advertising link on the web page using the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link to an advertiser providing the advertising link.

17. A method for measuring a user'"'"'s interaction with advertising content, the method comprising:

sending a web page provided by a publisher to a user device, the web page including an advertising link, the advertising link provided by an advertiser and directed to a page of information provided by the advertiser;

detecting a user selection of the advertising link on the web page;

directing the user device away from the web page provided by the publisher to the page of information provided by the advertiser, the page of information provided by the advertiser configured to be displayed on the user device, and

sending an instruction for the user device to start a timer at the user device;

receiving a communication from the user device indicating return to a subsequent web page provided by the publisher;

receiving from the user device information from the timer indicating a duration during which the user device was away from the web page provided by the publisher as a result of the user selection of the advertising link.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the page of information provided by the advertiser is a pop-up window.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising, in response to receiving a communication from the user device indicating return to the subsequent web page provided by the publisher, sending an instruction to the user device to stop the timer.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining a quality score for the user'"'"'s interaction with the page of information provided by the advertiser based on the duration during which the user device was away from the web page provided by the publisher.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

comparing the duration during which the user device was away from the web page provided by the publisher to a threshold duration; and

classifying the user'"'"'s interaction with the page of information provided by the advertiser based on the comparing.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the publisher storing the classification as data associated with the user.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the threshold duration is determined based on a correlation between, for a plurality of users, an average duration that user devices are away from the web page provided by the publisher as a result of selection of advertising links and a conversion rate for advertising content associated with the advertising links.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the web page provided by the publisher further comprises a script for enabling the timer on the user device.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein web pages provided by the publisher are served by a plurality of publisher servers, the web page provided to the user by the publisher is served by a first of the plurality of publisher servers, and wherein receiving a communication from the user device indicating return to a subsequent web page provided by the publisher further comprises sending a subsequent web page provided by a publisher to the user device, wherein the subsequent web page is served by a second of the plurality of publisher servers.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the first and the second of the plurality of publisher servers are not the same.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the first and the second of the plurality of publisher servers are not in time synchronization.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the web page provided by the publisher and the subsequent web page provided by the publisher are the same page.

29. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining an advertising price for display of the advertising link on the web page in the origin domain based on the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link.

30. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining whether to charge an advertiser providing the advertising link for the user selection of the advertising link on the web page using the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link.

31. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing the duration during which the user device was away from the origin domain as a result of the user selection of the advertising link to an advertiser providing the advertising link.