SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISPLAYING STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON A WEB PAGE

• US 20130198375A1
• Filed: 01/10/2013
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc. (Ancestry.com Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ancestry.com Operations Inc. (Ancestry.com Incorporated)
• Inventors: Allen, Paul, Ivie, James, Parkinson, Greg, Thayne, Daren, Wolfgramm, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,197,525 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/94 Hypermedia Hyperlinking G06F40/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level

Abstract

A method for displaying information on a display screen of a user computer comprises sending a computer readable document from a server computer to the user computer for display on the display screen. The computer readable document includes links that are viewable on the display screen and are selectable to cause subsequent documents to be rendered on the display screen. The computer readable document further includes viewable information regarding selection of the links over a certain time.

Claims

1. A system for tracking website activity, the system comprising:

one or more server systems;

one or more computer systems communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems; and

one or more databases communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems, wherein the one or more server systems are configured to perform the following operations to track website activity comprising;

for a plurality of web pages, including a source page displaying links to one or more destination pages, tracking activity relating to a number of times each link of the source page has been selected by one or more users navigating among the web pages over a period of time;

parsing the source page to identify the links displayed on the source page;

determining the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users;

transmitting tracking information for each link to the one or more computer systems, wherein the tracking information includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that includes the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and

receiving instructions from the one or more computers systems to modify the source page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

with the one or more computer systems;

extracting from each URL, the number of times each corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and

displaying on the source page the number of times each link has been selected by displaying a value adjacent each link corresponding to the number of times the link has been selected.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises the number of times the corresponding link has been selected.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises a percentage that each link has been selected in relation to the other links of the source page.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the value is displayed adjacent each link as a pointer displayed by the one or more computer systems is hovered over the link or in close proximity thereto.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer systems are communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems via a network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more databases are communicatively coupled with the one or more server systems via a network.

8. A method for tracking website activity, the method comprising:

for a plurality of web pages, including a source page displaying links to one or more destination pages, tracking activity relating to a number of times each link of the source page has been selected by one or more users navigating among the web pages over a period of time;

parsing the source page to identify the links displayed on the source page;

determining the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users;

transmitting tracking information for each link to a computer system for display on the computer system, wherein the tracking information for each link includes a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and

receiving instructions from the computer system to modify the source page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising, with the computer system:

extracting from each URL, the number of times each corresponding link has been selected from the source page; and

displaying on the source page the number of times each link has been selected by displaying a value adjacent each link corresponding to the number of times the link has been selected.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises the number of times the corresponding link has been selected.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the value adjacent each link comprises a percentage that each link has been selected in relation to the other links of the source page.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the value is displayed adjacent each link as a pointer displayed by the computer system is hovered over the link or in close proximity thereto.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing in a database the number of times each link has been selected from the source page by the one or more users.

14. A method for tracking website activity, the method comprising:

providing a source web page for display to one or more users, the source web page including a plurality of links to one or more destination web pages;

generating a log file when a link of the source web page is selected, the log file comprising a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for the source web page and a URL for a destination web page that uniquely define the selected link, wherein over a period of time one or more servers generate a plurality of such log files;

parsing the plurality of log files to determine a number of times each link of the source web page has been selected;

in response to a user'"'"'s request, transmitting tracking information to one or more computer systems for each link of the source web page for subsequent display on the one or more computer systems, wherein the tracking information includes the destination web page URL for each link and the number of times each link has been selected from the source web page; and

receiving instructions from the one or more computer systems to modify the source web page so as to optimize access to popular links based on the number of times each link has been selected.

15. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, wherein parsing the plurality of log files to determine the number of times each link has been selected comprises searching the plurality of log files for record entries that include the source web page and destination web page URLs that uniquely define each link.

16. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, further comprising modifying the destination web page URL for each link to include the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page.

17. The method for tracking website activity of claim 16, further comprising extracting from a first destination web page URL, the number of times the corresponding link has been selected from the source page.

18. The method for tracking website activity of claim 17, wherein the information is extracted from the first destination web page URL in response to a pointer displayed by the one or more computer systems being hovered over the corresponding link or being in close proximity thereto.

19. The method for tracking website activity of claim 14, further comprising:

with a server computer system, performing the following operations;

providing a plurality of source web pages that each include a plurality of links to one or more destination web pages;

generating a log file entry each time a link is selected from one of the plurality of source web pages, wherein each log file entry comprises a URL for the corresponding source web page and a URL for the corresponding destination web page that uniquely define the selected link, wherein over a period of time a plurality of such log file entries are generated;

parsing the log file entries to determine a number of times each link of the plurality of source web pages has been selected;

storing in a database, the number of times each link has been selected by associating in the database the number of times each link has been selected with the corresponding source web page URL and destination web page URL;

receiving a URL for a first source web page from a first computer system;

parsing the first source web page to determine the links to destination web pages that the first source web page includes;

obtaining the destination web page URL for each link of the first source web page;

querying the database with the source web page URL and destination web page URL corresponding to each link of the first source web page to determine the number of times each link of the first source web page has been selected; and

transmitting information to the first computer system on the number of times each link of the first source web page has been selected.

20. The method for tracking website activity of claim 19, further comprising placing the server computer system into a statistics mode before the first source web page is parsed to determine the links to destination web pages that the first source web page includes.