METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DE-DUPLICATE IMPRESSION INFORMATION

• US 20150186403A1
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Seema Varma, Toupet, Antonia, Yi, Peng Fei
• Granted Patent: US 9,852,163 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44226 on social networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to de-duplicate impression information are disclosed. An example method to de-duplicate media impression information includes determining an overlap between cookies of a first database proprietor and cookies of a second database proprietor on client computers; determining duplicate impression information based on first impression information associated with the first database proprietor, second impression information associated with the second database proprietor, and the overlap; and determining unduplicated impression information based on the duplicate impression information, the first impression information, and the second impression information.

Claims

1. A method to de-duplicate media impression information, comprising:

determining an overlap between cookies of a first database proprietor and cookies of a second database proprietor on client computers;

determining, using a processor, duplicate impression information based on first impression information associated with the first database proprietor, second impression information associated with the second database proprietor, and the overlap; and

determining, using the processor, unduplicated impression information based on the duplicate impression information, the first impression information, and the second impression information.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the overlap between the cookies of the first database proprietor and the cookies of the second database proprietor comprises determining a number of panelist computers having a first cookie associated with the first database proprietor and a second cookie associated with the second database proprietor.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated audience members.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein determining the unduplicated impression information includes subtracting the number of duplicated audience members from a total of first and second audience members, the first audience members being associated with the first impression information and the second audience members being associated with the second impression information.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the overlap between the cookies of the first database proprietor and the cookies of the second database proprietor on the client computers comprises a proportion of overlap.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated impressions, and determining the unduplicated impression information includes subtracting the number of duplicated impressions from a sum of first and second impressions, the first impressions of media collected by the first database proprietor and the second impressions of media collected by the second database proprietor.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated impressions, the method further comprising determining the number of duplicated impressions by multiplying a number of duplicated audience members by a measured frequency.

8. An apparatus to de-duplicate media impression information, comprising:

a duplication estimator to determine an overlap between cookies of a first database proprietor and cookies of a second database proprietor on client computers and to determine duplicate impression information based on first impression information associated with the first database proprietor, second impression information associated with the second database proprietor, and the overlap; and

a de-duplicator to determine unduplicated impression information based on the duplicate impression information, the first impression information, and the second impression information.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further comprising a panel data processor to determine a number of panelist computers having both a first cookie associated with the first database proprietor and a second cookie associated with the second database proprietor, the duplication estimator to determine the overlap between the cookies of the first database proprietor and the cookies of the second database proprietor for the client computers based on the number of the panelist computers determined by the panel data processor to have both the first cookie and the second cookie.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated audience members.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the de-duplicator is to determine the unduplicated impression information by subtracting the number of duplicated audience members from a total of first and second audience members, the first audience members being associated with the first impression information and the second audience members being associated with the second impression information.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated impressions.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the de-duplicator is to determine the unduplicated impression information by subtracting a number of duplicated impressions from a sum of first and second impressions, the first impressions collected by the first database proprietor and the second impressions collected by the second database proprietor.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the duplication estimator is to determine a number of duplicated impressions by multiplying a number of duplicated audience members by a measured frequency.

15. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

determine an overlap between cookies of a first database proprietor and cookies of a second database proprietor on client computers;

determine duplicate impression information based on first impression information associated with a first database proprietor, second impression information associated with a second database proprietor, and the overlap; and

determine unduplicated impression information based on the duplicate impression information, the first impression information, and the second impression information.

16. A storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to determine the overlap between the cookies of the first database proprietor and the cookies of the second database proprietor by determining a proportion of panelist computers having a first cookie associated with the first database proprietor and a second cookie associated with the second database proprietor.

17. A storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the duplicated impression information comprises at least one of a number of duplicated audience members.

18. A storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the overlap between the cookies of the first database proprietor and the cookies of the second database proprietor on the client computers comprises a proportion of overlap.

19. A storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated impressions, and the instructions are to cause the processor to determine the number of duplicated impressions by multiplying a number of duplicated audience members by a measured impression frequency.

20. A storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the duplicated impression information includes a number of duplicated impressions, and the instructions are to cause the processor to determine a measured impression frequency from an audience measurement panel.