Apparatus for monitoring individual internet usage

• US 6,505,201 B1
• Filed: 07/08/1999
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NetZero Incorporated (B. Riley Financial, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Net Zero, Inc. (B. Riley Financial, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haitsuka, Stacy, Burr, Ronald, MacKenzie, Harold, Zebian, Marwan, Warren, Terry, Blaser, Shane
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tam V.
• Application Number:
  US09/349,325
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/10, 709/223, 709/220, 709/331, 709/224, 709/219, 345/736, 345/854, 345/353, 345/760, 345/752, 345/743, 345/735, 345/772, 345/804, 345/806, 345/340, 345/127, 345/811
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for monitoring the on-line activities of an on-line user are disclosed. Information regarding the user'"'"'s activities are used as a basis for targeting advertisements to the user. Monitoring is performed by a client monitoring application, which performs monitoring without intruding on the user'"'"'s activities. In monitoring, URLs in the address bar of the browser application are obtained by the client monitoring application, or the stream of URLs transmitted by the browser application are obtained by the client monitoring application, or information in displayed web pages is obtained by the client monitoring application.

Claims

1. A local device comprising a display and an input device for providing browsing to a user by means of a browser application on a client computer, and further for monitoring web browsing by the user by means of a client application,

(a) the browser application comprising computer readable program code and operative on the local device for generating a browser window on the display and for requesting web pages, the browser window including a display pane comprising a first region of the browser window wherein the browser application causes web pages obtained by the browser application to be displayed, the displayed web pages having associated therewith respective resource locator strings, the browser application defining an address bar object in which, at any given time, the browser application stores the resource locator string corresponding to the then-displayed web page, the browser application comprising computer readable program code for causing the local device to:

(1) accept a request by the user, using the input device, for the browser application to display a first web page from a web server;

(2) request the first web page from the web server;

(3) receive the first web page from the web server;

(4) display the first web page in the display pane;

(5) store in the address bar object a first resource locator string corresponding to the first web page;

(b) the client application comprising computer readable program code for causing the local device to;

(1) obtain the first resource locator string from the address bar object;

(2) derive monitoring information from the first resource locator string;

(3) transmit the monitoring information to a monitoring server;

whereby browsing by the user is monitored without interfering with the user'"'"'s use of the browser application.

2. The local device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the input device comprises a keyboard, the browser application further comprises an address bar comprising a second region of the browser window in which the browser application displays the resource locator string corresponding to the then-displayed web page, the browser application further comprises computer readable program code for causing the local device to accept from the keyboard the user'"'"'s entry of the first resource locator string into the address bar.

3. The local device as set forth in claim 1, wherein browser application includes computer readable program code for causing the local device to

display a second web page in the display pane, the displayed web page including a data entry field; and

accepting the user'"'"'s entry of a keyword using the input device into the data entry field;

wherein the first resource locator string includes the keyword.

4. The local device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the web server is part of the Internet.

5. The local device as set forth in claim 4, wherein the first resource locator string comprises a top level domain name and a second level domain name, and wherein the monitoring information comprises the top level domain name and the second level domain name.

6. The local device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the web server is part of an intranet.

7. The local device as set forth in claim 1, the client monitoring application further comprising computer readable program code for causing the local device to:

establish a communication link to the monitoring server; and

transmit information identifying the user to the monitoring server.

8. The local device as set forth in claim 1, the client monitoring application further comprising computer readable program code for encoding the monitoring information prior to transmitting the monitoring information to the monitoring server.

9. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application comprising

computer readable program code embodied therein for monitoring web browsing by a user of a local device, the user browsing on the local device by means of a browser application, the local device comprising a display and an input device, the browser application for generating a browser window on the display, accepting a request by the user using the input device to display web pages from web servers, and for requesting and displaying the web pages, wherein the displayed web pages have associated therewith respective resource locator strings, the browser application defining an address bar object in which, at any given time, the browser application stores the resource locator string corresponding to the then-displayed web page, the client monitoring application comprising computer readable code for operating the local device to:

(a) receive from the user information identifying the user to the monitoring server;

(b) transmit the identifying information to the monitoring server to thereby establish a session with the monitoring server;

(c) obtain a first resource locator string from the address bar object of the browser application;

(d) derive monitoring information from the first resource locator string; and

(e) transmit the monitoring information to the monitoring server;

whereby browsing by the user is monitored without interfering with the user'"'"'s use of the browser application.

10. The computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application for monitoring web browsing by a user of a local device as set forth in claim 9, wherein the first resource locator string comprises a URL.

11. The computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application for monitoring web browsing by a user of a local device as set forth in claim 10, wherein the monitoring information comprises a top level domain name and a second level domain name.

12. The computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application for monitoring web browsing by a user of a local device as set forth in claim 9, wherein the resource locator strings for at least some of the displayed web pages include keywords, the client monitorng application further including computer readable code for operating the local device to:

receive from the monitoring server a match string;

test whether the first resource locator string includes the match string;

if the first resource locator string includes the match string, then;

test whether the resource locator string includes a keyword,

if the resource locator string includes a keyword, then;

obtain the keyword from the first resource locator string;

transmit the obtained keyword to the monitoring server.

13. The computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application for monitoring web browsing by a user of a local device as set forth in claim 9, wherein the client monitoring application transmits the monitoring information to the monitoring server in a coded format.

14. A local device comprising the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a client monitoring application of claim 9.