Tracking user micro-interactions with web page advertising
First Claim
1. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:
- displaying to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form;
tracking user interaction with the advertisement;
logging the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and
sending user interaction log data to a remote server;
whereby log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and
whereby advertisement information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data;
wherein the step of sending interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of;
opening a connection to the remote server; and
sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;
wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and
wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.
16 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In connection with display of advertising within Web pages, an applet is downloaded to the user'"'"'s Web browser to track the user'"'"'s interactions with the Web page. Tracked user interactions include mouse cursor position, time displayed on page, time of mouse cursor hovering over the advertisement, and so on. At an appropriate time, such as when the display of the Web page is terminated, the applet forwards logged interaction information from the client to a remote server, the remote server being typically controlled by an advertiser, rating service or the like. As a result, the advertiser may track consumer response to advertising impressions on a Web page without requiring the user to download other pages. This allows advertisers to track user response to specific elements of the Web page as well as to better infer information about the user'"'"'s interests in an effort to qualify the user prior to presenting subsequent advertising.
70 Citations
34 Claims
-
1. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form; tracking user interaction with the advertisement; logging the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and sending user interaction log data to a remote server; whereby log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and whereby advertisement information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data; wherein the step of sending interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of; opening a connection to the remote server; and sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data; wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying to a user a representation of a page in electronic form, the page containing at least one advertisement composed of two or more regions, each region containing a visual element of the advertisement; tracking user micro-interactions with each of the elements in the advertisement through the steps of; maintaining a list of elements displayed in the advertisement; determining when a screen pointer hover occurs within a particular element of the advertisement, and the screen pointer hover occurring without requiring a user interaction on the element; and creating a micro-interaction data record in response thereto; logging the micro-interaction data records while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and sending the micro-interaction data records to a remote server; whereby the micro-interaction data records are analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and whereby advertisement information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user micro-interaction data records ; wherein the step of sending micro-interaction data records additionally comprises the steps of; opening a connection to the remote server; and sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the micro-interaction data records; wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and wherein the micro-interaction data records are encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. In a distributed system for displaying information content, a method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying to a user a representation of the information content in electronic form; tracking user interaction with the information content; logging the user interactions while the information content is being displayed to the user; and sending user interaction log data to a remote user interaction log aggregation device; whereby log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and whereby information content to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data; wherein the step of sending interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of; opening a connection to the remote server; and sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data; wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.
-
-
22. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:
-
displaying to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form, the advertisement comprising one or more promotions available from an advertiser; tracking user interaction with the advertisement including interaction with the one or more promotions available from the advertiser; logging the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and sending user interaction log data to a remote server; whereby the user interest in the one or more promotions available from the advertiser is gauged prior to the advertiser'"'"'s Web page being loaded; and whereby the advertiser'"'"'s information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon the user'"'"'s gauged interest determined from the user interaction log data; wherein the step of sending user interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of; opening a connection to the remote server; and sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data; wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. A computer program for use in a distributed computing system on a computer readable medium, said computer program comprising:
-
program step to display to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form; program step to track user interaction with the advertisement; program step to log the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and program step to send user interaction log data to a remote server; said computer program further comprising; a program step for subsequently analyzing log data to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; a program step for customizing advertisement information to be loaded based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data; wherein the program step to send interaction log data additionally comprises; a program step for opening a connection to the remote server; and a program step for sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data; wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and a program step for encoding the user interaction log data to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.
-
-
34. A computer program for use in a distributed computing system on a computer readable medium, said computer program comprising:
-
program step to display to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form, the advertisement comprising one or more promotions available from an advertiser; program step to track user interaction with the advertisement including interaction with the one or more promotions available from the advertiser; program step to log the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and program step to send user interaction log data to a remote server; said computer program further comprising; a program step whereby the user interest in the one or more promotions available from the advertiser is gauged prior to the advertiser'"'"'s Web page being loaded; and a program step whereby the advertiser'"'"'s information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data; wherein the program step to send user interaction log data additionally comprises; a program step for opening a connection to the remote server; and a program step for sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data; wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and a program step for encoding the user interaction log data to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.
-
Specification