Method, system and program product for tracking web user sessions

• US 7,389,343 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2002
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Streble, Mary Catherine, Howard, Troy Anthony, Nam, Tai Woo, Busch, Edward Vernon, Malacinski, Andrei Stephan
• Primary Examiner(s): Jacobs; LaShonda
• Application Number:
  US10/244,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20040054784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,101 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709223-224, 709228-229
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

The present invention provides a solution for efficiently tracking web user sessions. Specifically, under the present invention, web user sessions are tracked on an analytics system based upon a unique identifier assigned to a requested web page and a session cookie that identifies a particular web user session. By tracking web user sessions in this manner, web page data transmitted during a particular web user session can be efficiently and accurately correlated for analysis.

Claims

1. A method for tracking web user sessions, comprising:

receiving a requested web page on a user system, wherein the web page is requested and received without previous providing of information for identifying a session to a system associated with the web page by the user system;

transmitting by the received web page an initial communication from the user system to an analytics system, wherein the initial communication includes initial web page data and a unique identifier corresponding to the requested web page;

returning a session cookie to the user system, wherein the session cookie identifies a current web user session,

transmitting an additional communication to the analytics system, wherein the additional communication includes additional web page data, the unique identifier and the session cookie; and

correlating the additional web page data with the initial web page data using the unique identifier and the session cookie.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial web page data identifies a referring source to the requested web page that indicates how the user system was referred to the requested web page.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identifier comprises a time stamp and a unique value corresponding to the requested web page.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the current web user session exists, prior to returning the session cookie to the user system.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising retrieving the session cookie if the current web user session exists.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising creating the session cookie if the current web user session does not exist.

7. A method for tracking web user sessions, comprising:

requesting a web page on a user system, wherein the web page is requested and received without previous providing of information for identifying a session to a system associated with the web page by the user system;

receiving the web page on the user system from a web server;

transmitting by the received web page an initial communication from the user system to an analytics system, wherein the initial communication includes initial web page data and a unique identifier corresponding to the web page, and wherein the initial web page data identifies a referring source to the web page that indicates how the user system was referred to the requested web page;

returning a session cookie to the user system, wherein the session cookie identifies a current web user session;

transmitting an additional communication from the user system to the analytics system, wherein the additional communication includes additional web page data, the unique identifier and the session cookie; and

correlating the additional web page data with the initial web page data using the unique identifier and the session cookie.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the unique identifier comprises a time stamp and a unique value corresponding to the requested web page.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the current web user session exists, prior to returning the session cookie to the user system.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising retrieving the session cookie if the current web user session exists.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating the session cookie if the current web user session does not exist.