Method and system for centralized network usage tracking

• US 7,430,599 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 09/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Najm, Tarek, Mariani, Rico, Wang, Lee, Manne, Ramesh, Subhas, Madhan, Prakriya, Tara S.
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, LIANG CHE A
• Application Number:
  US11/278,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20060179133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/203, 709223-226, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

In accordance with a method and system for centralized network usage tracking, documents on a network server include a reference to content on a centralized logging server. When one of the documents is accessed by a client computer, the process of rendering the content at the client computer includes requesting the content from the logging server. The logging server, upon receipt of such a request, logs information embedded in the request and returns a trivial response which requires little time and which rendering of need not be perceivable by the user.

Claims

1. A method for centralized network usage tracking, comprising:

configuring a web page to include a tracking tag, wherein the tracking tag comprises a referral to content stored on a logging server and includes information about transmission of the web page from a web server to a client;

accessing, by the client, the webpage including the tracking tag;

transmitting the web page accessed including the tracking tag from the web server to the client;

rendering the transmitted web page on the client, wherein the rendering of the transmitted web page comprises sending a request by the client to the logging server for delivery of the content identified by the tracking tag;

receiving, at the logging server, the request for delivery of the content from the client;

logging the information included within the tracking tag at the logging server; and

sending a trivial response as the content identified by the tracking tag in a resource sent from the logging server to the client, wherein the trivial response is configured to minimize resource expenditures by the client in rendering the trivial response as part of the web page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking tag additionally comprises:

identification of the web server from which the web page was transmitted.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the web page to include the tracking tag comprises:

locating the tracking tag at the end of the web page following head and body formatting of the web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein logging the information included with the tracking tag is performed by the logging server for a plurality of said tracking tags sent with a plurality of said web pages delivered by a plurality of web servers to a plurality of clients.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering additionally comprises:

displaying portions of the web page at the client;

receiving the trivial response from the logging server in response to the request for delivery of the content; and

rendering the trivial response with the web page at the client.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about transmission of the web page comprises web usage by the client, including at least one of:

subject matter of the web page content,

actions taken by the client when the web page is displayed,

types of advertisements displayed to the client on the web page,

the subject matter of the advertisements, or

a specific company or product promoted in the advertisements.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of

storing by the web server in a local log the information about the transmission of the web page to the client, whereby accesses to the web server are logged locally and separately from the logging server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of

encoding or encrypting the information about the transmission of the web page to the client when passing the information to the client with the tracking tag.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of

sending a cookie by the client with the request for delivery of the content sent to the logging computer.

10. A method for centralized network usage tracking, comprising:

providing a logging server for collecting information about accesses by one or more clients to a plurality of web pages on one or more web servers;

configuring the plurality of web pages to each include a tracking tag, wherein the tracking tag comprises a reference to retrieve content stored on the logging server and includes the information about the accesses by the one or more clients to the web page including the tracking tag on one of said one or more web servers;

accessing, by a first one of the clients, a first one of the web pages including a first said tracking tag on a first one of the web servers;

transmitting the first web page including the first tracking tag from the first web server to the first client;

rendering the transmitted first web page on the first client, wherein the rendering of the transmitted first web page comprises sending a request by the first client to the logging server for delivery of the content identified by the first tracking tag;

receiving, at the logging server, the request for delivery of the content from the first client;

logging the information included within the first tracking tag at the logging server; and

sending a trivial response as the content identified by the tracking tag in a response sent from the logging server to the client, wherein the trivial response is configured to minimize resource expenditures by the first client in rendering the trivial response as part of the web page.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first tracking tag additionally comprises:

identification of the first web server from which the first web page was transmitted.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein configuring the one or more web pages to include the tracking tags comprises:

locating the tracking tags at the end of the web pages following head and body formatting of the web pages.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein logging the information included with a plurality of the tracking tag is performed by the logging server for the plurality of tracking tags sent with the plurality of web pages delivered by a plurality of the web servers to a plurality of the clients.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the rendering additionally comprises:

displaying portions of the first web page at the first client;

receiving the trivial response from the logging server in response to the request for delivery of the content; and

rendering the trivial response with the first web page at the first client.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the information about the access by the first client to the first web page comprises web usage by the first client, including at least one of:

subject matter of the first web page content,

actions taken by the first client when the first web page is displayed,

types of advertisements displayed to the first client on the first web page,

the subject matter of the advertisements, or

a specific company or product promoted in the advertisements.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising a step of

storing by the first web server in a local log the information about the access by the first client to the first web page, whereby accesses to the first web server are logged locally and separately from the logging server.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising a step of

encoding or encrypting the information about the access by the first client to the first web page when passing the information to the first client with the first tracking tag.

18. A method for centralized network usage tracking, comprising:

providing a logging server for collecting information about accesses by one or more client computers to a plurality of web pages on a plurality of web servers storing the plurality of web pages;

configuring the plurality of web pages to include tracking tags, wherein each of the tracking tags comprises a reference for accessing content stored on a logging server when rendering the web page including the tracking tag, and each of the tracking tags further includes information about an access by one of said client computers to the web page having the tracking tag;

accessing, by the client computers, the plurality of web pages on the web servers storing the web pages;

transmitting, to the client computers from the web servers, the web pages accessed including the tracking tags;

rendering each web page transmitted to each client computer, wherein the rendering of each transmitted web page on each client computer comprises sending a request by the client computer to the logging server for delivery of the content stored on the logging server identified by the reference in the tracking tag for the web page;

receiving, at the logging server from the client computers, the requests for delivery of the content corresponding to the tracking tags for each of the plurality of web pages accessed;

logging, at the logging server, the information about the accesses included within the tracking; and

sending a trivial response as the content identified by the tracking tag in a response sent from the logging server to the client, wherein the trivial response is configured to minimize resource expenditures by the client in rendering the trivial response as part of the web page.