Internet website traffic flow analysis

• US 7,464,187 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2004
• Issued: 12/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Omniture Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Barrelet, Blaise, Glommen, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung; Zarni
• Application Number:
  US10/838,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20040260807A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,680 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/219, 709/238, 709/250, 709/203, 709/242, 709/230
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An Internet-based analysis tool follows, in real-time, the flow of traffic through a website. For every website page requested by a website visitor, the state of the visitor'"'"'s browser is recorded and data relating to the path visitors take through the website is collected and studied. The state of the visitor'"'"'s browser path is maintained in a traffic analysis cookie that is passed between a website file server and the visitor browser with every page requested for viewing. The cookie is maintained in a size that can be passed from server to browser and back again without negatively impacting server performance and without negatively impacting browser performance. The data in the cookie can follow the visitor browser through independent file servers, regardless of how the pages of a website might be distributed in storage.

Claims

1. A system for tracking website traffic, comprising:

a plurality of website file servers, each having a plurality of web pages, where one or more web pages include traffic analysis code comprising a reference to a graphical image, the reference identifying a location separate from the plurality of website file servers; and

a traffic analysis server configured to receive a request for a graphical image from a browser in response to the browser receiving a website file from one of the plurality of website file servers, the traffic analysis server further configured to parse the request to identify an account identifier that uniquely identifies a customer, where the account identifier is part of a cookie that accompanied said request and is associated with a current user session, the traffic analysis server further configured to process the cookie to track website traffic associated with the current user session, and respond to the request.

2. The system of claim 1, traffic analysis serveris configured to determine path data from the request and store a representation of the path data in the cookie.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic analysis server is configured to compute a site visit count and store the site visit countin the cookie.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic analysis server is configured to compute an average time between website visits and store the averaage time between site visits in the cookie.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic analysis server is configured to compute an elapsed time for the current website visit and store the elapsed time for the current website visit in the cookie.

6. A computer implemented method for tracking website traffic associated with a customer session that accesses website files from one or more website file servers, comprising:

receiving a first request for a graphical image, the first request received from a browser in response to the browser processing a website file received from a website file server;

generating a cookie in response to receiving the first request, wherein the cookie comprises an account identifier that uniquely identifies a customer;

initializing website traffic analysis data and storing said initialized data in the cookie;

returning the cookie in response to the first request;

receiving a second request for a graphical image, the second request comprising said cookie and received from said browser in response to the browser processing a website file received from a website file server;

parsing the second request to obtain the cookie;

determining the account identifier for the cookie; and

storing updated website traffic analysis data in the cookie to track website traffic associated with the customer based on the account identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second request is received from said browser in response to the browser processing a website file received from a website file server that is separate from the website file server associated with the first request.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the website traffic analysis data comprises one of path data, cumulative visit time, site visit count, and average time between site visits.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the cumulative visit time is for a single user session.

10. A computer implemented method for tracking user traffic at a website that comprises a plurality of web pages, wherein each web page comprises one or more files stored at one or more website file servers, comprising:

identifying a first web page in the website as the home page;

providing a first traffic analysis code associated with the home page, wherein the first traffic analysis code is configured to extract browser parameters from a web browser that has requested the home page; and

identifying a plurality of second web pages in the website as tracking enabled pages;

providing a second traffic analysis code associated with each of the tracking enabled pages of said website, wherein the tracking enabled pages do not include the home page, and wherein the second traffic analysis code is configured to track the flow of a website visitor from page to page of the website.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine one or more plug-ins that are installed in the browser.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine the browser language selected by the browser user.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine the Javascript version number that is supported by the browser.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine whether the browser supports Java applets.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine the screen width and screen height of the computer at which the browser is running.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the first traffic analysis code is further configured to determine the name of the browser.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the second traffic analysis code does not extract browser parameters from a web browser.