Content display monitor

• US 7,720,963 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc., Nielsen Company (US), LLC, Nuweb
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Blumenau, Trevor
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim; Edward J
• Application Number:
  US11/618,086
• Publication Number:
  US 20070112638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/348 Circuit details, i.e. tracer hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

The invention can enable monitoring of the display of content by a computer system. Moreover, the invention can enable monitoring of the displayed content to produce monitoring information from which conclusions may be deduced regarding the observation of the displayed content by an observer. The invention can also enable monitoring of the display at a content display site of content that is provided by a content provider site over a network to the content display site. Additionally, the invention can enable the expeditious provision of updated and/or tailored content over a network from a content provider site to a content display site so that the content provider'"'"'s current and appropriately tailored content is always displayed at the content display site. Aspects of the invention related to transfer of content over a network are generally applicable to any type of network. However, it is contemplated that the invention can be particularly useful with a computer network, including private computer networks (e.g., America Online™) and public computer networks (e.g., the Internet). In particular, the invention can be advantageously used with computer networks or portions of computer networks over which video and/or audio content are transferred from one network site to another network site for observation, such as the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.

Claims

1. A system in a computer networked environment for generating monitoring information about a display of content, comprising:

a content provider site that stores a content file, wherein the content file is associated with at least one computer executable monitoring function to cause collection of monitoring information about the display of content associated with the content file;

a content display site to receive the content file from the content provider site and to display the content associated with the content file, wherein the content display site receives the at least one monitoring function in response to a request to the content provider site for the content, wherein the content display site executes the at least one monitoring function when the content is accessed, thereby causing monitoring information about the display of the content to be collected by selectively requesting an operating system to redraw at least a portion of an image associated with the content and monitoring a response of the content display site; and

a remote site to receive the collected monitoring information, wherein the remote site includes a graphical user interface to provide selective access to monitoring data based on the monitoring information, wherein the graphical user interface displays a percentage of time that an image was unobstructed based on the monitoring information.

5. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the operating system instructs a java applet to redraw a portion of the content display.

6. A system as defined in claim 5, wherein the java applet displays the image.

7. A system as defined in claim 5, wherein an application monitors whether the operating system instructs the application to redraw a portion of the content display to determine if the portion of the image was obstructed.

8. A system as defined in claim 7, wherein the application is a java applet.

9. A system as defined in claim 7, wherein the application requests that the operating system initiate the redraw.

10. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the application requests that the operating system initiates the redraw by invalidating a portion of the content display.

11. A system as defined in claim 10, wherein the application invalidates each corner of the image.

2. A system in a computer networked environment for generating monitoring information about a display of content, comprising:

a content provider site that stores a content file, wherein the content file is associated with at least one computer executable monitoring function to cause collection of monitoring information about the display of content associated with the content file;

a content display site to receive the content file from the content provider site and to display the content associated with the content file, wherein the content display site receives the at least one monitoring function in response to a request to the content provider site for the content, the at least one monitoring function being responsive to an event notification passed from a host environment at the content display site to cause monitoring information about the display of the content to be collected; and

a remote site which is different from the content provider site and did not transfer the content file from the content provider site to the content display site, the remote site to receive the collected monitoring information, wherein the remote site includes a graphical user interface to provide selective access to monitoring data based on the monitoring information, wherein the graphical user interface displays a percentage of time that an image was at least one of hidden or partially hidden.

3. A system as defined in claim 2 wherein the host environment comprises an operating system.

4. A system as defined in claim 3 wherein the event notification comprises an operating system event.

12. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the event notification is selection of a hyperlink.

13. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the event notification is a notification of a user input from an input device.

14. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the notification of the user input identifies a mouse pointer location.