Systems for and methods of user demographic reporting usable for identifying users and collecting usage data

• US 7,930,285 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2003
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Original Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Inventors: Disch, Jason, Larrison, James, Abraham, Magid, Carnes, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): LeRoux; Etienne P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Cindy
• Application Number:
  US10/358,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20040019518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,995 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 709/229, 705/10, 705/51
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level

Abstract

Several ways of identifying users and collecting demographic information and market information are disclosed, including branding a browser with a unique identification in each user request, identifying a user by his key strokes or mouse clicks, gathering demographic information using multiple data sets and by monitoring network traffic. Additionally, user requested content is distinguished from other, non-user content, and the performance of a server can be monitor and analyzed from a client a client perspective. Further, an Internet user'"'"'s Internet data is routed to a known domain on the Internet, from which it is routed on to the intended recipient. The domain includes proxy servers which proxy the user'"'"'s data requests to the domain, and database servers, which filter and build a database of the user'"'"'s Internet usage. Particular data concerning certain behaviors of interest, such as purchasing data, is filtered into the database, and can form the basis for numerous market measures.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining identifying information from a user during an initial registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein obtaining identifying information from a user includes;

receiving an indication form the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one and

obtaining identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple users in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

creating one or more sources of indicators related to an identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

accessing information included in multiple requests for data made during an online session of the user, the multiple requests for data being configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the user over a period of time and the multiple requests including multiple indicators related to the identity of the user;

accessing one or more sources of indicators related to the identities of the multiple users in the household;

analyzing, after the online session of the user, the multiple requests to identify the multiple indicators related to the identity of the user;

comparing the identified indicators to the indicators in the one or more sources to determine which of the multiple users in the household initiated the requests for data during the online session;

identifying the user, from among other users in the household, as the user that initiated the requests for data during the online session based on the comparison; and

associating the online session with at least one demographic characteristic of the identified user in response to identifying the user from among the multiple users in the household as the user that initiated the requests for data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

readdressing the requests for data to indicate that the requests for data originated in an intermediary domain;

recording information related to at least part of the requests for data; and

sending the readdressed requests for data onto the network.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising configuring software running on a computing device used by the identified user to address at least some of the requests for data to a known proxy server in the intermediary domain.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein recording information related to at least part of the requests for data includes building a database, wherein the database includes information regarding at least one of user age, user income level, user education level, household size, time of transmission of at least one of the requests for data, location of the computing device, date of transmission of at least one of the requests for data, currency paid, type of product purchased, type of service purchased, network address of the intended recipient of at least one of the requests for data, click-through address, banner advertisement impression, and permission e-mail received.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple indicators include first name, last name, email, login/screen name, gender, and birth year.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying the user includes matching a first name of the user to at least one of the identified indicators.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the sources of indicators include a registration database that receives data during the registration process, transaction data which is collected during the online session and a personal information data source, which comes from monitoring sites for when a user enters personal information.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising building a master dictionary that includes demographic information for each member within a the household based on the sources of indicators.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising supplementing data in the sources of indicators with data from at least one secondary source of data in look-up tables.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one secondary source is a name-pseudonym and name-gender lookup table that may allow several pseudonyms to match one registered first name and to identify the gender of a user.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising supplementing data in the sources with data from at least one secondary source of data scraped from user logon process steps.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple users in a household comprises a group of users who use a single machine.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information uniquely identifying a machine from which the requests for data are made.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the requests for data further include information uniquely identifying a machine from which the requests for data are made.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the one or more sources of indicators related to the identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information occurs prior to the online session of the user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the household is a family of users.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the family of users are users that have access to a single machine that is configured to transmit the multiple requests for data.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the multiple requests to identify the multiple indicators related to the identity of the user includes analyzing the multiple requests for multiple different terms other than a destination of the request and identifying the multiple indicators related to the identity of the user based on the multiple different terms.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the identified indicators to the indicators in the one or more sources includes:

weighting the identified multiple indicators related to the identity of the user; and

comparing the weighted multiple indicators to the indicators in the one or more sources to determine which of the multiple users in the household initiated the requests for data during the online session.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the association between the online session and the at least one demographic characteristic of the identified user, along with other associations between online sessions and demographic characteristics of identified users, to create a demographic model for one or more websites.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the demographic model is a scoring model that indicates a probability that the identified users associated with a particular demographic characteristic will perform an activity on the Internet.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the association between the online session and the at least one demographic characteristic of the identified user, along with other associations between online sessions and demographic characteristics of identified users, to determine a total market share of a particular e-tailer.

23. A computer-implemented method of identifying an online user, the method comprising:

obtaining identifying information from a user during an initial registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein obtaining identifying information from a user includes;

receiving an indication from the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one and

obtaining identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple users in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

creating one or more sources of indicators related to an identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

accessing information included in multiple requests for data made during an online session of the user, the requests for data being configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the user over a period of time and the multiple requests including multiple indicators of the identity of the user;

analyzing, after the online session of the user, the information in the multiple requests to identify the multiple indicators;

comparing the identified multiple indicators to the indicators in the one or more sources of indicators to determine which of the multiple users in the household initiated the requests for data during the online session; and

identifying, after the online session of the user, the user, from among other users in the household, as the user that initiated the requests for data during the online session based on the comparison.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include a first name.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include a last name.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include an email address.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include a login name.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include a screen name.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include gender.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the multiple indicators include birth year.

31. The method of claim 23, further comprising accumulating the identified multiple indicators in an electronic data store.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

accessing registration data included in a registration electronic data store;

populating the electronic data store with the registration data included in the registration electronic data store; and

adding non-registered user data to the user data included in the electronic data store without affecting the integrity of the registration data included in the registration electronic data store.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising populating the electronic data store with data input during a transaction by the user during the online session.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising populating the electronic data store with data input on a form by the user during the online session.

35. The method of claim 31, further comprising updating the electronic data store with updated user data obtained by collecting requests for data made during an online session of the user.

36. The method of claim 31, further comprising creating a new user entry in the electronic data store when no user is identified based on the multiple indicators.

37. The method of claim 23, wherein analyzing the collected requests to identify the multiple indicators includes extracting at least one indicator from a transaction entered by the user during the online session.

38. The method of claim 23, wherein analyzing the collected requests to identify the multiple indicators includes extracting at least one indicator from data entered on a form by the user during the online session.

39. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program, the medium comprising one or more code segments configured to:

obtain identifying information from a user during an initial registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein one or more code segments configured to obtain identifying information from a user are further configured to;

receive an indication from the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one and

obtaining identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple users in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

create one or more sources of indicators related to an identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

access information included multiple requests for data made during an online session of the user, the multiple requests for data being configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the user over a period of time and including multiple indicators related to the identity of the user;

access one or more sources of indicators related to the identities of the multiple users in the household;

analyze, after the online session of the user, the information in the multiple requests to identify the multiple indicators related to the identity of the user;

compare the identified indicators to the indicators in the sources to determine which of the multiple users in the household initiated the requests for data during the online session;

identify the user, from among other users in the household, as the user that initiated the requests for data during the online session; and

associate the online session with at least one demographic characteristic of the identified user in response to identifying the user from among the multiple users in the household as the user that initiated the requests for data.

40. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program configured to identifying an online user, the medium comprising one or more code segments configured to:

obtain identifying information from a user during an initial registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein one or more code segments configured to obtain identifying information from a user are further configured to;

receive an indication from the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one, and

obtain identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple users in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

create one or more sources of indicators related to an identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

access information included in multiple requests for data made during an online session of the user, the requests for data being configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the user over a period of time, and the multiple requests including multiple indicators of the identity of the user;

analyze, after the online session of the user, the information in the multiple requests to identify the multiple indicators in the multiple requests;

compare the identified multiple indicators to the indicators in the one or more sources of indicators to determine which of the multiple users in the household initiated the requests for data during the online session; and

identify, after the online session of the user, the user, from among other users in the household, as the user that initiated the requests for data during the online session based on the comparison.

41. A computer-implemented method of identifying a user, the method comprising:

obtaining identifying information from a user during a registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein obtaining identifying information from a user includes;

receiving an indication from the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one and

obtaining identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple user in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

creating one or more sources of indicators related to an identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

accessing information in multiple requests for data, wherein the multiple requests for data are generated as a result of user input from one of the users in the household during an online session of the one of the users in the household, and the requests for data are configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the one of the users in the household over a period of time and include indicators of the identity of the one of the users in the household;

analyzing the requests for data to identify the indicators;

comparing the identified indicators to the one or more sources of indicators related to the identities of the multiple users in the household; and

determining which of the multiple users of the household initiated the request for data based on the comparison.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the household is a family of users.

43. A computer-implemented method of identifying a user, the method comprising:

obtaining identifying information from a user during a registration process that solicits the identifying information from the user, wherein obtaining identifying information from a user includes;

receiving an indication from the user that the total number of users in a household is greater than one and

obtaining identifying information from the user regarding each of the multiple users in the household, the identifying information distinguishing the multiple users in the household from each other;

creating one or more sources of indicators related to the identity of each of the multiple users from the obtained identifying information;

accessing information in multiple requests for data initiated by the user, the multiple requests being configured to retrieve information from multiple, different websites specified by the user over a period of time and including one or more identifiers of the user and additional indicators of an identity of the user;

analyzing the identifiers of the user and the additional indicators of the identity of the user;

comparing the additional indicators of the identity of the user to the one or more sources of indicators related to the identities of the multiple users included in the household;

identifying the user, from among the multiple users in the household, as the user who initiated the requests for data during the online session based on the identifiers of the user and the comparison; and

associating the on-line session with the identified user in response to identifying the user from among the multiple users in the household.