System and method for performing web based in-view monitoring

• US 7,970,647 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Capital One Financial Corporation
• Inventors: Turner, Jonathan, Koeppel, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Lastra; Daniel
• Application Number:
  US11/106,629
• Publication Number:
  US 20050177401A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,265 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.1
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for performing dynamic Web-based market analysis are disclosed. A Web server presents a Web page including content to a user, via a browser located at the user'"'"'s computer or workstation. The content in the Web page may be provided by third party entities that pay predetermined fees to have the Web server render their content in a Web page. While the user views the site, detailed user activities associated with the content, including in-view activities associated with viewable content in the Web page, are collected in a client side data store. After a trigger event occurs, such as the client side data store fills up, the collected data is sent back to the Web server where its is stored in a server side data store. An analytical program executed by the Web server retrieves the collected response data from the data store and performs market analysis on the collected response data. The analytical program produces results associated with the effectiveness of the content included the Web page. A middleware program, executing in the Web server, retrieves the result data and produces billing records, that may also include content effectiveness reports, and sends the billing records to respective third party entities that supplied the content for billing and marketing purposes.

Claims

1. A system for performing dynamic Web-based marketing, the system comprising:

a Web server for providing a Web page over a network, wherein the Web page includes content comprising target content and non-target content;

a plurality of client nodes, each of the plurality of client nodes associated with a respective user, for requesting and providing to the respective user the Web page provided by the Web server, wherein each of the plurality of client nodes is connected to the Web server through the network and each of the plurality of client nodes displays, on a respective display device and based on the respective user'"'"'s input, a respective displayed portion of the Web page including the non-target content and a portion, but not the entirety, of the target content;

a first client side program, executed at each of the plurality of client nodes, for collecting user response data associated with the displayed portion of the Web page by each respective display device, determining, based on the user response data, a non-temporal based proportion of the target content that was partially displayed on the respective client node'"'"'s display device, and sending the collected user response data and user in-view characteristic data including a value representing the determined non-temporal based proportion to a first server side data store via the Web server as event data; and

an analytical program, executing in the Web server, that analyzes the event data associated with each client node'"'"'s display device to generate result data based on the user in-view characteristic data for each client node, and modifies the Web page content based on the result data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a billing program, executing in the Web server, for receiving the content from at least one of a plurality of third party nodes, generating billing records based on the analysis of the event data, and sending the billing records to at least one of the plurality of third party nodes.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the content includes a plurality of third party content, each third party content associated with a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes, and wherein the billing records include a plurality of third party billing records, each third party billing record associated with a respective third party content, and wherein sending the billing records by the billing program further includes sending each third party billing record to a respective third party node.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein generating billing records further includes generating a content effectiveness record associated with the content, and wherein the billing program appends the content effectiveness record to at least one of the billing records, wherein the content effectiveness record includes data reflecting the effectiveness of the content based on the analysis of the user initiated responses.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the content effectiveness record includes information associated with the user in-view characteristic data related to the content.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the user in-view characteristic data include information associated with user screen scrolling position data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein collecting user response data by the client side program further includes collecting, for each user, non-activated user in-view response data reflecting user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the Web server provides the modified content to a first client node in response to receiving a subsequent request from the first client node to view the Web page.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the Web server further includes:

a rule database including content rules for controlling the content provided by the Web server, and

wherein the analytical program modifies the content according to the determined user in-view characteristics based on the content rules.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the analytical program modifies at least one of the following of the content:

rendering time, document structure, wireless card structure, titles, headings, paragraphs, lines, lists, tables, links, graphics, objects, multimedia, scripts, forms, frames, colors, wording, size, positioning, background properties, border properties, font properties and text properties.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein when the analytical program, executing in the Web server analyzes the event data, the Web server is further configured to:

modify the content according to the determined user in-view characteristics based on one or more content rules.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user in-view characteristic data includes information associated with user mouse pointer position data.

13. A system for performing dynamic Web-based marketing, the system comprising:

a Web server for providing a Web page over a network, wherein the Web page includes content comprising target content and non-target content;

a plurality of client nodes, each of the plurality of client nodes associated with a respective user, for requesting and providing to the respective user the Web page provided by the Web server, wherein each of the plurality of client nodes is connected to the Web server through the network and each of the plurality of client nodes displays, on a respective display device and based on the respective user'"'"'s input, a respective displayed portion of the Web page including the non-target content and a portion, but not the entirety, of the target content;

a first client side program, executed at each of the plurality of client nodes, for collecting user response data associated with the displayed portion of the Web page by each respective display device, and sending the collected user response data to a first server side data store via the Web server as event data;

an analytical program, executing in the Web server, that analyzes the event data associated with each client node'"'"'s display device to determine, for each client node, user in-view characteristic data reflecting a non-temporal based proportion of the target content that was partially displayed on the respective client node'"'"'s display device, generates result data based on the user in-view characteristic data for each client node, and modifies the Web page content based on the result data;

a billing program, executing in the Web server, that receives the content from at least one of a plurality of third party nodes, generates billing records based on the analysis of the event data, generates a content effectiveness record associated with the content and appends the content effectiveness record to at least one of the billing records, and provides the billing records to at least one of the plurality of third party nodes, wherein the content effectiveness record includes data reflecting the effectiveness of the content based on the analysis of the user initiated responses and a report indicating a plurality of user activities associated with the content and information indicating proposed changes to the content based on the user activities.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the proposed changes includes suggestions to modify selected attributes of the content.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the selected attributes include attributes associated with at least one of rendering time, document structure, wireless card structure, titles, headings, paragraphs, lines, lists, tables, links, graphics, objects, multimedia, scripts, forms, frames, colors, wording, size, positioning, background properties, border properties, font properties and text properties.

16. A method for performing dynamic Web-based marketing, comprising:

providing a Web page including content having a non-targeted component and a target component;

requesting, by a plurality of client computers, the Web page;

displaying the Web page on a respective display device associated with each of the client computers, wherein the each display device respectively displays the non-targeted component and a portion, but not the entirety, of the target component;

monitoring, by each of the client computers, user response data associated with the displayed Web page to determine a non-temporal based proportion of the target component that is displayed on the client computer'"'"'s display device when the target component is only partially visible by a user operating the client computer; and

modifying, by the server, the content of the Web page based on the user response data and the determined non-temporal based proportion of the target component for each client computer.

17. A system for monitoring in-view characteristics of content included in a web page, comprising:

a client computer, operated by a user, that displays a Web page including content having a target component and a non-target component on a display device, wherein a portion, but not the entirety, of the target component is displayed, the client computer monitoring user response data associated with the content in the Web page to determine a non-temporal based proportion of the target component that is displayed on the display device when the target component is only partially visible by the user, and generating result data based on the determined non-temporal based proportion of the target component that is partially displayed, and providing the result data to a server computer that modifies the content of the Web page based on the user response data.

18. The system of claim 17, further including:

a plurality of client computers, operated by respective users, that each displays the Web page including the content having the target component on a respective display device, each client computer monitoring, for each respective user, user response data associated with the content in the Web page and determines a non-temporal based proportion of the target component that is displayed on the respective display device when the target component is only partially visible by the respective user, wherein the server computer modifies the content of the Web page based on the determined non-temporal based proportion of the target component for each client computer.