Determining a referral source by a mobile application or operating system

• US 9,756,094 B1
• Filed: 06/09/2014
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Justin, Paun, Ruxandra Georgiana
• Primary Examiner(s): Greene, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/299,588
• Time in Patent Office: 1,184 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for associating a tag in a URL to facilitate identifying a source to which the URL was shared. In one or more aspects, a system is provided that includes a request component configured to receive a request to access information provided by a network source associated with the system, the request comprising a uniform resource locator (URL) for the information. The system further includes a rendering component configured to provide the information in response to the request, and a source component configured to identify a source to which the URL was previously shared to based on identification of a tag included in the URL.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory that stores computer executable instructions; and

at least one processor that executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which cause the at least one processor to;

receive a request to share a video to a social network service from a first client device, wherein access to the video is provided by a network source associated with the system;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the first client device, generate a first uniform resource locator (URL) that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the first URL includes information indicating that the first URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receive, from a second client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the first URL;

redirect the second client device to a URL associated with the video, wherein the URL associated with the video is different than the first URL;

determine that the first URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the first URL;

send the video to the second client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video;

receive a request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device, generate a second URL that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the second URL includes information indicating that the second URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receive, from a third client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the second URL;

redirect the third client device to the URL associated with the video;

determine that the second URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the second URL; and

send the video to the third client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the portion of the first URL comprises a tag that includes identifying information for the social network service at which the URL was provided and selected to initiate the request.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the portion of the first URL comprises a tag that includes identifying information for the social network service to which the URL was originally shared to from the network source.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the portion of the first URL comprises a tag that includes a token that is associated with an identifier for a source to which the URL was originally shared to from the network source, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to identify the token, extract the token, and employ the token to determine the source to which the first URL was originally shared to from the network source.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the token corresponds to the portion of the first URL.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to access a look-up table that associates the token with the identifier to determine the source to which the URL was originally shared to from the network source.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the look-up table is provided in a database associated with the network source and accessible to the system via a network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to:

associate the social network service with a user associated with the first client device; and

suggest one or more sharing sources for the user to share a second video provided by the network source based on the social network service.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to suggest the social network service as a sharing source for the user to share the second video.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to:

rank potential sharing sources based on referral sources from which requests, associated with the user to access videos provided by the network source are received; and

select the one or more sharing sources from the potential sharing sources based on the ranking.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor executes the computer executable instructions stored in the memory which further cause the at least one processor to rank the potential sharing sources based on frequency of the requests respectively originating from the potential sharing sources.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising at least one hardware processor, a request to share a video to a social network service from a first client device, wherein access to the video is provided by a network source associated with the system;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the first client device, generating a first uniform resource locator (URL) that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the first URL includes information indicating that the first URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receiving, from a second client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the first URL;

redirecting the second client device to a URL associated with the video, wherein the URL associated with the video is different than the first URL;

determining that the first URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the first URL;

sending the video to the second client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video;

receiving a request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device, generate a second URL that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the second URL includes information indicating that the second URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receiving, from a third client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the second URL;

redirecting the third client device to the URL associated with the video;

determining that the second URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the second URL; and

sending the video to the third client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the first URL comprises a tag that includes identifying information for the social network service at which the URL was provided and selected to initiate the request.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the first URL comprises a tag that includes a token that is associated with an identifier for a source to which the URL was originally shared to from the network source, wherein the identifying comprises:

identifying the token;

extracting the token; and

employing the token to determine the source based on the identifier.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the employing the token comprises:

accessing a look-up table provided by the network source that associates the token with the identifier to determine that the social network service is the source,

wherein the network source generated the token and associated the token with the URL in response to sharing of the URL from the network source to the source, and

wherein the network source associated the token with the URL and the identifier for source in the look-up table in response to the sharing of the URL from the network source to the source.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a request to share a video to a social network service from a first client device, wherein access to the video is provided by a network source;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the first client device, generating a first uniform resource locator (URL) that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the first URL includes information indicating that the first URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receiving, from a second client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the first URL;

redirecting the second client device to a URL associated with the video, wherein the URL associated with the video is different than the first URL;

determining that the first URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the first URL;

sending the video to the second client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video;

receiving a request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device;

in response to the request to share the video to the social network service from the second client device, generate a second URL that provides access to the video, wherein at least a portion of the second URL includes information indicating that the second URL was used to share the video to the social network service;

receiving, from a third client device, a request to access the video, the request comprising the second URL;

redirecting the third client device to the URL associated with the video;

determining that the second URL was previously shared to the social network service based on at least the portion of the second URL; and

sending the video to the third client device based on the redirected request received at the URL associated with the video.