METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING WEBSITE VISITORS

• US 20090083269A1
• Filed: 11/06/2008
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ip Ot Sub Ulc
• Original Assignee: Vignette Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Bender, WIlliam, Pathak, Heeren, Artz, John C. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A website server computer hosting a website can identify a visitor to the website by using information provided by a visitor server computer that interacts with the visitor. The information provided by the server computer, in some embodiments, can be a combination of an IP address and characteristics of a computing device from where the visitor visits the website. In some embodiments, the IP address of the visitor server computer is used. In embodiments where the visitor may be sharing the computing device with other users, the characteristics may include at least one characteristic that is uniquely associated with the visitor. The website server computer can use a visitor identifier thus generated to start tracking the pages that the visitor requests during the session and can generate and customize pages for the visitor by using characteristics originated from the visitor.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a website visitor, comprising:

receiving a combination of information from a visitor computer, wherein the combination of information includes an IP address assigned by or belongs to the visitor computer and at least one characteristic associated with a user account of the website visitor;

generating a visitor identifier using the combination of information from the visitor computer; and

determining whether the visitor identifier has been used at a website server computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visitor computer is shared by a plurality of individual users and configured with a plurality of user accounts, wherein each individual user account results in different characteristics for each of the plurality of individual users, and wherein at least one characteristic is different between the plurality of individual users.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the visitor identifier to a database, wherein determining whether the visitor identifier has been used at the website server computer comprises comparing the visitor identifier with existing visitor identifiers within the database.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising starting session tracking using the visitor identifier.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising tracking pages that the website visitor requests during the same session.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating and customizing a page for the website visitor using the at least one characteristic associated with the user account of the website visitor.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating and sending a request to the visitor computer for additional characteristics associated with the website visitor.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the visitor identifier further comprises using the additional characteristics associated with the website visitor received from the visitor computer.

9. A computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions executable by a processor to cause a computer to perform:

receiving a combination of information from a visitor computer, wherein the combination of information includes an IP address assigned by or belongs to the visitor computer and at least one characteristic associated with a user account of a website visitor;

generating a visitor identifier using the combination of information from the visitor computer; and

determining whether the visitor identifier has been used at a website server computer.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the visitor computer is shared by a plurality of individual users, wherein each individual user account results in different characteristics for each of the plurality of individual users, and wherein at least one characteristic is different between the plurality of individual users.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the computer instructions when executed by the processor further cause the computer to transmit the visitor identifier to a database, wherein determining whether the visitor identifier has been used at the website server computer comprises comparing the visitor identifier with existing visitor identifiers within the database.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the computer instructions when executed by the processor further cause the computer to start session tracking using the visitor identifier.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the computer instructions when executed by the processor further cause the computer to track pages that the website visitor requests during the same session.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the computer instructions when executed by the processor further cause the computer to generate and customize a page for the website visitor using the at least one characteristic associated with the user account of the website visitor.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the computer instructions when executed by the processor further cause the computer to generate and send a request to the visitor computer for additional characteristics associated with the website visitor.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the visitor identifier is generated using the IP address assigned by or belongs to the visitor computer and the additional characteristics associated with the website visitor.

17. A system for identifying a website visitor comprising:

a website server computer hosting a website; and

a visitor computer communicatively coupled to the website server computer over a network, wherein;

the visitor computer is programmed with a first software component for sending a combination of information to the website server computer, wherein the combination of information includes an IP address assigned by or belongs to the visitor computer and at least one characteristic associated with a user account of the website visitor; and

the website server computer is programmed with a second software component for generating a visitor identifier from the IP address assigned by or belongs to the visitor computer and the at least one characteristic associated with the user account of the website visitor.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the visitor computer is shared by a plurality of individual users and configured with a plurality of user accounts, wherein each individual user account results in different characteristics for each of the plurality of individual users, and wherein at least one characteristic is different between the plurality of individual users.

19. The system of claim 17, further comprising a plurality of requesting visitor computers coupled to the visitor computer, wherein one of the plurality of requesting visitor computers is configured with the user account of the website visitor.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each of the plurality of requesting visitor computers has its own unique combination of an IP address and characteristics.