ROUTING USERS TO RECEIVE ONLINE SERVICES BASED ON ONLINE BEHAVIOR

• US 20100211694A1
• Filed: 02/13/2009
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Razmov, Valentin Nikolaev, Erlandson, Aaron Everett, Williams, Sam Franklin III, Saliba, Hani, Nedzlek, Chad Arthur, Venkata, Kiran Akella
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,546 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/242
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Tools and techniques for routing users to receive online services based on online behavior are provided. These tools may receive representations of activity involving different users in interacting with online services, and may analyze these representations of user activity. The tools may also compute scores for the users based on this previous user activity. The scores may indicate a server system, out of several server systems, which the user is to be routed to obtain online services. The tools may also store the user'"'"'s score as associated with the user.

Claims

1. Apparatus comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when loaded into a processor and executed, cause the processor to:

receive at least one representation of at least one instance of activity involving at least one user in interacting with an online service;

analyze the representation of the user activity;

compute a score for the user based on the user activity, wherein the score indicates one of a plurality of server systems to which the user is to be routed to obtain online services; and

store the score as associated with the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to repeat the receiving, analyzing, computing, and storing for a least a further instance of user activity in interacting with the online service.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to update the score in response to a least a further instance of user activity in interacting with the online service.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to recompute and store a further score for least a further user, wherein the further score indicates one of the plurality of server systems to which the further user is to be routed to obtain online services.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to compute a score for the user and accessing the online service.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to compute a score for the user and accessing at least a further online service.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions to partition the plurality of server systems into at least two partitions, to associate a first partition with a first category of users who are associated with a first score, and to associate at least a second partition with at least a second category of users who are associated with at least a second score.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions to analyze the representations of the user activity include instructions to:

analyze how many crashes or hangs of the online service are attributable to activity associated with the user;

analyze how many times documents uploaded by the user to the online service have been viewed;

analyze processor or memory usage in connection with the online service that is attributable to the user;

analyze a number of bytes served as payload to the user in connection with the online service;

or

analyze an average time to render least one document uploaded by the user to the online service.

9. Apparatus comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when loaded into a processor and executed, cause the processor to:

receive at least one request to access an online service;

identify a user associated with the request;

route the user to one of a plurality of server systems, based upon online behavior characteristics associated with the user; and

enable the user to access the online service through the server system to which the user is routed.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising instructions to partition the plurality of server systems into at least two partitions, to associate a first partition with a first category of users who are associated with a first online behavior characteristic, and to associate at least a second partition with at least a second category of users who are associated with at least a second online behavior characteristic.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising instructions to analyze user behavior in interacting with the online service, include instructions to:

analyze how many crashes or hangs of the online service are attributable to activity associated with the user;

analyze how many times documents uploaded by the user to the online service have been viewed;

analyze processor or memory usage in connection with the online service that is attributable to the user;

analyze a number of bytes served as payload to the user in connection with the online service;

or

analyze an average time to render least one document uploaded by the user to the online service.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising instructions to compute a score for the user based on an analysis of at least one instance of previous activity associated with the user in interacting with an online service, and further comprising instructions to monitor further activity associated with the user in interacting with the online service.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising instructions to update the score computed for the user based on the further activity.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions to obtain a score computed for the user include instructions to obtain a score for the user that is computed based on least one previous interaction between the user and the online service.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions to obtain a score computed for the user include instructions to obtain a score for the user that is computed based on least one previous interaction between the user and a further online service.

16. Apparatus comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when loaded into a processor and executed, cause the processor to:

receive at least one representation of at least one instance of activity involving at least one user in interacting with an online service;

analyze the representation of the user activity;

compute a score for the user based on the user activity, wherein the score indicates one of a plurality of server systems to which the user is to be routed to obtain online services;

store the score as associated with the user;

receive at least one request from the user to access online services;

identify the user;

obtain the score computed for the user;

route the user to one of a plurality of server systems, based upon the score; and

enable the user to access the online services through the server system to which the user is routed.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising instructions to recompute the score for the user based upon interactions between the user and the online services.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising instructions to reroute the user from the one server systems to at least a further server system based on the recomputed score.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising instructions to compute a score for a least a further user, based on interactions between the further user and the online service.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the instructions to analyze the representation of the user activity include instructions to:

analyze how many crashes or hangs of the online service are attributable to activity associated with the user;

analyze how many times documents uploaded by the user to the online service have been viewed;

analyze processor or memory usage in connection with the online service that is attributable to the user;

analyze a number of bytes served as payload to the user in connection with the online service;

or

analyze an average time to render least one document uploaded by the user to the online service.