METHODS AND APPARATUS TO IDENTIFY SESSION USERS WITH COOKIE INFORMATION

• US 20130212188A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Srivastava, Seema Varma, Duterque, Gilles, Ion, Cristina
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,255 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to identify session users with cookie information. An example method includes identifying activity associated with a first cookie having a first type, in response to identifying the first, parsing the first cookie to identify a first panelist, when the first cookie includes an identifier associated with a first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist, and when the first cookie includes an identifier unassociated with the first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with a guest.

Claims

1. A method to identify a current user of a computing device, comprising:

identifying activity associated with a first cookie having a first type;

in response to identifying the first cookie, parsing the first cookie to identify a first panelist;

when the first cookie includes an identifier associated with a first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist; and

when the first cookie includes an identifier unassociated with the first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with a guest.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the activity associated with the first cookie comprises at least one of creating the first cookie, modifying the first cookie, or deleting the first cookie.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the first type is indicative of a specific web-service.

4. A method as described in claim 3, wherein the web-service comprises at least one of a social networking service, an e-mail service, or a banking service.

5. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

scanning the computing device for a second cookie having the first type; and

detecting if the second cookie was modified more recently than the first cookie.

6. A method as described in claim 5, further comprising using the second cookie to identify a user.

7. A method as described in claim 6, further comprising, when the user identified by the second cookie is the first panelist, associating current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist.

8. A method as described in claim 6, further comprising, when the user identified by the second cookie is a second panelist, associating the current usage activity of the computing device with the second panelist.

9. A method as described in claim 6, further comprising, when the second cookie is devoid of an indication of the first or a second panelist, associating the current usage activity of the computing device with the guest.

10. A method as described in claim 1, further comprising scanning the computing device for a second cookie having a second type and an indication of modification more recent than the first cookie.

11. A method as described in claim 10, further comprising using the second cookie to identify the first panelist member or a second panelist member when the second cookie is more recently modified than the first cookie.

12. A tangible machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to, at least:

identify activity associated with a first cookie having a first type;

in response to identifying the first cookie, parse the first cookie to identify a first panelist;

when the first cookie includes an identifier associated with a first panelist, associate current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist; and

when the first cookie includes an identifier unassociated with the first panelist, associate current usage activity of the computing device with a guest.

13. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 12 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to at least one of create the first cookie, modify the first cookie, or delete the first cookie.

14. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 12 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to identify the first type as a specific web-service.

15. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 14 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to identify the web-service as at least one of a social networking service, an e-mail service, or a banking service.

16. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 12 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to:

scan the computing device for a second cookie having the first type; and

detect if the second cookie was modified more recently than the first cookie.

17. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 16 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to use the second cookie to identify a user.

18. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 17 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to associate current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist when the user identified by the second cookie is the first panelist.

19. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 17 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to associate the current usage activity of the computing device with the gues when the second cookie is devoid of an indication of the first or a second panelist.

20. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 12 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to scan the computing device for a second cookie having a second type and an indication of modification more recent than the first cookie.

21. A tangible machine accessible medium as described in claim 20 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to use the second cookie to identify the first panelist member or a second panelist member when the second cookie is more recently modified than the first cookie.

22. An apparatus to identify a current user of a computing device, comprising:

an activity associator to identify activity associated with a first cookie having a first type; and

a cookie manager to parse the first cookie to identify a first panelist in response to identifying the first cookie, the activity associator to associate current usage activity of the computing device with the first panelist when the first cookie includes an identifier associated with a first panelist, and the activity associator to associate the current usage activity of the computing device with a guest when the first cookie includes an identifier unassociated with the first panelist.

23. An apparatus as described in claim 22, further comprising a cookie temporal analyzer to scan the computing device for a second cookie having the first type, and detecting if the second cookie was modified more recently than the first cookie.

24. An apparatus as described in claim 23, wherein the cookie manager uses the second cookie to identify a user.

25. An apparatus as described in claim 22, further comprising a cookie change monitor to scan the computing device for a second cookie having a second type and an indication of modification more recent than the first cookie.