Tracking user micro-interactions with web page advertising

• US 7,310,609 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2002
• Issued: 12/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Andreas Acquisitions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Unicast Communications Corporation (Extreme Reach, Inc.)
• Inventors: Middleton, Thomas M. III, White, Gregory T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi, Hani M.
• Application Number:
  US10/100,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20020111865A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,105 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/10, 705/26, 705/27, 705/40, 709/224, 709/226
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

In connection with display of advertising within Web pages, an applet is downloaded to the user'"'"'s Web browser to track the user'"'"'s interactions with the Web page. Tracked user interactions include mouse cursor position, time displayed on page, time of mouse cursor hovering over the advertisement, and so on. At an appropriate time, such as when the display of the Web page is terminated, the applet forwards logged interaction information from the client to a remote server, the remote server being typically controlled by an advertiser, rating service or the like. As a result, the advertiser may track consumer response to advertising impressions on a Web page without requiring the user to download other pages. This allows advertisers to track user response to specific elements of the Web page as well as to better infer information about the user'"'"'s interests in an effort to qualify the user prior to presenting subsequent advertising.

Claims

1. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:

displaying to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form;

tracking user interaction with the advertisement;

logging the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and

sending user interaction log data to a remote server;

whereby log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and

whereby advertisement information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data;

wherein the step of sending interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of;

opening a connection to the remote server; and

sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;

wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and

wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interaction log data is sent to the remote server when the display of the advertisement is terminated by the user.

3. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interaction log data is sent to the remote server upon the occurrence of a user interaction with the advertisement.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interaction log data is sent to the remote server periodically.

5. A method as in claim 4 wherein the periodicity of the sending is variable.

6. A method as in claim 4 wherein the periodicity of the sending is logarithmic.

7. A method as in claim 1 wherein the interaction log data includes mouse position and time of mouse hovering over advertisement.

8. A method as in claim 1 additionally comprising the step of:

downloading the advertisement from a second server different from the remote server.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of tracking user interaction with the advertisement is performed periodically.

10. A method as in claim 9 wherein the periodicity of the tracking is variable.

11. A method as in claim 9 wherein the periodicity of the tracking is logarithmic.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the remote server is a user interaction log aggregation device.

13. The method as claim in claim 1 whereby the logged user interaction data is stored at a local client computer and sent to a server other than the remote server which logs data locally via a back channel, and the data stored on the client computer is not permanently modified.

14. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:

displaying to a user a representation of a page in electronic form, the page containing at least one advertisement composed of two or more regions, each region containing a visual element of the advertisement;

tracking user micro-interactions with each of the elements in the advertisement through the steps of;

maintaining a list of elements displayed in the advertisement;

determining when a screen pointer hover occurs within a particular element of the advertisement, and the screen pointer hover occurring without requiring a user interaction on the element; and

creating a micro-interaction data record in response thereto;

logging the micro-interaction data records while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and

sending the micro-interaction data records to a remote server;

whereby the micro-interaction data records are analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and

whereby advertisement information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user micro-interaction data records ;

wherein the step of sending micro-interaction data records additionally comprises the steps of;

opening a connection to the remote server; and

sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the micro-interaction data records;

wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and

wherein the micro-interaction data records are encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.

15. A method as in claim 14 wherein the micro-interaction data records are sent to the remote server when the display of the advertisement is terminated by the user.

16. A method as in claim 14 wherein the micro-interaction data records are sent to the remote server upon the occurrence of a user interaction with the advertisement.

17. A method as in claim 14 wherein the micro-interaction data records are sent to the remote server periodically.

18. A method as in claim 14 wherein the micro-interaction data records include information with respect to screen pointer position within the element.

19. A method as in claim 18 wherein the micro-interaction data records include information indicating a time sequence of screen pointer positions within the element.

20. A method as in claim 14 additionally comprising the step of:

downloading the advertisement from a second server different from the remote server.

21. In a distributed system for displaying information content, a method comprising the steps of:

displaying to a user a representation of the information content in electronic form;

tracking user interaction with the information content;

logging the user interactions while the information content is being displayed to the user; and

sending user interaction log data to a remote user interaction log aggregation device;

whereby log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement; and

whereby information content to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data;

wherein the step of sending interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of;

opening a connection to the remote server; and

sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;

wherein the message is an HTTP GET message; and

wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.

22. In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps of:

displaying to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form, the advertisement comprising one or more promotions available from an advertiser;

tracking user interaction with the advertisement including interaction with the one or more promotions available from the advertiser;

logging the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and

sending user interaction log data to a remote server;

whereby the user interest in the one or more promotions available from the advertiser is gauged prior to the advertiser'"'"'s Web page being loaded; and

whereby the advertiser'"'"'s information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon the user'"'"'s gauged interest determined from the user interaction log data;

wherein the step of sending user interaction log data additionally comprises the steps of;

opening a connection to the remote server; and

sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;

wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and

wherein the user interaction log data is encoded as to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.

23. A method as in claim 22 wherein prior to the step of sending user interaction log data to a remote server the user interacts with the advertisement without requesting the loading of Web pages associated with the advertiser.

24. A method as in claim 22 wherein the user interaction log data sent to the server comprises information about the user'"'"'s interest, and wherein the information about the user'"'"'s interest is obtained without the user requesting the loading of an advertisement associated with the advertiser.

25. A method as in claim 22 whereby the log data allows the advertiser to understand how one or more users interact with the advertisement in order for the advertiser to further provide effective advertising.

26. A method as in claim 22 whereby the log data is analyzed to determine effectiveness of the advertisement.

27. The method as claimed in claim 22 wherein the advertisement comprises regions, visual elements associated with the advertisement, and user activity definitions.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the user activity definitions are defined within the advertisement'"'"'s context.

29. The method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the regions define areas within the advertisement including areas within the advertisement devoted to text and areas within the advertisement related to graphics.

30. The method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the visual elements within the advertisement comprise one or more graphical images, and one or more user prompts.

31. The method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the list of activity definitions comprises one or more types of user inputs.

32. The method as claimed in claim 31 wherein the one or more types of user inputs comprise mouse position reflected by cursor position.

33. A computer program for use in a distributed computing system on a computer readable medium, said computer program comprising:

program step to display to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form;

program step to track user interaction with the advertisement;

program step to log the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and

program step to send user interaction log data to a remote server;

said computer program further comprising;

a program step for subsequently analyzing log data to determine effectiveness of the advertisement;

a program step for customizing advertisement information to be loaded based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data;

wherein the program step to send interaction log data additionally comprises;

a program step for opening a connection to the remote server; and

a program step for sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;

wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and

a program step for encoding the user interaction log data to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.

34. A computer program for use in a distributed computing system on a computer readable medium, said computer program comprising:

program step to display to a user a representation of an advertisement in electronic form, the advertisement comprising one or more promotions available from an advertiser;

program step to track user interaction with the advertisement including interaction with the one or more promotions available from the advertiser;

program step to log the user interactions while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; and

program step to send user interaction log data to a remote server;

said computer program further comprising;

a program step whereby the user interest in the one or more promotions available from the advertiser is gauged prior to the advertiser'"'"'s Web page being loaded; and

a program step whereby the advertiser'"'"'s information to be loaded is customized to the user based upon interest of the user determined from the user interaction log data;

wherein the program step to send user interaction log data additionally comprises;

a program step for opening a connection to the remote server; and

a program step for sending a message to the remote server over the connection, the message containing the user interaction log data;

wherein the message is a HTTP GET message; and

a program step for encoding the user interaction log data to appear as part of an extended address field in the HTTP GET message.