System and method for performing Web based in-view monitoring

• US 7,567,916 B1
• Filed: 09/12/2000
• Issued: 07/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Capital One Services LLC (Capital One Financial Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Capital One Financial Corporation
• Inventors: Turner, Jonathan, Koeppel, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Morgan; Robert W
• Application Number:
  US09/660,495
• Time in Patent Office: 3,241 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for performing dynamic Web-based market analysis are disclosed. A Web server presents a Web page including content to a user, via a browser located at the user'"'"'s computer or workstation. The content in the Web page may be provided by third party entities that pay predetermined fees to have the Web server render their content in a Web page. While the user views the site, detailed user activities associated with the content, including in-view activities associated with viewable content in the Web page, are collected in a client side data store. After a trigger event occurs, such as the client side data store fills up, the collected data is sent back to the Web server where its is stored in a server side data store. An analytical program executed by the Web server retrieves the collected response data from the data store and performs market analysis on the collected response data. The analytical program produces results associated with the effectiveness of the content included the Web page. A middleware program, executing in the Web server, retrieves the result data and produces billing records, that may also include content effectiveness reports, and sends the billing records to respective third party entities that supplied the content for billing and marketing purposes.

Claims

1. A method for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user, wherein the collected data is stored in a client side data stored;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with each respective client side data store being filled with the collected data above a predetermined threshold level; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

7. A method for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user closing a browser application executing at a respective client node; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

13. A method for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user, located at a respective client node, selecting a URL displayed on the Web page; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

19. A method for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, and wherein the in-view user activities are mouse pointer position data;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

24. A system for performing dynamic Web-based analysis, the system comprising:

means for sending a Web page provided by a Web server to a plurality of client nodes, wherein the Web page includes content data;

means for displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes;

means for detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

means for collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user, wherein the collected data is stored in a client side data store;

means for detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with each respective client side data store being filled with the collected data above a predetermined threshold level;

means for sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

means for analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, and wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the means for detecting in-view user activities, means for collecting, means for detecting a client side trigger event and means for sending are all included in a client side routine that is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

28. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

means for analyzing the collected data;

means for generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

means for sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

30. A system for performing dynamic Web-based analysis, the system comprising:

means for sending a Web page provided by a Web server to a plurality of client nodes, wherein the Web page includes content data;

means for displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes;

means for detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

means for collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

means for detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user closing a browser application executing at a respective client node;

means for sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

means for analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, and wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the means for detecting in-view user activities, means for collecting, means for detecting a client side trigger event and means for sending are all included in a client side routine that is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

34. The system of claim 30, further comprising:

means for analyzing the collected data;

means for generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

means for sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

36. A system for performing dynamic Web-based analysis, the system comprising:

means for sending a Web page provided by a Web server to a plurality of client nodes, wherein the Web page includes content data;

means for displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes;

means for detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user;

means for collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

means for detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user, located at a respective client node, selecting a URL displayed on the Web page;

means for sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

means for analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, and wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein the means for detecting in-view user activities, means for collecting, means for detecting a client side trigger event and means for sending are all included in a client side routine that is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

40. The system of claim 36, further comprising:

means for analyzing the collected data;

means for generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

means for sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

42. A system for performing dynamic Web-based analysis, the system comprising:

means for sending a Web page provided by a Web server to a plurality of client nodes, wherein the Web page includes content data;

means for displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes;

means for detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user and wherein the in-view user activities are mouse pointer position data;

means for collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

means for detecting a client side trigger event;

means for sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

means for analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, and wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

44. The system of claim 42, wherein the means for detecting in-view user activities, means for collecting, means for detecting a client side trigger event and means for sending are all included in a client side routine that is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

45. The system of claim 42, further comprising:

means for analyzing the collected data;

means for generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

means for sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

47. A computer-readable medium for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user, wherein the collected data is stored in a client side data stored;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with each respective client side data store being filled with the collected data above a predetermined threshold level; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

50. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

51. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

52. The computer-readable medium of claim 51, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

53. A computer-readable medium for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user closing a browser application executing at a respective client node; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

54. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

55. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

56. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

57. The computer-readable medium of claim 53, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

58. The computer-readable medium of claim 57, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

59. A computer-readable medium for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable to each respective user;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event, wherein each client side trigger event is associated with a respective user, located at a respective client node, selecting a URL displayed on the Web page; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

60. The computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the in-view user activities includes at least one of mouse pointer movements, screen scrolling, hyperlink selections, icon selections, data entry, time data associated with mouse pointer position, time data associated with content position and time data associated with screen scrolling.

61. The computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

62. The computer-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

63. The computer-readable medium of claim 59, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

64. The computer-readable medium of claim 63, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.

65. A computer-readable medium for performing dynamic Web-based in-view monitoring, the method comprising:

appending a client side routine to a Web page provided by a Web server, wherein the Web page includes content data;

sending the Web page to a plurality of client nodes; and

displaying the Web page to a plurality of users located at respective client nodes, and in response to the Web page being displayed to each user, each client node initiating the client side routine to perform the following;

detecting in-view user activities associated with each respective user browsing the Web page, wherein the in-view user activities are associated with in-view response data reflecting whether or not the content data was viewable to each respective user and, wherein the in-view user activities are mouse pointer position data;

collecting data reflecting the in-view user activities, wherein the collected data includes information indicating the proportion of content actually viewable to a respective user;

detecting a client side trigger event; and

sending the collected data to the Web server in response to the detected client side trigger event; and

analyzing the collected data to determine user in-view characteristic data reflecting whether the content was viewable or partially viewable by the respective user.

66. The computer-readable medium of claim 65, wherein the in-view user activities includes non-activated in-view response data reflecting whether the content data was viewable or partially viewable to each respective user, wherein the non-activated in-view response data is user response data that is not associated with a user activating a button, icon or hyperlink on the Web page.

67. The computer-readable medium of claim 65, wherein the client side routine is appended to a URL placed on the Web page.

68. The computer-readable medium of claim 65, further comprising:

analyzing the collected data at the Web server;

generating billing records based on the analysis of the collected data; and

sending the billing records to at least one of a plurality of third party nodes.

69. The computer-readable medium of claim 68, wherein the content data includes a plurality of third party content data, and wherein each third party content data is provided by a respective one of the plurality of third party nodes.