Method and apparatus for data processing

• US 8,266,274 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2008
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AddThis, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Allen, Stewart O., Cosby, Scott F., Greene, Dylan J., Keesan, Matthew J., Radfar, Hooman, Reverte, Carlos F., Labarca, Richard Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): MIRZA, ADNAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/043,805
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222613A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,650 Days
• Field of Search: 709/216, 709/217, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2465 Query processing support for facilitating data mining operations in structured databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/335 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles filtering in web context G06F16/9535, G06F16/9536
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A method and system can include multiple data handling stages for manipulating tracked information associated with content distributed to users and/or computers, such as static objects, media objects, and/or software objects, for example. The content can be distributed as widget instances and the associated tracked information can be received over a network. The information received can be associated with a session corresponding to each widget instance and/or with multiple identifiers, such as widget, user, content, session, content aggregation point, processor, and/or placement identifiers, for example. Data handling processes, including sorting, storing, filtering, combining, queuing, and/or authenticating, for example, can be performed during the data handling stages. The processed information can be used to determine modifications to a behavior associated with widgets and/or widget containers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving tracked information from a plurality of instances of a widget distributed to a plurality of content aggregation points, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information being associated with a plurality of identifiers, the plurality of identifiers including at least a widget identifier and a session identifier;

analyzing the tracked information based at least in part on the plurality of identifiers; and

modifying a behavior associated with a first instance of the widget from the plurality of instances of the widget based on the analyzing, the first instance of the widget being placed at a first content aggregation point from the plurality of content aggregation points in response to a sharing request associated with a second instance of the widget at a second content aggregation point from the plurality of content aggregation points, the second instance of the widget being from the plurality of instances of the widget.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of identifiers further includes at least one of a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracked information associated with the plurality of the instances of the widget includes at least one of widget information, user information, placement information, content information, content aggregation point information, or processor information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, an analysis process, or a queuing process, the analyzing is performed at one or more stages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing includes filtering the tracked information based on at least one of:

a validation of a source of at least a portion of the tracked information,

a validation of at least a portion of the tracked information, or

a validation of a session associated with at least a portion of the tracked information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracked information is a first information,

the method further comprising:

receiving a second information including at least one of demographic information, behavioral information, optimization information, or validation information, the analyzing including collectively analyzing the first information and the second information based on the plurality of identifiers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying includes modifying a behavior associated with a widget container based on the analyzing, the widget container being associated with the first instance of the widget from the plurality of instances of the widget, the widget container being a procedural software framework including a widget reference and a service module.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing the tracked information includes analyzing the tracked information to determine at least one of a historical trend, a projection, a correlation or a statistical calculation associated with the plurality of instances of the widget.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the widget is a first widget, the method further comprising:

modifying a behavior associated with an instance of a widget from a plurality of instances of a second widget distinct from the first widget based on the analyzing.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a first data handling stage to receive tracked information from a plurality of instances of a widget distributed to a plurality of content aggregation points, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information being associated with a plurality of identifiers;

a second data handling stage to receive the tracked information from the first data handling stage and to analyze the tracked information based on the plurality of identifiers; and

a third data handling stage to modify a behavior associated with a first instance of the widget from the plurality of instances of the widget based on the analysis performed at the second data handling stage, the first instance of the widget being placed at a first content aggregation point from the plurality of content aggregation points in response to a sharing request associated with a second instance of the widget at a second content aggregation point from the plurality of content aggregation points, the second instance of the widget being from the plurality of instances of the widget.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the plurality of identifiers includes at least one of a widget identifier, a session identifier, a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, or the third data handling stage includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, or a queuing process.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein one or more of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, and the third data handling stage is performed in a single computing entity.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein a function associated with the first data handling stage is performed at a first portion of a plurality of computing entities and a function associated with the second data handling stage is performed at a second portion of a plurality of computing entities, the first data handling stage and the second data handling stage are pipelined stages.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein a function associated with the first data handling stage is performed at a plurality of computing entities, the first instance of the widget is to exclusively send information associated with the first instance of the widget to a specified portion of the plurality of computing entities.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first data handling stage, the second data handling stage, or the third data handling stage is a pipelined stage.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving tracked information from a first instance of a widget, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information including session information associated with a session corresponding to the first instance of the widget, the session information having information associated with a plurality of identifiers;

analyzing the session information based at least in part on the plurality of identifiers to produce processed information, the processed information being stored in one or more data structures; and

determining a modification to a behavior associated with the first instance of the widget based on the processed information, the first instance of the widget being placed at a first content aggregation point in response to a sharing request associated with a second instance of the widget at a second content aggregation point.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying the behavior associated with the first instance of the widget based on the modification.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the analyzing includes analyzing the session information for the first instance of the widget when one of the following occurs:

a predetermined time is reached after a last occurrence of an activity associated with the first instance of the widget,

the first content aggregation point is closed,

a predetermined time is reached after the first instance of the widget is placed at the first content aggregation point, or

a signal indicative of a session termination is received from the first instance of the widget.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of identifiers includes at least one of a widget identifier, a session identifier, a user identifier, a placement identifier, a content identifier, a content aggregation point identifier, or a processor identifier.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the analyzing includes at least one of a sorting process, a filtering process, an authenticating process, a combining process, a storing process, an analysis process, or a queuing process.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more data structures include at least one of:

a hierarchical time-based data structure,

a hierarchical user-based data structure,

a hierarchical widget-based data structure,

a hierarchical content-based data structure,

a hierarchical session-based data structure,

a hierarchical placement-based data structure, or

a hierarchical content-aggregation-point-based data structure.

21. The method of claim 15, further comprising modifying the behavior associated with the first instance of the widget based on the determined modification, the modifying occurs during at least one of:

a load time of the first instance of the widget,

a rendering time of the first instance of the widget, or

a lifetime of the first instance of the widget.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the receiving is performed by a plurality of computing entities, the method further comprising:

sending information associated with the first instance of the widget to a specified portion of the plurality of computing entities.

23. A system, comprising:

one or more servers configured to receive tracked information from a first instance of a widget, the widget being at least one of a static object, a media object, or a software object, the tracked information being associated with a plurality of identifiers, the plurality of identifiers including at least a widget identifier and a session identifier,

the one or more servers are configured to analyze the tracked information based on the plurality of identifiers to produce processed information, and

the one or more servers are configured to modify a behavior associated with the first instance of the widget based on the processed information, the first instance of the widget being placed at a first content aggregation point in response to a sharing request associated with a second instance of the widget at a second content aggregation point.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein at least one of the one or more servers is a virtual server.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more servers are configured to modify a behavior associated with a widget container based on the processed information, the widget container being associated with the first instance of the widget, the widget container being a procedural software framework including a widget reference and a service module.