Content display monitor

• US 8,769,394 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2010
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: comScore, Inc., nuWeb Co.
• Original Assignee: comScore, Inc.
• Inventors: Blumenau, Trevor
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US12/849,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20100299604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/205, 715/208, 715/234, 715/240, 715/267, 715/273
• US Class Current: 715/208
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/348 Circuit details, i.e. tracer hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters

Abstract

The invention can enable monitoring of the display of content by a computer system. Moreover, the invention can enable monitoring of the displayed content to produce monitoring information from which conclusions may be deduced regarding the observation of the displayed content by an observer. The invention can also enable monitoring of the display at a content display site of content that is provided by a content provider site over a network to the content display site. Additionally, the invention can enable the expeditious provision of updated and/or tailored content over a network from a content provider site to a content display site so that the content provider'"'"'s current and appropriately tailored content is always displayed at the content display site. Aspects of the invention related to transfer of content over a network are generally applicable to any type of network. However, it is contemplated that the invention can be particularly useful with a computer network, including private computer networks (e.g., America Online™) and public computer networks (e.g., the Internet). In particular, the invention can be advantageously used with computer networks or portions of computer networks over which video and/or audio content are transferred from one network site to another network site for observation, such as the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a first content to a content provider for transmission to a content display site by the content provider, wherein the first content comprises an instruction that, when executed by the content display site, causes the content display site to request second content from a monitoring provider;

receiving a request for the second content from the content display site at the monitoring provider; and

in response to the request for the second content, sending the second content to the content display site, wherein the second content comprises a monitoring instruction that, when executed by the content display site, causes the content display site to monitor the first content and to transmit monitoring information related to the first content to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the first content to the content display site.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring information indicates that the content display site accessed the first content.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising establishing an account identifier for the content provider at the monitoring provider.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, further comprising including the account identifier in the monitoring instruction.

5. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the monitoring information includes the account identifier.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the request is a hypertext transport protocol request.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first content is an advertisement.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to send the monitoring information to the monitoring provider by making a hyper text transport protocol request to the monitoring provider.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the hyper text transport request specifies a file that does not exist at the monitoring provider.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the instruction is a hypertext markup language tag.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring instruction generates monitoring information for a subset of the first content.

12. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the first content is displayed on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the media content was displayed.

13. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the first content is at least partially covered by another object on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the first content was displayed.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, wherein the object is a window in a graphical user interface.

15. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second content further comprises identification information for the content display site.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the identification information is an internet protocol address and the internet protocol address is included in the monitoring information.

17. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to determine that a user at the content display site selected the first content.

18. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the monitoring provider provides a report based at least partially on the monitoring information to a third party that pays for an advertisement to be included in the first content.

19. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the monitoring information from the content display site;

combining the monitoring information with further monitoring information from other content display sites; and

generating a report that indicates a number of times that the first content was accessed.

20. A system comprising:

a processing system comprising one or more processors; and

a memory system comprising one or more computer-readable media, wherein the computer-readable media contain instructions that, if executed by the processing system, cause the system to perform operations comprising;

transmitting first content to a content provider for transmission to a content display site by the content provider, wherein the first content comprises an instruction that, when executed by the content display site, causes the content display site to request second content from a monitoring provider;

receiving a request for the second content from the content display site at the monitoring provider; and

in response to the request for the second content, sending the second content to the content display site, wherein the second content comprises a monitoring instruction that, when executed by the content display site, cause the content display site to monitor the first content and to transmit monitoring information related to the first content to the monitoring provider, wherein the monitoring provider is different from the content display site and the content provider, and the monitoring provider did not provide the first content to the content display site.

21. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring information indicates that the content display site accessed the first content.

22. A system as defined in claim 20, the operations further comprising establishing an account identifier for the content provider at the monitoring provider.

23. A system as defined in claim 22, the operations further comprising including the account identifier in the monitoring instruction.

24. A system as defined in claim 22, wherein the monitoring information includes the account identifier.

25. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the request is a hypertext transport protocol request.

26. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the first content is an advertisement.

27. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to send the monitoring information to the monitoring provider by making a hyper text transport protocol request to the monitoring provider.

28. A system as defined in claim 27, wherein the hyper text transport request specifies a file that does not exist at the monitoring provider.

29. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the instruction is a hypertext markup language tag.

30. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring instruction generates monitoring information for a subset of the first content.

31. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the first content is displayed on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the media content was displayed.

32. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to detect when the first content is at least partially covered by another object on a display device at the content display site and the monitoring information indicates that the first content was displayed.

33. A system as defined in claim 32, wherein the object is a window in a graphical user interface.

34. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the second content further comprises identification information for the content display site.

35. A system as defined in claim 34, wherein the identification information is an internet protocol address and the internet protocol address is included in the monitoring information.

36. A system as defined in claim 20, wherein the monitoring instruction causes the content display site to determine that a user at the content display site selected the first content.

37. A system as defined in claim 20, the operations further comprising providing a report based at least partially on the monitoring information to a third party that pays for an advertisement to be included in the first content.

38. A system as defined in claim 20, the operations further comprising:

receiving the monitoring information from the content display site;

combining the monitoring information with further monitoring information from other content display sites; and

generating a report that indicates a number of times that the media content was accessed.