METHODS AND APPARATUS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to computer implemented website usage measuring systems, methods and apparatus. In particular, but not exclusively, embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods to accurately measure the use of multiple websites.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Website publishers monitor visitors to their websites to obtain data in relation to the use of their website to determine its effectiveness and for marketing and other analysis purposes. Currently unique audience measurement across websites is achieved through the use of technologies commonly known as "cookies". Cookies are messages communicated to a web browser in a computer by a web server. The web browser stores the message in a text file and the message is communicated back to the web server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The web-server may then associate multiple page views within a browsing session by using the cookie to identify that the same browser (and hence user) has generated the request. Cookies may also be generated by the browser via the execution of a script that is embedded in or included on the web page. The inclusion of these scripts is commonly called "tagging". In such cases, the script typically checks for the presence of a cookie before generating a random number to uniquely identify the browser and hence, by association, the user. Furthermore, cookies are typically associated with a single browser application. Hence, in the case where the same user accesses the same web page using one browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) and another (e.g. Firefox), two separate cookies will be generated, one for the first browser and a second independent cookie for the second browser.

In most common implementations of unique audience measurement across multiple websites, two types of cookie are used. The two types of cookie are in the form of first party cookies and third party cookies. With reference to FIG 1 , first party cookies are cookies that are created and set by the website the visitor is currently accessing. FIG 1 shows three different websites visited by a computer, each website having its own first party cookie. Third party cookies are cookies that are created and set by a third party to a transaction, the third party being neither the operator of the website a visitor is visiting, nor the visitor. The third party may be, for example, a marketing research organisation monitoring and recording data relating to the use of multiple websites. As shown in FIG 1 , the first party cookie measures the audience of a single website, whilst the third party cookie can measure the uniqueness of a computer across multiple sites, therefore creating a picture of the uniqueness of the total audience viewing a category of websites, or the total unique audience for the Internet.

The current method of tracking unique visitors across multiple websites has a major flaw, which is only going to get worse over time. The method used to identify the uniqueness of visitors across multiple websites, the third party cookie, is a method that is also used by less reputable Internet crawlers, such as spyware, malware and viruses used to infect people's computers causing the corruption of data and/or tracking keystrokes and the like to obtain personal data and confidential information, such as passwords.

As a result, there is an increased emphasis on blocking and deleting third party cookies by both new Internet browsers and third party spyware applications. As more and more applications block access to third party cookies, the audience figures created by current audience measurement technology become less and less accurate.

As an example, one of the current technologies used for audience measurement is reporting that the unique audience for Australia is 34 million people, which is problematic considering that the Australian population is closer to 24 million. As a direct result of this inaccuracy, the general Internet advertising industry is beginning to discount third party measurement techniques and is looking for new methods of audience measurement.

With reference to FIG 2, in response to the aforementioned issue with third party cookies, several technologies are now attempting to create pseudo first party cookies by using a CNAME to link a sub domain of the first party website to the third party. A CNAME is a domain name method of mapping one domain to another, for example, http://tracking.website.com = www. websitetracker. com . In effect, this tricks the visitor's computer into thinking the cookie is from a first party.

The key issue with pseudo first party cookies is that browsers are becoming more sophisticated in detecting that they are not genuine first party cookies and are beginning to treat pseudo first party cookies as third party cookies. This revised treatment essentially means that there is no long term benefit to this solution in dealing with the issue of audience identification.

Finally, another issue with current tagging methods is that they require the addition of an account code to the code that implements them to identify the site and/or publisher. This process therefore incurs various drawbacks, such as requiring manual intervention during the creation of scripts for inclusion on the pages to be tracked, being prone to human-error, and adding additional overhead cost to the "tagging up" process, both on the part of the site's publisher and also the service provider who tracks the traffic on the site for the publisher.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer implemented system and/or method and/or apparatus that addresses or at least ameliorates one or more of the aforementioned problems of the prior art or provides consumers with a useful commercial alternative.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect, although not necessarily the broadest or only aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a computer-implemented method of generating at least one cookie from a shared object stored in a computing device using computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated.

The method can generate a first party cookie and/or a third party cookie using the same computer-implemented program code components without modification to identify a webpage, a website or a publisher thereof.

The shared object can be in the form of an application framework for delivering media, rich Internet applications and/or interactive Internet applications.

Suitably, the shared object can be in the form of Flash® by Adobe® or Silverlight® by Microsoft®.

The method can include detecting the absence of either a first or third party cookie and the subsequent generation and setting of a missing first or third party cookie where that cookie does not exist.

The method can include setting computer-implemented program code components in a library of the shared object to record visits of the computing device to one or more webpages on one or more websites.

The method can include updating a first party cookie to share information where a third party cookie exists.

The method can include updating the shared object where a third party cookie exists.

The method can include regenerating a third party cookie from the details stored in a first party cookie. The method can include launching a user survey comprising general questions and/or webpage-, website-, and/or publisher-specific questions that can create additional user demographic information associated with either the first party cookie, the third party cookie, or the shared object.

According to another aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in computer readable media comprising computer implemented program code components to generate at least one cookie from a shared object stored in a computing device wherein the computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which at least one cookie is generated.

According to a further aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a method of measuring usage of one or more webpages on one or more websites provided over a communications network, the method including:

generating at least one cookie from a shared object stored in a computing device visiting the one or more webpages on one or more websites using computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which at least one cookie is generated; and

communicating information about the user's visit to the one or more webpages on one or more websites, using the at least one cookie, to a server coupled to the communications network.

According to a yet further aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a system for measuring usage of one or more webpages on one or more websites provided over a communications network, the system comprising:

a computing device coupled to be in communication with the communications network for viewing the one or more websites; and

a server coupled to be in communication with the communications network for providing computer implemented program code components to the computing device to cause a shared object stored in the computing device to generate at least one cookie, wherein the computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated.

According to another aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a computer-implemented method of generating at least one cookie in a computing device including generating one type of cookie in the computing device from details stored in a different type of cookie existing in the computing device using computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated.

Suitably, the one type of cookie is a first party cookie and the different type of cookie is a third party cookie or vice versa.

The method may further include providing computer implemented program code components that can be used without modification on multiple websites and multiple webpages from a server to the computing device via a communications network to cause generating one type of cookie in the computing device from details stored in the different type of cookie existing in the computing device.

The systems and methods may include computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated to launch a user survey comprising general questions common to one or more websites and/or webpage- and/or website- specific questions that create additional user demographic information for association with the first party cookie, the third party cookie, or the shared object.

The systems and methods may include computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated to suppress the launch of at least part of the user survey on one or more webpages of one or more websites if the user associated with the first party cookie, the third party cookie, or the shared object has already completed part or all of a previous user survey launched on one or more webpages or one or more websites.

According to yet another aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a system for measuring usage of one or more webpages on one or more websites provided over a communications network, the system comprising:

a computing device coupled to be in communication with the communications network for viewing the one or more webpages on one or more websites; and a server coupled to be in communication with the communications network for providing computer implemented program code components to the computing device to generate one type of cookie in the computing device from details stored in the different type of cookie existing in the computing device wherein the computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated.

According to another aspect, although not necessarily the broadest aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a computer readable media comprising computer implemented program code components to generate one type of cookie in a computing device from details stored in the different type of cookie existing in the computing device wherein the computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated.

Further features and aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the invention may be readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numbers refer to identical elements. The drawings are provided by way of example only, wherein:

FIG 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating known first and third party cookies; FIG 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating known pseudo first party cookies;

FIG 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating components of a computing device of the system shown in FIG 3;

FIG 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating embodiments of the present invention;

FIG 6 is a general flow diagram illustrating embodiments of a method of the present invention; and

FIG 7 is a general flow diagram illustrating alternative embodiments of a method of the present invention.

Skilled addressees will appreciate that elements in the drawings are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the relative dimensions of some of the elements in the drawings may be distorted to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG 3 shows a computer implemented website usage measuring system 100 in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. System 100 comprises a plurality of computing devices 102, such as, but not limited to, personal, laptop or notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable multimedia devices, mobile telephones, gaming consoles and computing devices 102 are described in further detail below. Each computing device 102 can be coupled to be in communication with communications network 104, such as the Internet, via conventional wireless and/or wired communication means. Users of computing devices 102 can thus visit and view websites and webpages published by publishers operating servers 106 coupled to be in communication with communications network 104. Server 108, which coordinates monitoring of visitors to websites that are part of the system as described in further detail below, is also coupled to be in communication with communications network 104.

With reference to FIG 4, computing device 102 comprises a processor 200 operatively coupled to one or more input devices 202 such as a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, controller and/or other suitable input device. Processor 200 is operatively coupled to one or more output devices 204, such as a screen, printer and/or other suitable output device. Processor 200 is also operatively coupled to a storage medium in the form of memory 206. Memory 206 comprises a computer readable medium 208, such as a read only memory (e.g., programmable read only memory (PROM), or electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM)), a random access memory (e.g. static random access memory (SRAM), or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM)), or hybrid memory (e.g., FLASH), or other types of memory as are well known in the art. The computer readable medium 208 comprises computer readable program code components 210 for generating first and/or third party cookies using a shared object and to enable the usage of multiple websites by multiple users of computing devices 102 to be measured in accordance with the teachings of the present invention, at least some of which are selectively executed by the processor 200 and are configured to cause the execution of the embodiments of the present invention described herein.

Referring to FIG 5, embodiments of the present invention include a method of measuring usage of one or more websites (W1 , W2, W3) provided over the communications network 104 by the computing device 102. The method includes the server 108 supplying the computer readable program code components 210 to multiple sites that are capable of generating at least one cookie from a shared object (S/O) 500 stored in the computing device 102 visiting the one or more websites (W1 , W2, W3). The computer readable program code components 210 can be in the form of a tag or script and are common across all webpages for which the at least one cookie is generated. No modification of the computer readable program code components 210 is required to identify any webpage, website or a publisher thereof across multiple webpages, websites and publishers.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the computer readable program code components 210 can be included in advertisement serving code in a manner that does not require the existing code within web servers that host the webpages and websites to be modified.

Furthermore, inclusion of the computer readable program components 210 as part of the advertisement serving code means that no modifications are required by the site owner or publisher to the code used to create webpages that reside on their web servers for the functionality contained in the computer readable program components 210 to be activated for their webpages and websites. Methods in accordance with embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the general flow diagram 300 shown in FIG 6. At 302 and 304, when a user visits a website that is a member of, or a subscriber to, the network covered by the present invention, computer readable program code components that are common or universal for all websites and webpages for execution of embodiments of the present invention are loaded from the server 108 to the user's computing device 102.

At 306 and 308, the method 300 includes determining whether a first party cookie exists in the user's computing device 102. If a first party cookie exists, at 310 and 316, the method includes determining whether a third party cookie exists in the user's computing device 102. If a third party cookie exists, at 334 the method 300 includes validating the first party cookie against the third party cookie.

Once the first party cookie has been validated against the third party cookie, the third party cookie is updated at 336. At 338, the method includes updating the first party cookie in the user's computing device 102 and at 340, the method includes recording the user and information relating to the user's visit to the website.

Returning to 310 and 316 of the method, if a third-party cookie does not exist, the method includes at 332 setting a third party cookie using data from the first party cookie. The method then continues at 338 and 340 as described above.

Returning to the check for first party cookies, at 306 and 308, if a first party cookie does not exist, at 312 and 314, the method 300 includes determining whether a third-party cookie exists in the user's computing device 102. If a third- party cookie exists, at 322 the method includes updating the third-party cookie and at 324, the method includes setting a first-party cookie using the third-party cookie. The method then continues at 340 as described above.

If ₁ at 312 and 314, a third-party cookie does not exist, at 318 and 320, the method 300 includes determining whether a shared object 500 exists in the user's computing device 102. The shared object 500 can be in the form of an application framework for delivering media, rich Internet applications and/or interactive Internet applications and can be in the form of, for example, Flash® by Adobe® or Silverlight® by Microsoft® or another such product.

If the shared object 500 does not exist in the user's computing device 102, at 326 the method includes setting the shared object, which includes inserting computer implemented program code components into a database in the user's computing device 102. At 328, the method includes setting the first party cookie using the shared object 500 and at 330, the method includes setting the third party cookie using the shared object 500. The method then continues at 340 as described above.

If ₁ at 318 and 320, it is determined that the shared object 500 exists in the user's computing device 102, the shared object does not need to be set in the uses computing device 102 and the method continues at 328, 330 and 340 as described above.

The aforementioned method can be summarised in Table 1 below: TABLE 1

Three particular scenarios further illustrating the operation of the present invention will now be described. A first scenario involves a user of a computing device 102 visiting a website that is part of the network covered by the present invention for the first time. In this scenario, the user has not been previously recorded by the present invention. The method includes determining whether first and third party cookies exist in the computing device 102 and generating and setting the first and third party cookies where they do not exist using the shared object 500 as described above. The method also includes setting computer- implemented program code components in a library of the shared object 500 stored in the computing device 102 to record visits of the computing device 102 to websites that are part of the monitoring network.

A second scenario involves a user of a computing device 102 visiting a specific website that is part of the network covered by the present invention for the first time. However, in this scenario the user has been previously recorded by the present invention. The method includes generating and setting a first party cookie if the first party cookie does not exist. If a third party cookie exists in the computing device 102, the method includes updating the first party cookie to share information. The method also includes checking the shared object and updating the details stored by the shared object 500 where a third party cookie exists.

A third scenario involves the first or third party cookie being deleted where a user of a computing device 102 has been previously recorded by the present invention. If the first party cookie exists in the computing device 102, the method includes determining whether a third party cookie exists in the computing device 102, as at 310 and 316 in the method 300 in FIG 6. If the third party cookie has been deleted, the method includes regenerating the third party cookie with the same details stored in a first party cookie and updating the first party cookie as at 332 and 338 of the method 300 respectively. If it is determined that the first party cookie has been deleted, the method includes rebuilding both the first party cookie and the third party cookie using the shared object 500.

According to another aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in the system 100 shown in FIG 3 for measuring usage of one or more webpages on one or more websites (W1 , W2, W3) provided over the communications network 104. The system 100 comprises one or more computing devices 102 coupled to be in communication with the communications network 104 for viewing the one or more webpages on one or more websites. The system 100 also comprises the server 108 coupled to be in communication with the communications network 104 for providing computer implemented program code components 210 to the computing device 102 to cause the shared object 500 stored in the computing device 102 to generate at least one cookie to facilitate measuring usage of the websites (W1 , W2, W3). The computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated and require no modification across multiple websites. The aforementioned method steps can be performed in the system 100 to regenerate first and/or third party cookies as required from the shared object 500.

Embodiments of the present invention enable the accurate measurement of the use of a plurality of websites by ensuring that first and third party cookies are accurately maintained. This is achieved in co-operation with the publishers of the websites by putting tracking tags on all the pages of their websites that they wish to monitor to measure a range of parameters including, but not limited to, unique visitors, unique visits, page impressions, mobile phone access, console access, cross site access. Publishers agree to be part of the network covered by the present invention because it gives advertisers a unique insight into the total unique audience for a range of websites by using common tracking code to distinguish between new and repeat visitors across a range of separate sites, which publishers are unable to achieve on their own.

Methods in accordance with alternative embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the general flow diagram 400 shown in FIG 7. According to other aspects of the invention, checking for and enabling first and third party cookies can be achieved without using the shared object 500. At 402 and 404 of the method 400, when a user visits a website that is a member of, or a subscriber to, the network covered by the present invention, computer readable program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated for execution of embodiments of the present invention are loaded from the server 108 to the user's computing device 102.

At 406 and 408, the method 400 includes checking for third-party cookies on the user's computing device 102. If a third-party cookie does not exist, at 410 and 412, the method includes checking whether a first party cookie exists. If a first party cookie exists, at 418, the method 400 includes setting a third party cookie using data from the first party cookie. At 422, the method includes updating the first party cookie and at 426 the method includes recording the user and information associated with the user's visit to the website.

Returning to the check for first party cookies at 410 and 412, if a first party cookie does not exist on the user's computing device 102, at 414 the method 400 includes setting a first party cookie and a third-party cookie and the method continues at 426 as described above.

Returning to the check for third party cookies at 406 and 408, if a third-party cookie exists, at 416 and 420 the method 400 includes determining whether a first party cookie exists on the user's computing device 102. If a first party cookie exists, the method includes updating the existing first party cookie at 422 and recording the user and information associated with the user's visit to the website at 426. If, at 416 and 420, it is determined that a third-party cookie does not exist on the user's computing device 102, the method includes at 424 setting the first party cookie using data from the third party cookie. At 426, the method includes recording the user and information associated with the user's visit to the website.

The aforementioned method can be summarised in Table 2 below: TABLE 2

Therefore, according to another aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a computer-implemented method of generating at least one cookie in the computing device 102 including generating one type of cookie in the computing device 102 from details stored in a different type of cookie existing in the computing device 102 using computer-implemented program code components that are common across all webpages and websites for which the at least one cookie is generated. As described above, the one type of cookie that does not exist in the computing device 102 can be a first party cookie and the different type of cookie that exists in the computing device 102 can be a third party cookie. Alternatively, the one type of cookie that does not exist in the computing device 102 can be a third party cookie and the different type of cookie that exists in the computing device 102 can be a first party cookie.

According to some embodiments, the method can further include providing computer implemented program code components from the server 108 to the computing device 102 via the communications network 104 to cause generating one type of cookie in the computing device 102 from details stored in the different type of cookie existing in the computing device 102. The computer readable program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which at least one cookie is generated and no modification of the computer readable program code components is required to identify any webpage, website or a publisher thereof across multiple webpages, websites and publishers.

According to another aspect, embodiments of the present invention reside in a system 100 for measuring usage of one or more webpages on one or more websites provided over the communications network 104. According to these embodiments, the system 100 comprises at least one of the computing devices 102 coupled to be in communication with the communications network 104 for viewing the one or more webpages on one or more websites. The server 108 is coupled to be in communication with the communications network 104 for providing computer implemented program code components to the computing device 102 to generate one type of cookie in the computing device from details stored in the different type of cookie existing in the computing device wherein the computer-implemented program code components are common across all webpages and websites for which each cookie is generated. As described above, the one type of cookie that does not exist in the computing device 102 can be a first party cookie and the different type of cookie that exists in the computing device 102 can be a third party cookie or vice versa.

According to some embodiments, the systems and methods described herein can include the server 108 providing computer implemented program code components to the computing device 102 to launch a user survey on the computing device 102, which is thus visible to the user. The user survey can comprise general questions common to one or more websites and/or webpage- specific and/or website-specific questions that create additional user demographic information for association with each cookie or shared object. Responses to the user survey are returned to the server 108 if the user chooses to respond to the survey. The computer implemented program code components required to launch the user survey are included in advertisement serving code without modifying existing code within web servers that host the webpages and websites.

According to some embodiments, the systems and methods described herein can include the server 108 providing computer implemented program code components to the computing device 102 to suppress the launch of at least part of the user survey on one or more webpages of one more websites if the user associated with the cookie or shared object has already completed part or all of a previous user survey launched on one or more webpage or one or more websites. This avoids the aforementioned duplication that can lead to erroneous figures.

Hence, the aspects of the present invention as described herein address the aforementioned problems associated with known measuring methods. The advantage of using universal or common computer implemented program code components to deliver the shared object is that it very simple and cheap for publishers to add the tag to their sites and once the shared object is installed it is almost impossible to permanently delete the information that is required to perform the usage measurement. This dramatically reduces the chances of the identifying data being permanently deleted. Consequently, the accuracy of tracking and measurement is significantly increased because the issue of losing first and/or third party cookies is addressed because either or both can be rebuilt. Genuine first party cookies can be generated dynamically in lieu of pseudo first party cookies that are subject to permanent deletion. Furthermore, the shared object 500 that is utilised in the present invention to enable and rebuild cookies, is enabled in a very high percentage of browsers currently installed in computing devices. Yet further, embodiments of the present invention enable unified measurement across different internet browsers on the same or different computing devices to be distinguished thus yielding more accurate results by reducing duplication. According to other embodiments of the present invention, first and third party cookies can be rebuilt without using the shared object 500. As a result, aspects of the present invention delivers a solution that provides multiple ways to assess if a computer is unique to the network, providing redundant methods of audience measurement that allows for a far more accurate measure of the Internet audience.

Throughout the specification the aim has been to describe the invention without limiting the invention to any one embodiment or specific collection of features. Persons skilled in the relevant art may realize variations from the specific embodiments that will nonetheless fall within the scope of the invention.