Patent ID: 9691032
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G06N,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for deriving information from a belief network that is used to model web traffic data, the method comprising: receiving, by a web traffic analysis server, web traffic data that is collected by a website administrator, wherein the web traffic data characterizes interactions between a plurality of content consumers and a website that is administered by the website administrator; extracting a plurality of variables that are included in the received web traffic data; providing a user interface configured to receive a selection of a given variable that is observed to take one or more given values in the received web traffic data; modeling a joint probability distribution according to a belief network, wherein the received web traffic data is distributed according to the modeled joint probability distribution; extracting a plurality of variable-value pairs from the belief network, each extracted variable-value pair comprising an influential variable and a corresponding influential value; determining a statistical influence that each of the extracted variable-value pairs has on a probability distribution of values taken by the given variable, wherein the statistical influence is quantified by an influence parameter associated with each of the extracted variable-value pairs; and displaying a ranked list of the plurality of extracted variable-value pairs, the ranked list being ordered based on the influence parameter, wherein the influence parameter is determined before the selection of the given variable is received.