Patent ID: 8108245
Filing Date: 2012-01-31
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of profiling a Web user, comprising: detecting, at an ISP (Internet service provider) server, an outgoing URL page request from a client; capturing, at the ISP server, the packets associated with the detected URL page request, extracting, from the packets captured at the ISP server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) identifying a network path to a Web site satisfying the URL page request; obtaining, at the ISP server, an IP (Internet protocol) address from a client; storing the extracted URL and the IP address obtain form the client in a database; correlating, at the ISP server, the IP address obtained from the client with a permanent anonymous user identifier using an IP address to anonymous user ID (AID) cross-reference table; associating the extracted URL with the permanent anonymous user identifier correlated with the IP address obtained from the client; for each permanent anonymous user identifier correlated with the IP address obtained from the client, storing the URL of the Web site satisfying the URL page request and the permanent anonymous user identifier correlated with the IP address obtained from the client; cross-referencing, at the ISP server, the extracted URL with demographic information in a categorized URL database profiling Web sites based on demographic characteristics of users accessing the profiled Web sites; extracting, at the ISP server, a set of the demographic information associated with the Web site cross-referenced to the extracted URL; extracting content affinity from a categorized listing of URLs that translate the extracted URL into a content preference for the profiled Web site associated with the extracted URL; and providing a user profile for the permanent anonymous user identifier based on the extracted URL and the extracted content affinity obtained by translating the extracted URL into the content preference for the profiled Web site associated with the extracted URL.