Patent ID: 6393407
Filing Date: 2002-05-21
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
In a distributed computing system for displaying information, a method comprising the steps ofdisplaying to a user a representation of a page in electronic form, the page containing at least one advertisement composed of two or more regions, each region containing a visual element of the advertisement; tracking user micro-interactions with each of the elements in the advertisement through the steps of: maintaining a list of elements displayed in the advertisement; determining when a screen pointer hover occurs within a particular element of the advertisement, and the screen pointer hover occurring without requiring a user interaction on the element; and creating a micro-interaction data record in response thereto; logging the micro-interaction data records while the advertisement is being displayed to the user; sending the micro-interaction data records to a remote server by opening a connection to the remote server and sending an HTTP GET message to the remote server over the connection, the HTTP GET message containing the micro-interaction data records; and wherein the micro-interaction data records are encoded as to appear as part of an extended dummy address field in the HTTP GET message.