Abstract:
The tracking of usage of pre-accessed Web documents that are browsed off-line. The combination of apparatus for storing previously accessed network documents, e.g. Web pages, at a receiving display station; and at said receiving display station for tracking data on the extent of usage of these previously accessed documents. The previously accessed and stored Web pages may be hypertext documents that have a plurality of hyperlinks to other previously accessed and stored Web pages, and the tracking of data tracks the number of times that each of said hyperlinks is used to access the stored Web document linked to said hyperlink. In addition, there may be an implementation for transmitting the means for tracking the extent of usage of the previously accessed Web document to said receiving display station along with said previously accessed Web document. The tracking function may, for example, be transmitted to the receiving station in the form of a program routine or applet that accompanies these pre-accessed Web pages.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks, such as the World Wide Web (Web), and particularly to methods of tracking the extent of usage of Web documents accessed by particular, e.g. targeted, users at receiving Web display stations.  
       BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART  
       [0002]     The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies that have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web (the two terms are used interchangeably) related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.  
         [0003]     In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered direct links between pages and other documentation on the Web and a variety of related data sources, which were, at first, text and then evolved into media, i.e. “hypermedia”. This even further exploded the use of the Internet or Web. The recent rapid expansion of the Web was, to a great extent, based upon giving users access to Web document sources without cost to the receiving user or at least without direct compensation to the document content providers maintaining Web sources. Many of such sources were maintained by government and academic institutions. In such cases, the compensation was the indirect combination of duty and goodwill that traditionally motivated such institutions to maintain libraries.  
         [0004]     On the other hand, for the private business sector, the motivation for Web source content providers was a combination of goodwill, advertising and the potential for acquiring customer business. While these motives have compensated many business organizations fairly well, the rapid expansion of Web user bases and the consequent great proliferation of “hits” and demands on Web sources is making the maintenance of free Web sources commercially impractical for a great many business organizations.  
         [0005]     Over the years, advertising on the Web display has been used to generate compensation either directly to the content provider or by the collection of advertising revenue from general advertisers by Web service providers that subsequently distribute a portion of such revenue to the Web source content providers. The success of such general advertising on the Web has been quite limited. The interests of a user browsing on the Web are quite specific and personal, while the advertising on the Web has been relatively general, unfocused and broadly directed.  
         [0006]     In light of this situation, there have been extensive efforts to direct advertising and related information to the specific interests of Web users. In addition, there has been an increasing market for user services that provide information of interest to the user for business, technological, academic and leisure.  
         [0007]     The most effective group of tools for determining general and particular user interest has been the tracing or monitoring of “hits” on Web sites, e.g. the demand for Web pages. In the beginning, such tracking involved the monitoring of hits of particular Web pages from particular Web sites. This gave potential advertisers and Web site hosts general information as to user demand. With the progress in technology, tracking became more sophisticated so that particular user interest could be tracked. This was usually done at the level of the Web service provider for the target user with appropriate compensation for the user for relinquishing privacy. Copending Application Ser. No. 10/159,508, Herman Rodriguez et al., A WORLD WIDE WEB DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM WITH COMPENSATION FOR DOCUMENT PROVIDERS AND FOR DOCUMENT RECEIVING USERS FOR DISTRIBUTION COSTS BY USERS PERMITTING PROVIDERS TO TRACK THE USERS&#39; DOCUMENT ACCESS ACTIVITIES ON THE WEB, filed on May 30, 2002, and assigned to the assignee of the present Application, provides an example of such specific user monitoring or tracking of Web page usage.  
         [0008]     While these specific user tracking implementations have provided effective user tracking of Web document usage, another technological advance has created new problems in specific user tracking of Web document usage.  
         [0009]     The rapidly expanding availability of storage capacity, even in mobile palm-type PDA display computers has now made it possible to pre-access Web documents for Web sites and databases and store a relatively extensive quantity of such Web documents on such PDAs and desktop personal computers. This permits the user to browse such Web documents off-line apart from any real-time connection to the Web. The problem of tracking of Web document usage is particularly pronounced because a great amount of this pre-accessing from the Web involves the further pre-accessing of Web documents linked to the basic Web documents through hyperlinks in the basic Web documents. Thus, at most, the existing usage tracking programs would only have a hit or indication of the initial access to the original or linked Web documents but would have no indication of this off-line usage. With the greatly increasing off-line browsing of pre-accessed Web documents, this presents a usage tracking problem worthy of attention.  
       SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0010]     The present invention provides one solution to problems related to the tracking of usage of pre-accessed Web documents that are browsed off-line. The invention involves the combination of means for storing previously accessed network documents at a receiving display station; and means at said receiving display station for tracking data on the extent of usage of said previously accessed documents. In the preferred operation, the network is the Web; the documents are pre-accessed from remote resource locations, e.g. Web sites; and the documents are Web documents. The means for tracking data may track the extent of usage of sections of the previously accessed and stored Web documents. The previously accessed and stored Web documents may be hypertext documents that have a plurality of hyperlinks to other previously accessed and stored Web documents, and the means for tracking data tracks the number of times that each of said hyperlinks is used to access the stored Web document linked to said hyperlink. In addition, there may be means for transmitting the means for tracking the extent of usage of the previously accessed Web document to said receiving display station along with said previously accessed Web document. The means for tracking may, for example, be transmitted to the receiving station in the form of a program routine or applet that accompanies these pre-accessed Web pages.  
         [0011]     The Web system herein may further include means associated with a network server computer for collecting the tracked data in combination with means for transmitting the tracked data to these means for collecting said data. The receiving display terminal may be a personal palm-type computer connected to the Web through periodic synchronization with an associated receiving display station in turn connected to the Web; and the means for transmitting transmits the tracked data to said means for collecting said data during such periodic synchronization. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]     The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:  
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a data processing system including a central processing unit and network connections via a communications adapter that is capable of implementing the receiving display station on which the received Web pages may be pre-accessed and stored, and then used; and such usage tracked and stored in accordance with this invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a generalized diagrammatic view of a Web portion upon which the present invention may be implemented,  
         [0015]      FIG. 3  is a general flowchart of a program set up to implement the present invention for storing previously accessed network documents at a receiving display station; and means at said receiving display station for tracking data on the extent of usage of said previously accessed documents; and  
         [0016]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the program set up in  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0017]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a typical data processing terminal is shown that may function as a basic computer controlled Web receiving terminal used in implementing the present invention for storing pre-accessed Web documents in and tracking the extent of usage of such documents off-line from the Web at the receiving display station. The illustrative computer shown may also be used for the Web servers in the practice of the invention. A central processing unit (CPU)  10 , such as one of the PC microprocessors or workstations, e.g. RISC IQ System/6000™ series available from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), or Dell PC microprocessors, is provided and interconnected to various other components by system bus  12 . An operating system  41  runs on CPU  10 , provides control and is used to coordinate the function of the various components of  FIG. 1 . Operating system  41  may be one of the commercially available operating systems, such as IBM&#39;s AIX 6000™ operating system or Microsoft&#39;s WindowsXP™ or Windows2000™, as well as UNIX and other IBM AIX operating systems. Application programs  40 , controlled by the system, are moved into and out of the main memory Random Access Memory (RAM)  14 . These programs include the program of the present invention that will be described hereinafter in combination with any conventional Web browser at the receiving Web station, such as Netscape 6.0 or Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer™. The programs will track the usage of the pre-accessed Web documents, including other pre-accessed Web documents that are hyperlinked to the original Web documents. A Read Only Memory (ROM)  16  is connected to CPU  10  via bus  12  and includes the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. RAM  14 , I/O adapter  18  and communications adapter  34  are also interconnected to system bus  12 . I/O adapter  18  may be a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storage device  20 . Communications adapter  34  interconnects bus  12  with an outside Internet or Web network. I/O devices are also connected to system bus  12  via user interface adapter  22  and display adapter  36 . Keyboard  24  and mouse  26  are all interconnected to bus  12  through user interface adapter  22 . It is through such input devices that the user may interactively relate to the programs for tracking the usage of the pre-accessed Web documents including other pre-accessed Web documents that are hyperlinked to the original Web documents. Display adapter  36  includes a frame buffer  39  that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen  38 . Images may be stored in frame buffer  39  for display on monitor  38  through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard  24  or mouse  26  and receiving output information from the system via display  38 .  
         [0018]     It should be noted that  FIG. 1  shows the generalized structure of a desktop receiving Web station, such as station  57 , in the Web network portion to be subsequently described with respect to  FIG. 2 . Where the receiving Web station is a palm-type PDA device hotsynced with a desktop station, as will be described further with respect to  FIG. 2 , it will have a standard palm-type display computer structure, as described in greater detail in copending application Ser. No. 09/589,666 filed Jun. 8, 2000, B. S. Baweja et al., DISTRIBUTING CONDENSED VERSIONS OF DISPLAYABLE INFORMATION IN HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE DOCUMENTS TRANSMITTED ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB TO PERSONAL PALM-TYPE DISPLAY COMPUTERS, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.  
         [0019]     Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since a major aspect of the present invention is directed to documents, such as Web pages and media content therein, transmitted over networks, an understanding of networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. Reference has also been made to the applicability of the present invention to a global network, such as the Internet or Web. For details on Internet nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. R. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, CA, 1996.  
         [0020]     The Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers. These network servers are the key to network distribution, such as the distribution of Web pages and related documentation. In this connection, the term “documents” is used to describe data transmitted over the Web or other networks and is intended to include Web pages with displayable text, graphics, other images and audio. This displayable information may be still, in motion or animated, e.g. animated GIF images.  
         [0021]     Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which is described in detail in the text entitled  Just Java , van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages, and also in the above-referenced  Mastering the Internet , particularly at pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages. The images on the Web pages are implemented in a variety of image or graphic files such % PEG, JPEG or GIF files, which are described in the text,  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millenium Edition , Young et al., 1999, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, particularly at pp. 728-730.  
         [0022]     In addition, aspects of this invention will involve Web browsers. A general and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet  text at pp. 291-313. More detailed browser descriptions may be found in the above-mentioned  Internet: The Complete Reference. Millennium Edition  text: Chapter 19, pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on the Microsoft Internet Explorer; and Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx, Opera and other browsers.  
         [0023]     In the description of the invention, search engines will be used to locate and pre-access the previously accessed Web documents stored at the receiving display stations. As described in the above-mentioned  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millenium Edition  text, pp. 395 and 522-535, search engines use keywords and phrases to query the Web for desired subject matter. In carrying out its search, the search engine looks through the database for matches to keywords subject to the engine syntax. The search engine then presents to the user a list of the Web pages it determines to be closest to the requested query. Some significant search engines are: AltaVista, Infoseek, Lycos, Magellan, Webcrawler and Yahoo.  
         [0024]     A generalized diagram of a portion of the Web, in which the computer controlled display terminal  57  used for Web page receiving during searching or browsing is connected as shown in  FIG. 2 . Computer display terminal  57  may be implemented by the computer system set up in  FIG. 1  and connection  58  ( FIG. 2 ) is the network connection shown in  FIG. 1 . For purposes of the present embodiment, computer  57  serves as the receiving Web display station that will pre-access and store Web documents, e.g. pages that subsequently are displayed  56 . Reference may be made to the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet , pp. 136-147, for typical connections between local display stations to the Web via network servers, any of which may be used to implement the system on which this invention is used. The system embodiment of  FIG. 2  has a host-dial connection. Such host-dial connections have been in use for over 30 years through network access servers  53  that are linked  61  to the Web  50 . The Web servers  53 , which also may have the computer structure described with respect to  FIG. 1 , may be maintained by a Web Service Provider to the client&#39;s display terminal  57 . The Web server  53  is accessed by the client receiving terminal  57  through a normal dial-up telephone linkage  58  via modem  54 , telephone line  55  and modem  52 . Any conventional digital or analog linkages, including wireless connections, are also usable. The previously described search engines  51 , contacted conventionally via Web access server search the Web, and send the selected Web documents back to the receiving display station  57  on which they may be conventionally displayed on a real-time basis, and documents linked to the hyperlinks in displayed documents selectively accessed by the user from the Web via browser  59  and then displayed  56  on a real-time basis in a conventional manner. Of course, the number of hits and other conventional Web document usage amounts may be tracked in the conventional manner on a real-time basis as described above.  
         [0025]     The present invention is concerned with the usage tracking of Web documents and their hyperlinked Web documents that are pre-accessed from the Web as described, but then stored for further accessing and viewing by the user off-line (off the Web) at the user&#39;s convenience. These are stored in association with station  57 , e.g. in cache  49 . As will be described in connection to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the invention provides for the tracking of off-line access and usage of Web documents and linked Web documents. Storage capacities at receiving Web stations have increased so substantially that in addition to the basic selected Web documents, all of the hyperlinked Web documents to these basic Web documents may also be stored at the receiving Web station. The present invention provides an implementation for tracking the usage of such previously accessed stored documents. Accordingly, even though such Web pages are stored and read or accessed while the receiving station is off the Web, the tracking routines will count, for example, the number of times that particular hyperlinks on the stored Web page are clicked on so as to access the linked pages that are also stored at the receiving Web station.  
         [0026]     The techniques used for the actual tracking of this off-Web access and usage of the stored previously accessed Web documents may be any standard client usage routine already implemented for standard real-time Web document usage tracking. However, the tracking is carried on the stored pre-accessed Web documents. When this tracking is done on a desktop receiving station such as station  57 ,  FIG. 2 , the accumulated tracked data is stored at the station, e.g. on cache  49 , and then periodically sent to a database  63  maintained by Web provider  64  via Web server  53 . Dependent on the usage data algorithm that the service provider is using to develop meaningful usage data, the data relative to the off-line usage of pre-accessed Web documents may be combined with the real-time Web document usage that, of course, may also be accumulated in database  63  by the service provider  64 .  
         [0027]     In accordance with an aspect of this invention, Web document usage data may also be monitored for palm-type PDAs, such as wireless device  23  with display screen  46 . It should be noted that the term personal palm-type device is used to generally cover all varieties of palm-type devices. These include cellular phones and related wireless devices, smartphones and Internet screen phones. In  FIG. 2 , such a use of a PDA is shown hotsynced to desktop station  57  as described in the above-referenced copending application Ser. No. 09/559,666. PDA  23  is wirelessly connected  25  to a cellular tower  28 , in turn connected via a base station of a switching network via Web server  43 . It is through this Web connection that the PDA  23  may be synchronized, i.e. hotsynced, to desktop  57  via the desktop Web server  53 , as described above. Similar to desktop  57 , a storage cache  19  is provided in association with PDA  23  whereby Web documents may be pre-accessed from the Web under the control of Web browser  21  and stored. Then, like the operation at the desktop station  57 , the basic selected Web documents and all of the hyperlinked Web documents to these basic Web documents may also be stored at the receiving PDA station. The present invention provides an implementation for tracking the usage of such previously  21  accessed stored documents. Accordingly, even though such Web pages are stored and read or accessed while the receiving station is off the Web, the tracking routines will count the number of times that particular hyperlinks on the stored Web page are clicked on so as to access the linked pages that are also stored at the receiving PDA. The tracked data will be stored on cache  19  and similarly provided via the Web to database  63  under the control of Web service provider  64 . The accumulated usage data may conveniently be periodically transmitted from cache  19  to database  63  during the above-mentioned hotsync operations.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the development of a process according to the present invention for tracking Web documents previously accessed from the Web and stored at a receiving Web station for usage by the clients at such Web stations. Most of the programming functions in the process of  FIG. 3  have already been described in general with respect to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . A Web browser is provided at a receiving display station on the Web for accessing Web pages in the conventional manner and loading them at the display station, step  71 . The Web pages are conventionally obtained via a Web server provided by a Web Service Provider. The Web browser has the capability of requesting searches from one or more search engines available through the Web. An implementation is set up for the storage of such accessed Web pages at the receiving Web station, step  72 . There is also provision at the Web station for pre-accessing, step  73 , the Web pages connected to the hyperlinks in the Web pages pre-accessed in step  71 . An implementation is provided at the Web station, step  74 , for the tracking of the extent of fetching from the storage and the extent of usage of the Web pages accessed in steps  72  and  73 . In the implementation of step  74 , there may be provided a variety of functions for tracking, e.g. functions that count the number of times that both the original Web pages and the linked Web pages are accessed from storage, step  75 . Provision is made, step  76 , for the storage of the data tracked in steps  74  and  75  at the receiving display station. Provision is made for the periodic sending of the tracked stored data of step  76  to the Web service provider, step  77 . There is an implementation at the service provider for combining the data sent in step  77  with real-time Web page access data for the receiving station being tracked by the service provider, step  78 . There is provision for an optional set up in which the receiving Web station is implemented by a palm-type PDA device that is periodically updated with data by a standard hotsync with a stationary Web desktop computer station, step  79 . Provision is made, step  80 , for the implementation of corresponding steps  72  through  76  on the PDA. Provision is made, step  81 , for the periodic sending of the stored tracked data of step  76  of the PDA to the Web service provider during the hotsync of step  79 .  
         [0029]     The running of the process set up in  FIG. 3  will now be described with respect to the flowchart of  FIG. 4 . First, step  90 , Web pages selected for the user, as well as the Web pages linked to the hyperlinks in the Web pages, are pre-accessed via a Web browser at a receiving display station. Such pre-accessed Web pages are stored at the receiving station, step  91 . Since this example is a PDA implemented one, step  92 , there will be a periodic hotsync of the stored Web pages to the PDA. Then, a determination is made, step  93 , as to whether there has been a Web page request made by the user. If No, such a request is awaited. If Yes, then, step  94 , a further determination is made as to whether the requested page has been pre-accessed and, thus, stored. If No, then the process follows a standard real-time Web page request routine, step  95 , in which the requested Web page is accessed from the Web and displayed and subjected to any standard tracking of the Web page usage, usually conducted at the Web provider server, step  96 . When the user is finished with the Web page, the process is returned to step  93  via branch “A”. If the determination instep  94  is Yes, the requested Web page has been pre-accessed and stored, then, step  97 , the page is fetched from PDA storage and displayed on the PDA, step  98 . Page usage is tracked as described hereinabove, step  99 , and the data is stored in association with the PDA, step  100 . Next, periodic determinations are made, step  101 , as to whether there is a hotsync. If Yes, the PDA is sent the standard update including the new pre-accessed Web pages, step  102 . In turn, the PDA sends whatever tracked usage data it has stored to the Web service provider server, step  103 . Provision may be made, step  104 , at the service provider, as described above, for the coordination of the tracked data sent instep  103  with any real-time Web page usage data tracked in step  96 . At this point, or if the determination from step  101  is No, a determination may conveniently be made as to whether the Web session is at an end. If Yes, the session is exited. If No, the process is returned to step  93  via branch “A”.  
         [0030]     Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.