Abstract:
A method and system for using a computer to gather information of an end user&#39;s visits to web pages and the duration and date of each visit, and then pairing this data with the user&#39;s demographic data. The method and system include the steps of monitoring the web pages the end user visits; recording the duration and date of each visit to a web page; and saving the recorded information in the end user&#39;s computer. The method and system further include the steps of providing a data processing computer for storing demographic data of the end user; storing the end user&#39;s demographic data in the data processing computer; uploading upon selective operation by the end user&#39;s computer in one direction from the end user&#39;s computer to the data processing computer, the duration and date of visit information saved to the end user&#39;s computer; matching the information uploaded with the end user&#39;s demographic data; collating based on the end user&#39;s demographic information, the information resulting from the previous step, and saving this information in the data processing computer. The above steps are then repeated for more than one end user.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to a method and system for collecting and recording information over the Internet and then combining that information with an end user&#39;s demographic information. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   The Nielsen ratings have long been a stable means to gauge the national market impact of advertising on television. More often than not, web sites use a simple “hits” metric. A “hit” indicates how many times a web page has been accessed, but not by whom. Many web sites also compromise privacy by recording people&#39;s Internet data such as their web Internet address, after which the person may receive unsolicited junk mail or advertising (e.g. “spamming”). This data is also used for marketing purposes by other companies, which raises privacy concerns. 
   The World Wide Web (WWW) is a system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents, and is a packet based communications network. The documents are formatted in a language called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). Users access the WWW, for example, via personal computers (PC) or workstations running web browsers. Web browsers are software applications used to locate web pages and allow a user to graphically display pages of a web site or document. Examples of web browsers are Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer and Netscape&#39;s Navigator. In order to connect a web site to the World Wide Web, a user such as a corporation wishing to have an web site, pays a fee to a domain name registration company (such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)) and the domain name registration company assigns an address to the user. This address is guaranteed to be unique. This World Wide Web address is called a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The URL is a global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web and defines a path to a data file on the user&#39;s computer. The data file is the user&#39;s web page. The URL of a web page is paired with a textual name. For example, Lucent&#39;s World Wide Web address for the Mount Olive Product Realization Center web page is www.mtt.lucent.com, which corresponds to the numerical value 135.5.146.6. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention is direct to a method and system for using a computer to gather information of an end user&#39;s visits to web pages and the duration and date of each visit, and then pairing this data with the user&#39;s demographic data. The method and system includes the steps of monitoring the web pages the end user visits; recording the duration and date of each visit to a web page; and saving the recorded information in the end user&#39;s computer. The method and system further includes the steps of providing a data processing computer for storing demographic data of the end user; storing the end user&#39;s demographic data in the data processing computer; uploading upon selective operation by the end user&#39;s computer in one direction from the end user&#39;s computer to the data processing computer, the duration and date of visit information saved to the end user&#39;s computer; matching the information uploaded with the end user&#39;s demographic data; collating based on the end user&#39;s demographic information, the information resulting from the previous step, and saving this information in the data processing computer. The above steps are then repeated for more than one end user. 
   The method according to the present invention accurately assesses who is visiting various web pages by recording the URLs and then pairing this data with users&#39; demographic data. The method according to the present invention is a voluntary and protects an individual&#39;s privacy. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a first embodiment of the system according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is printout of a typical prompt screen used to inform plug-in software according to the present invention, which user is using the system of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the system in  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of a user&#39;s personal computer for use in the present invention; 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram showing use of plug-in software according to the present invention to retrieve data of a user&#39;s visits to web pages using the system according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram showing use of plug-in software according to the present invention to upload and store data to a data processing computer. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention is directed to a system for gathering data as to which web pages an individual visits, the date of each visit, and the duration of time of each visit, while protecting the individual&#39;s privacy. The data is collected over time, transmitted to a data processing computer and then combined with a user&#39;s demographic data. This combined data can then be collated based on each user&#39;s demographic profile and saved to the data processing computer. The collated data may then be sold, for example, to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or advertisers as a means to determine the effectiveness of their web pages and any advertising displayed in the web pages. Above all, the method according to the present invention is secure and voluntary. Preferably, a group of individuals would be statistically selected based on demographics to participate in data collection. 
     FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of the system according to the present invention. Plug-in software  10  is a software module that can be installed into a web browser  14  on a user&#39;s personal computer  12  to add additional functional features. Plug-in software  10  monitors and records URL&#39;s as a user accesses web pages. Plug-in software  10  is designed to run on a web browsers and platforms, such as Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer®, UNIX® or LINUX. Plug-in software  10  also records the date of each web page visit, the duration of each visit, and some key words typical of the subject matter of each web page visited. This information is then paired with the user&#39;s identification information using a user&#39;s user identification codes (UIC) to ensure privacy. When a user starts a web browser program  14  to access the Internet, the user is prompted to inform the URL monitoring plug-in software  10  under which user (such as “Mom,” “Dad,” or “Junior”) is using the system. An example of the prompt screen is shown below in FIG.  2 . 
   Plug-in software  10  captures a web page URL by monitoring the transport control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack  16  on user&#39;s computer  12 . TCP/IP stack  16  sends and receives data over the Internet  31 . When a user logs onto the Internet using web browser  14 , plug-in software  10  monitors the TCP/IP stack  16  to extract web page URL&#39;s. Plug-in software  10  records URL address data by monitoring TCP/IP stack  16  for address related packets, and then processing the address related packets as follows. As packets are received from the top of TCP/IP stack  16 , a copy of the packet is forwarded to plug-in software  10 . The original packet is sent to its proper destination without any interruption or alteration. As most operating systems provide for multiple concurrent processing or multitasking, plug-in software  10  does not add any serial processing delays. Plug-in software  10  does not interfere with the browser&#39;s functionality. 
   Alternatively, software running in the background could also perform the same functions as plug-in software  10 , thereby further decoupling the web browser from the function. Under this alternative, if plug-in software  10  is not used as an add-in module to user&#39;s web browser  14 , an alternative would be to create a background task stored on user&#39;s personal computer  12  to carry out the same functions as plug-in software  10 . A task running in the background allows the system to function as normal, but the background task would be triggered by the event of receiving a packet from TCP/IP stack  16 . The packet would be forwarded to the background task after web browser  14  has processed it. The background task would then performs all the functions of plug-in software  10 . 
   Another alternative to monitor and gather URL data is for the background task or plug-in software  10  to periodically monitor the cache of web browser  14 . The cache stores images of web pages and web page addresses that a user has visited. This allows the web page to be quickly redisplayed by reading the web page from the user&#39;s local disk and not from the Internet. The background task of plug-in software  10  would then scan the cache area for new URLs and perform the functions of plug-in software as described above. 
   Two relational databases in user&#39;s personal computer  12  are used to record a user&#39;s data during each Internet session. The first relational database is a user identification database  18  which contains, for example, each user&#39;s user identification code and logon name, as described in Table 1. 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
               TABLE 1 
             
             
                 
                 
             
             
                 
               Field Name 
               Description 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
               UIC 
               User Identification Code, a 10 digit unique 
             
             
                 
                 
               alpha-numeric character 
             
             
                 
               Logon Name 
               Text displayed to allow the user to identify 
             
             
                 
                 
               themselves on the “Who You Are?” screen, 
             
             
                 
                 
               preferably not a real name. 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   A user&#39;s UIC is unique to each user and is, for example, a ten digit alphanumeric identifier. A user&#39;s logon name is any text a user chooses as an on-line moniker (screen name). Preferably, the logon name is not the user&#39;s real name. 
   User identification database  18  is protected via standard password encryption such as encryption methods available as part of any web browser, or more sophisticated encryption methods such as Pretty Good™ Privacy, Data Encryption Standard (DES); or Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman (RSA) encryption. It is contemplated that an individual&#39;s personal information in the user identification database  18  will not be transmitted to web page providers or Internet service providers. Only the UIC would be transmitted along with the URLs stored. The UIC offers complete privacy by not associating any personal or private information in the data transferred. Preferably, user identification database  18  is stored in personal computer  12  in a compressed, encrypted form. 
   The second relational database is URL log-UIC database  20  which holds records of which web pages a user has visited, the date of each visit, and the duration of each visit, matched with the user&#39;s user identification code. URL log-UIC database  20  typically includes the following fields. 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 2 
             
             
                 
             
             
               Field Name 
               Description 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               UIC 
               User Identification Code, a 10 digit unique 
             
             
                 
               alpha-numeric character 
             
             
               URL 
               numeric (e.g., 134.5.56) address of web site 
             
             
               Date 
               mm/dd/yyyy, Y2K complaint date 
             
             
               Time Start 
               24 hour time when the user started to access a 
             
             
                 
               web site 
             
             
               Time End 
               24 hour time when the user left the web site 
             
             
               Site Classification 
               Based on a scan for key words, each web site 
             
             
                 
               will be classified as sports, entertainment, 
             
             
                 
               news, etc. 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   URL log-UIC database  20  has a key which ensures that only one occurrence of each web page for a given time and data has been stored. In this way, the URL log-UIC database  20  can index data stored therein. The key includes the UIC, URL, Date and Time Start fields. Once a URL is added to URL log-UIC database  20  for a specific time and date, the same URL would not be entered again if a user returns to the main web page after selecting other options on the page. Also, by parsing the web page address, it is possible to select only the main web page URL to be saved. One way of accomplishing this is to search for the delimiter ‘/’. Plug-in software  10  may also be configured to allow sub-pages of web sites to be saved. 
   Key fields in Tables 1 and 2 are used to retrieve and relate information in each of the databases and with other databases. For example, the user identification code is a key field in Tables 1 and 2 used to relate a particular user of the system with the data for the particular user in URL log-UIC database  20 , and to retrieve unique records stored in URL Log-UIC database  20 . URL log-UIC database  20  is protected by standard password encryption as discussed above. Data in URL log-UIC database  20  is not automatically transmitted from personal computer  12  unless the user chooses to do so. 
   At regular time intervals, for example once a month, a user will be prompted by plug-in software  10  to voluntarily access a web page at a data processing center  22  web site to upload the contents of URL log-UIC database  20  to the data processing center. Data in this database is transmitted utilizing robust encryption methods such as Pretty Good™ Privacy (PGP); Data Encryption Standard (DES); or Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman (RSA) encryption. For example, if PGP is used, the user&#39;s computer encrypts contents of the UIC database  20 , enters the public key of the data processing center  22  and then transmits the encoded data to data processing center  22 . At center  22 , the private key is then used to decode the data. Data processing center  22  receives data from URL log-UIC database  20  and retrieves the user&#39;s full demographic data based on the user&#39;s UIC, from global user demographic database  24 . Global user demographic database  24  holds demographic data for all users of the system and is stored in data processing center  22 . Table 3 shows typical demographic data in global user demographic database  24 . Users&#39; demographic data is supplied off-line to data processing center  22  for input to global user demographic database  24 , for example, during a registration process over the telephone or by conventional mail. One or both of the UIC and logon name in the URL LOG-UIC database  20  are then used to match the information in that database with a users demographic data in global user demographic database  24 . 
   
     
       
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 3 
             
             
                 
             
             
               Field Name 
               Description 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               UIC 
               User Identification Code, a 10 digit unique 
             
             
                 
               alpha-numeric character 
             
             
               Logon Name 
               Text displayed to allow the user to identify 
             
             
                 
               themselves on the “Who You Are?” screen, 
             
             
                 
               not a real name. 
             
             
               Age 
               xxx 
             
             
               Sex 
               M/F 
             
             
               Ethnic Background 
               e.g., Caucasian, African American, etc. 
             
             
               Physical Disabilities 
               e.g., blind, hearing 
             
             
               State 
               FF 
             
             
               Country 
               NN 
             
             
               Zip Code +4 
               Identifies town 
             
             
               Town Name 
               Toledo, Ohio; Scranton, PA 
             
             
               PC Type 
               Manufacturer, mode codes 
             
             
               ISP 
               Internet Service Provider 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Data processing center  22  then collates the received data and saves it in global URL-demographic database  26 . Global URL-demographic database  26  receives and holds all users&#39; data for web pages visited, date of each visit, and duration of each visit for all users, combined with all users&#39; demographic data from global user demographic database  24 . Global URL-demographic database  26  receives data from other users throughout the world, and then organizes the data according to users&#39; demographic profiles. Data typically is transmitted from the personal computer  12  to data processing center  22  using modems  28   a  and  28   b  or similar communications hardware, through one or more Internet Service Providers  30   a  and  30   b , over the Internet  31 . 
   Data sets in global URL-demographic database  26  could be sold to owners of web pages, Internet Service Providers, and advertisers. Users voluntarily subscribe to this service and are compensated by the company owning Data Processing Center  22  with cash, in kind services, or through discounts such as reduced rate internet access. The system according to the present invention allows only one way communication flow from the end user&#39;s personal computer  12  to data processing center  22 , and requires no user intervention or modification of existing web sites. The main goal is to provide a means to gauge the effectiveness of a web page by measuring who is accessing a particular site, and for how long. The users receive no feedback from using the mechanism. 
     FIG. 3  is a high-level block diagram describing the system shown in  FIG. 1. A  user&#39;s computer or workstation  12  includes user Internet access terminal  32  (e.g., a personal computer, workstation, etc.) and user Internet access hardware  34  (e.g., modem or intranet card). User Internet access hardware  34  is connected to Internet service provider (ISP)  30   a  via communications hardware such as modem  28   a . The user accesses various web pages such as web page A (identified by reference numeral  36 ) having corresponding URL number xx.xxx.xxx or web page B (identified by reference numeral  38 ) having corresponding URL number yy.yyy.yyy. After installing plug-in software  10 , the user is prompted to inform the system which user profile held in user identification database  18  to use for the upcoming Internet session. 
   The user then starts web browser  14  (see  FIG. 1 ) in access terminal  32  to access and view web pages 36 and 38. Web browser  14  interacts with plug-in software  10  allowing plug-in software  10  to monitor and collect URL addresses visited, date of visits, and duration of time each web page is visited, and saves this information under the user&#39;s user identification code (UIC) in URL-log UIC database  20 . As explained more fully below with respect to  FIG. 5 , plug in software  10  also collects and saves key words which describe the nature of each web site visited. URLS, date of visit, and duration of visit data is collected as plug-in software  10  in user&#39;s personal computer  12  monitors the transport control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack  16 , preferably using function calls of toolkit software. TCP/IP stack  16  preferably is located between the operating system  60  and web browser  14 . The toolkit software is a third party product that allows developers to create plug-in modules such as plug-in software  10 . The toolkit would create an executable module, linking in various libraries for functionality. The libraries are collections of distributable object code. The toolkit typically will not reside on end user&#39;s personal computer  12 . Rather, it will reside remote from user&#39;s personal computer  12 . 
   Data collected by plug-in software  10  is then stored in URL log-UIC database  20  on a local drive in user&#39;s computer  12 , protected by standard encryption in a compressed form. URL-UIC database  20  has built-in password protection, which encrypts the data and requires a password to view or modify the records in that database. For example, URL-UIC database  20  is encrypted in a ZIP format (Nico Mak Computing, Inc.). In addition, there are easily accessible software libraries which may be added to plug-in software  10  to incorporate compression technology into the present invention. Saving the collected data in an encrypted, compressed form ensures a user&#39;s privacy, anonymity and low disk space storage requirements. Data in URL log-UIC database  20  is then voluntarily uploaded by the user over Internet  31  to a data processing center  22  using data processing center Internet access hardware  40 . The data is then manipulated and collated using access terminal  42 , as described above with respect to FIG.  1 . For example, data transferred from the user is matched and added to data from other users with similar demographic backgrounds. The demographic data may also be analyzed to identify profiles for individuals visiting specific URL sites. Data may also be archived to be used for future analysis. 
     FIG. 4  is a block diagram of the components of a user&#39;s personal computer  12  used to access and interact with the Internet. Personal computer  12  includes video monitor  44 , video driver  46 , random access memory (RAM)  48 , read only memory (ROM)  50 , clock  52 , central processing unit (CPU)  54 , and data storage device  56  holding user configuration data  58 , user identification database  18 , and URL log-UIC database  20 . Personal computer  12  also includes operating system  60 , Internet access browser  14 , and plug-in software  10 . Plug-in software  10  interacts with browser  14  and stores data to data storage device  58 , which as described above, includes user identification database  18  and URL LOG-UIC database  20 . Personal computer  12  accesses the Internet through communications port  62  and modem  28   a . A user interfaces with personal computer  12  using a pointing device  64  (such as a mouse), and input device  66  (such as a keyboard). 
     FIG. 5  is a flow chart diagram which shows the operation of plug-in software  10 . At step  68 , a user logs onto the Internet using his/her browser  14 . At step  70 , plug-in software  10  prompts the user for user identification which includes the user&#39;s moniker (such as “Mom,” “Dad,” or “Junior”) and is linked to the user&#39;s user identification code. Each user is assigned, for example, a unique  10  digit alphanumeric code which is linked to their user moniker. A typical identification page is shown in FIG.  2  and allows the user to identify him/herself to the system prior to the start of each Internet session. At step  72 , the user accesses a web page. For example, if the user accesses Lucent&#39;s Mount Olive Product Realization Center through web page URL address www.mtt.lucent.com, plug-in software  10  retrieves corresponding URL numerical value 135.5.146.6. 
   At step  74 , plug-in software  10  monitors the TCP/IP stack  16  and retrieves data regarding each URL visited, the date of each visit, and the start time and end time of each visit. Plug in software  10  scans the data file for the web page to identify several key words from the text of the web page. Insignificant words such as “the,” “and,” and “or” are ignored and more significant words that occur more than a threshold number of times on the page are extracted as the key words. These key words are then related to one another to generally classify the content of the web page. For example, words ending in “ball” may indicate a sports web page; multiple uses of “Hollywood” may indicate an entertainment web page, the term “Reuters” may indicate a business news related web page. In this way, a high level subject matter classification of a site is obtained. One way of accomplishing this classification is to distribute a list of words and classifications in a database on user&#39;s personal computer  12 . The database is then scanned as an HTML page is opened, and if any words match, a classification is generated. Plug-in software  10  then saves this data, along with the URL, date of visit and duration of visit data in URL LOG-UIC database  20  under the user&#39;s User Identification Code (UIC). The site classification, which may be a single word or abbreviation, would be added to the URL log-UIC database  20 . In step  78 , if the user accesses a new web page, steps  74  and  76  are repeated. If the user does not access a new web page in step  78 , the system exits the user from the Internet in step  80 . 
     FIG. 6  is a block diagram showing the uploading of data in URL log-UIC database  20  collected in  FIG. 5  to data processing center  22 . A user voluntarily uploads data in URL log-UIC database  20  by performing the following steps. In step  82 , a user logs onto the Internet using browser  14 . In step  84 , plug-in software  10  prompts the user for the user&#39;s user identification code (UIC) or user name. If a predetermined time period (for example, 30 days) has passed since the user last uploaded data to data processing center  22 , plug-in software  10  in step  88  continues the uploading sequence. In step  88 , plug-in software  10  directs the user to a controlled web site hosted by data processing center  22 . If the predetermined time period has not elapsed, step  86  discontinues the upload sequence and directs the user in step  90  to continue normal operation of the steps in  FIG. 5  until such predetermined time has passed. Assuming the predetermined time has passed, in step  92 , plug-in software  10  switches web browser  14  into a secure transfer mode. Secure transfer mode typically is indicated by a closed lock symbol at the bottom of a video monitor  44  and allows a user to upload data from personal computer  12  to data processing center  22  using encryption security. Examples of such encryption security include PGP, RSA, and DES. In step  94 , plug-in software  10  uploads data from URL log-UIC database  20  to data processing center  22  for further processing as described above with respect to  FIGS. 1 and 3 . After uploading data from personal computer  12  to data processing center  22 , plug-in software  10  in step  96  switches web browser  14  out of secure mode and normal operation of the system described shown in  FIG. 5  continues. 
   As described above, all communication between the user and Data Processing Center  22  is in only one direction, that is, data travels only from the user to Data Processing Center  22 . Data Processing Center  22  never prompts an end user to upload any information and never receives any data unless the user voluntarily uploads the data. The rewards may then be distributed via paper gift certificates, electronic gift certificates, credit cards or allowing the user to select a gift from a rewards Web page. 
   Data collected in the methods of the present invention can be used by companies to judge the effectiveness of web pages, and to justify rates for advertising and/or to refine web page content. Also, the present invention does not require any special modifications to existing or future web pages. The method according to the present invention is transparent to the user except for the modem being tied up. For example, users could leave a modem on overnight and have data sent during off-hours. 
   The method according to the present invention has several safety aspects. For example, (1) a user does not have to enter and transmit demographic data over the Internet, (2) the method encrypts confidential information, and (3) the method is voluntary and provides for data collection at a user&#39;s personal computer and then voluntarily uploading the data at a later date to a data processing center. 
   The preceding description merely illustrates the principles of the invention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of the invention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, all examples and conditional language recited herein are principally intended expressly to be only for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventors to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure. 
   As such, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications and additions may be made in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims and without departing from the present invention.