Patent ID: 7634506

Claim:
A networked computing system for reporting software events occurring on a client computer to a collection service, the networked computing system comprising: a collection service communicatively coupled to a communications network and configured to receive software events from a client computer over the communications network; and a plurality of client computers, wherein each client computer is communicatively coupled to the communications network and further configured to: generate a random sampling value on the client computer for a corresponding software module, the random sampling value corresponding to a specific type of software event; receive a predetermined sampling range corresponding to the specific type of software event; store the generated random sampling value and the predetermined sampling range on the client computer in a persistent storage area; detect the occurrence of a plurality of software events corresponding to the software module, the plurality of software events being of the specific type; and upon the occurrence of each of the plurality of software events corresponding to the software module on the client computer: determine whether the random sampling value falls within the predetermined sampling range; and report the software event to the collection service over the communications network if the random sampling value falls within the predetermined sampling range.