Method and apparatus for attaching navigational history information to universal resource locator links on a world wide web page

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FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to on-line computer systems for delivering information and computer services to users coupled to such systems. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an automated system for capturing information representing the identity of an entity that has directed a user to an on-line system Still more particularly, the present invention is directed to a system for tracking user paths on the world wide web (WWW).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

On-line computer services such as, for example, on-line information retrieval services, on-line travel reservation services, or on-line stock trading services, receive new subscribers from various sources. New subscribers are typically directed to an on-line service by advertisements placed by the on-line service itself; through word-of-mouth referrals given by existing system subscribers, or by third party computer system marketers (referred to hereinafter as co-marketers) of the on-line service. Different co-marketers may typically use different media for promoting a particular on-line computer service. For example, a magazine acting as a co-marketer for an on-line service might use a magazine advertisement, which includes a free software disk for accessing the on-line service, to promote the on-line service. Alternatively, various directory services available on the WWW such as, for example, the Yaho.RTM. or Web Crawler.RTM. directory services, might use a listing on their directory pages and a link to a WWW page associated with an on-line service, to direct potential new subscribers to an on-line service. Thus, new subscribers can be directed to the same on-line service from different co-marketers and through different marketing channels. It would be desirable to be able to capture and track the co-marketing source which directed each new subscriber to an on-line service. In addition, it would be desirable to capture and track the co-marketing source which directed a new subscriber to an on-line service in a manner which required no participation or intervention from the new subscriber.

When a user navigates through various sites during a session on the WWW, the navigational history reflecting the past locations traversed by the user during the session is typically lost as the user moves from one site to the next site. Thus, unless the user were to manually track the various sites traversed during a world wide web session, it would be difficult for the user, or for any service monitoring the user, to know the identity of any previous world wide web site traversed by the user during a session. It would be desirable to have a system for attaching navigational history information to a user traversing the WWW so that a current web site could determine electronically at least the previous WWW site visited by the user.

Universal resource locators are often used to direct users through various pages at a site on the world wide web. There are two different techniques for specifying addresses using universal resource locators. In a first technique, known as fully specified addressing, the full string associated with a universal resource locator is specified each time a user moves from one web page to the next web page. In the second technique, known as relative addressing, only information representing the root directory or the current directory (or subdirectory) of the user is specified as a user moves from one web page to the next web page. One drawback of using relative universal resource locator addressing is that it is impossible to move "up a directory tree" using such addressing, without specifying the root directory. UNIX symbolic links may be used in specifying a particular root directory. However, when relative addressing is used, it is impossible to carry this UNIX symbolic link information forward as a user moves from page to page. It would be desirable if this limitation of relative universal resource locator addressing could be ameliorated, such that the UNIX symbolic link information could be retained during the relative addressing of web pages.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a unified system for capturing and tracking a co-marketing source which directed a new subscriber to an on-line service.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for capturing and tracking information identifying a co-marketing source which directed a new subscriber to an on-line service, which requires no participation or intervention from the new subscriber.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system for attaching navigational history information to a user traversing the world wide web so that a current web site could determine electronically at least the previous world wide web site visited by the user.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system which could be used in conjunction with relative universal resource locator addressing, which permitted a user in a particular directory at a web site to move up a directory tree.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the description of the invention which follows.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to an apparatus for capturing and storing a co-marketer identification symbol representing an identity of an entity that has referred a user on a user station to a computer service, wherein the user station is coupled to the computer service by a communications path. A database is provided for storing a plurality of user records. Each of the user records includes a user identification field for storing information uniquely associating each of the user records with a user, and a co-marketer identification field for storing identity information representing the identity of an entity that directed the user to the computer service. An enrollment means is coupled to the communications path and the database, and is provided for enrolling a user on the computer service. The enrollment means includes means for determining a co-marketer that directed the user to the computer service, and means for assigning a unique user identification number to the user. The enrollment means further includes means for storing a co-marketer identification symbol representative of a co-marketer and the unique user identification number of a user in the co-marketer identification and user identification fields, respectively, of one of the user records.

In accordance with a further aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for tracking the navigation path of a user that has been directed to a second site on the WWW from a first site on the WWW. The first site has a universal resource locator (URL) symbol for uniquely identifying an address of the first site on the WWW, and the second site has a URL symbol for uniquely identifying an address of the second site on the WWW. A composite URL symbol is received at the second WWW site when the user is directed from the first site to the second site. The composite URL symbol has a first portion corresponding to the URL symbol of the second site, and a second portion that includes information corresponding to the identity of the first site. The information representative of the identity of the first site is captured at the second WWW site from the second portion of the composite URL. The identity of the first WWW site is then determined at the second WWW site by comparing information from the second portion of the composite URL to a table having a plurality of entries each of which is representative of a known WWW site.

In accordance with a still further aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for redirecting a user from a first location on the WWW to a second location on the WWW, wherein relative URL addressing is used during the redirecting process. A signal is received from the first location indicating that the user wishes to move from the first location on the WWW to the second location on said WWW. In response to the signal, a current URL representing an address of the first location on the WWW and a destination URL portion representative of an address of the second location on the WWW are passed to a redirecting means. The current URL includes first and second portions. A destination URL is formed with redirecting means by substituting the destination URL portion in place of the second portion in the current URL, wherein the destination URL represents a relative address of the second location on the WWW. The user is then moved from the first location on the WWW to the second location on the WWW in accordance with the destination URL formed by the redirecting means.

In accordance with a still further aspect, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for tracking the navigation path of a user that has been directed to a second site on the WWW from a first site on the WWW. A URL is received at the second WWW site when the user is directed tom the first site to the second site. At the second WWW site, information representative of an identity of the first WWW site is captured by identifying a first code in the URL. A destination web page is determined for the user, and a revised destination web page is formed by inserting a second code representative of the identity of the first WWW site into at least one selected web page link associated with the destination web page. The revised destination web page is then transmitted to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and objects of the invention are obtained and can be appreciated, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to a specific embodiment thereof which is illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only a typical embodiment of the invention and are not therefore to be considered limiting of its scope, the invention and the presently understood best mode thereof will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system for enrolling new users on an on-line system and capturing co-marketing information associated with such new users, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a system for enrolling new users on an on-line system and capturing co-marketing information associated with such new users, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a look-up table for associating UNIX symbolic link information with co-marketers, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating preferred data structures for storing a Subscriber Information Directory Table, a Customer Information Directory Table, and first and second Co-Marketer Information Directory Tables, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the use of UNIX symbolic links and relative URL addressing for moving between locations on the WWW, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a system for attaching a code representing the navigational history of a user on the WWW onto selected URL page links on a destination web page of a user, in accordance with an alternative preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a system for generating recurring bounty payment records, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram of a system 100 for enrolling new users on an on-line system and capturing co-marketing information associated with such new users, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. System 100 includes a first type of user station 102. The user station 102 includes a personal computer (PC) 104 and user software 106 which resides on PC 104. User software 106 includes a graphical user interface (not shown) for facilitating communications between user station 102 and On-Line Service (OLS) 140. OLS 140 represents a computer service such as, for example, an information retrieval service, a travel reservation service, or a stock trading service, which is available on-line to a user of user station 102. User station 102 is coupled to a Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) 141 in OLS 140 by a communications channel 108. In alternate embodiments, a standard communications bus or a local area network may be substituted for FDDI 141. Communications channel 108 may consist of a communications link formed over a public network such as the Internet. Alternatively, communications channel 108 may consist of a communications link formed between PC 104 and FDDI 141 over a commercial network. Thus, commercial networks such as, for example, the Prodigy.RTM. network, the CompuServe.RTM. network, or the Microsoft.RTM. network, may be used to establish a communications channel 108 for linking PC 104 and FDDI 141. Although in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, element 140 is shown as being an on-line computer service, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that element 140 may alternatively represent any computer service, regardless of whether the service is available on-line.

As explained more fully below, user software 106 is preferably provided to a user of user station 102 by an on-line service co-marketer (CM) and loaded onto PC 104 prior to the time the user of user station 102 attempts to enroll on OLS 140. User software is preferably provided to the user of user station 102 from the CM via a floppy disk, CD-ROM disk, magnetic tape or through a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site on the Internet. User software 106 preferably includes an embedded co-marketer symbol or code which can be recognized by OLS 140 whenever the user of user station 102 connects to OLS 140. The co-marketer symbol embedded in the user software uniquely represents the identity of the co-marketer that provided user software 106 to the user of user station 102. An example of a co-marketer that might provide user software 106 to a user of user station 102 might include, for example, a magazine publisher that advertises OLS 140 in its magazine and includes a floppy disk with user software 106 together with the magazine advertisement.

System 100 also includes a second type of user station 102a. The user station 102a includes a PC 104a and user software 106a which resides on PC 104a. Like user software 106, user software 106a includes a graphical user interface (not shown) for facilitating communications between user station 102a and On-Line Service (OLS) 140. However, unlike user station 102, user station 102a is coupled to OLS 140 through the WWW 120. More particularly, user station 102a is coupled to an OLS web server 142 at OLS 140 through the WWW site 128 associated with OLS 140 on the WWW 120.

The navigation history of the user of user station 102a on WWW 120 is shown generally by dotted lines 124, 125 and solid line 126. As shown by dotted line 124, user station 102a was initially coupled to site 122a of a first co-marketer on WWW 120. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a page at site 122a includes an advertisement (not shown) for OLS 140. In addition, the advertisement at co-marketer site 122a is preferably such that a user of user station 102a may chose to connect to OLS site 128 simply by "clicking" on the advertisement at WWW site 122a. As explained more fully below in connection with FIG. 5, when the user of user station 102a clicks on the advertisement for OLS 140 at WWW site 122a, WWW site 122a forms a special destination URL having two parts. The first part of the destination URL is formed of the URL associated with OLS site 128 (e.g., WWW.OLS.COMM). The second part of the destination URL is formed of a destination filename (e.g., INDEX. HTML) and a UNIX symbolic link (e.g., .backslash.CM1) that is prepended to the beginning of the destination filename by the co-marketer (co-marketer #1) associated with WWW site 122a. The symbol or code used to form the UNIX symbolic link (e.g., .backslash.CM1) inserted by co-marketer #1 at site 122a is uniquely associated with co-marketer #1 in system 100. The complete destination URL is used to route the user (along dotted line 125) from WWW site 122a of co-marketer #1 to OLS WWW site 128. Upon reaching OLS site 128, the user station 102a is coupled to OLS WWW site 128 by solid line 126, and the complete destination URL formed at site 122a (including the UNIX symbolic link portion of such destination URL) is passed to OLS 140 through OLS web server 142.

In addition to the co-marketer represented by site 122a (co-marketer #1), users may be directed to OLS site 128 on WWW 120 through advertisements (not shown) on pages at the sites of other co-marketers represented on the WWW 120 such as, for example, through an advertisement at WWW site 122b (representing co-marketer #2), of an advertisement at WWW site 122c (representing co-marketer #3). Like the situation described above wherein a user of user station 102a clicks on the advertisement for OLS 140 at WWW site 122a, when the user of user station 102a clicks on the advertisement for OLS 140 at WWW site 122b or 122c, WWW site 122b forms a special destination URL having two parts. The first part of the destination URL is again formed of the URL associated with OLS site 128 (e.g., WWW.OLS.COMM), and the second part of the destination URL is again formed of a UNIX symbolic link that is prepended to a destination filename. However, if the user has clicked on an advertisement for OLS 140 at site 122b, the UNIX symbolic link (e.g., .backslash.CM2) inserted by the co-marketer (co-marketer #2) will be uniquely associated in system 100 with co-marketer #2 and site 122b. Similarly, if the user has clicked on an advertisement for OLS 140 at site 122c, the UNIX symbolic link (e.g.., .backslash.CM3) inserted by the co-marketer (co-marketer #3) will be uniquely associated in system 100 with co-marketer #3 and site 122c. A complete destination URL formed at either site 122b or 122c may be used as described above in connection with site 122a to route the user from site 122b or 122c to OLS WWW site 128. Although only three co-marketers are shown in FIG. 1 for directing users from the WWW sites of such co-marketers to OLS site 128, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that more than three co-marketing sites may be used in conjunction with the present invention for directing users to OLS site 128 on WWW 120.

In the preferred embodiment of system 100, OLS 140 will accept a user that has been routed to OLS site 128 by a co-marketer only if the co-marketer that has done the routing is an authorized co-marketer for OLS 140. In system 100, a co-marketer will be authorized to route users to site 128 only after the co-marketer has been assigned and has received a unique UNIX symbolic link associated with the co-marketer from OLS 140. First and second Co-Marketer Identification Tables are stored respectively on enrollment database 146 and accounting database 144 at OLS 140. As described more fully below in conjunction with FIG. 4, each Co-Marketer Identification Table includes a separate record for storing a co-marketer identification code associated with each co-marketer (e.g., co-marketer #1, co-marketer #2, co-marketer #3) that has been authorized by OLS 140 to route users to OLS site 128.

System 100 includes an enrollment server 145 for enrolling new users on OLS 140, and a billing server 143 for generating bounty payment records for issuing bounty payments to authorized co-marketers that have referred users of user stations 102, 102a to OLS 140. For purposes of the present application, the term "server", when used in conjunction with "enrollment" or "billing", is used to refer to a physical machine formed from at least one computer processor having associated memory and software installed thereon for executing the functions to be performed by the server. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the hardware platform used for implementing enrollment server 145 consists of a Tandem Model 4412 computer having 2 processors, 200 MB of memory, a 1 GB system disk, and a 4 GB RAID disk; a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a preferred software system 200 for implementing enrollment server 145 on this hardware platform is shown in FIG. 2 and discussed below. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the hardware platform used for implementing billing server 143 consists of a Tandem Model 4412 computer having 2 processors, 200 MB of memory, a 1 GB system disk, and a 4 GB RAID disk; a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a preferred software system 700 for implementing billing server 143 on this hardware platform is shown in FIG. 7 and discussed below. Although specific hardware is disclosed herein for implementing enrollment server 145 and billing server 143, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that other suitable hardware platforms may alternatively be used to implement servers 143, 145. However, the two hardware systems described above for implementing servers 143, 145 are preferred because these systems allow servers 143, 145 to be hardware-scalable. This "hardware sealability" allows OLS 140 to handle an increasing number of user stations 102, 102a simply by adding further processors to the existing hardware used for servers 143, 145, without modification of the software running on such hardware. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, enrollment server 145 and billing server 143 are implemented in software on separate machines which are physically distinct from the processor(s) used for implementing OLS session server 147. In alternative embodiments (not shown), enrollment server 145 and billing server 143 may be implemented in software together on a single server or as part of OLS session server 147.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a flow diagram illustrating the operation of a system 200 for enrolling new users associated with user stations 102, 102a onto OLS 140, and capturing co-marketing information associated with such new users, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In step 205, a user station 102 or 102a connects to OLS 140. In the case of a user station 102, the connection to OLS 140 is made by the user station via communications channel 108 directly to FDDI 141; in the case of a user station 102a, the connection is made via OLS site 128 to OLS web server 142. Next, in step 210, the enrollment means 145 determines whether the user which just connected to OLS 140 is a new subscriber to OLS 140. In a preferred embodiment, step 210 is performed either (i) by waiting for the user to issue an enrollment request (from page 514a described below) to OLS 140, or (ii) by prompting the user to enter a login name and comparing the login name entered by the user to a list of valid login names maintained in enrollment database 146. If the user is a new subscriber to OLS 140, processing proceeds to step 220, where the enrollment means 145 determines how the user connected to OLS 140. More particularly, if the user connected to OLS 140 through web server 142, the enrollment means 145 determines that the user is operating on a user station 102a which is connected to OLS 140 via WWW 120; otherwise, enrollment means 145 determines that the user is operating on a user station 102 which is connected to OLS 140 via communications channel 108.

If a determination is made in step 220 that the user is operating on a user station 102a that connected to OLS 140 through WWW 120, then processing proceeds to step 230 where enrollment means 145 determines a co-marketer identification symbol or code (CM ID) associated with the user station 102a. In this step, the complete destination URL which was passed to OLS web server 142 when the user was directed