JP2002244961A - Method of acquiring access route information, tracking server program, and computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for collecting the information on an access route to a jumped site without installing a special program in a client. SOLUTION: A tracking server is installed in a network, and a link L which is passed through the tracking server, jumped to contents T, and jumped from contents S is installed. When a user terminal gains an access to the tracking server by tracing from the contents S to the link L, the user terminal receives data D for specifying the contents S from the tracking server, and jumps to the contents T. The user terminal calls the tracking server according to an instruction C pre-buried in the contents T, and transmits the data D to the tracking server in response to the request from the tracking server. The tracking server specifies the contents S based on the data D.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for displaying a web page (or web site) when a plurality of web pages (or web sites) are set as jump sources and one web page (or web site) is provided as a jump destination. The present invention relates to a method, a program, and a server device for tracing a route followed when a user visits a jump destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various web pages are published on the Internet, and web pages are generally linked to other web pages. By following the link, a viewer of the web page can jump from one web page to another web page.

[0003] Particularly, in a commercial site, a link is often provided as a banner or an anchor on a web page of another site in order to attract viewers. For these commercial site operators, some of the banners and anchors (jump sources)
Is the number of viewers who have visited through the process, i.e., the number of viewers per jump source. Also, how much time is required to transition from the jump source to the commercial site that is the jump destination, that is, the transition time for each jump source is of concern.

[0004] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-120037 discloses an example of a conventional technique that meets the demands of such a site operator.
In the site access log analysis system described in this publication, access logs are sequentially stored in each client computer used by a viewer, and the stored access log information is transferred to the server in response to a request from the server. . In this system, it is necessary to previously install a program for executing access log information collection on each client from which access log information is to be collected, and it is necessary to ask an administrator of each client for permission of installation. Further, the client capable of totalizing the access log information by the server is limited to the client in which this program is installed in advance.

[0005]

As described above, the prior art has the following problems.

First, prior to counting access logs,
There is a problem that an access log collection program needs to be installed in advance in a client whose access log is to be totaled. This is the traditional system
This is because the client was executing the process of collecting the access log.

[0007] Second, there is a problem that accesses by a client who does not have the access log collection program installed are not counted. This is because a client that has not been installed does not execute access log collection processing. Also, the process of transmitting the access log in response to a request from the server is not performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and the problems to be solved by the present invention are as follows.

A first object is to provide a means for collecting information on an access route to a jump destination site without installing a special program in a client.

[0010] A second object is to provide means for collecting information on an access route without limiting a site or web page existing on a specific server as a jump destination.

A third object is to provide a means for totalizing information of viewers for each jump source when there are a plurality of jump sites and banners.

A fourth object of the present invention is to provide means for collecting materials for determining how much each of a plurality of jump sources contributes to the number of viewers.

A fifth object is to provide a means for measuring the time required for transition from a jump source to a jump destination.

[0014]

In order to solve these problems, the present invention provides the following method, program, and computer.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for acquiring information relating to a route when a terminal accesses content T on a network, the method comprising: installing a tracking server on the network;
Step 1 of providing a link L with the content T as a jump destination and jumping with the content S, Step 2 of a user terminal accessing the tracking server by following the link L from the content S, and And jumping to the content T at the same time as receiving the data D specifying the information T, calling the tracking server in accordance with the command C pre-embedded in the content T, and calling the tracking server in response to a request from the tracking server. Includes a step 5 of transmitting data D to the tracking server and a step 6 of specifying the content S based on the data D by the tracking server.

Since the tracking server takes the initiative in transmitting the data D, there is no need to install a special program on the user terminal. Also, this method does not depend on the server providing the contents S and T. Furthermore, since it is possible to specify the content S as a jump source when jumping to the content T, it is possible to count the number of viewers for each jump source.

In this method, the user terminal performs step 3
In step 4, the tracking server obtains the time t2 called by the user terminal in step 4 and receives the data D and time t1 from the user terminal in step 5. Alternatively, information on time may be obtained based on times t1 and t2. At this time, it is possible to acquire information on a time such as a transition time between contents.

For example, the content T is a website composed of a plurality of web pages. In this case, the instruction C is embedded in each of the web pages. This makes it clear how the viewer has navigated through the website.

Furthermore, if the tracking server obtains the time t2 every time the user terminal is called, the tracking server can obtain the stay time of the user terminal for each web page.

According to the present invention, there is provided a tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when a terminal accesses a content T on a network, wherein a link L having the content T as a jump destination and the content S as a jump source is relayed. A process of transmitting data D specifying the content S to the user terminal that has accessed the tracking server by following the link L, and a process of transmitting the data D in accordance with the command C embedded in the content T in advance. A tracking server program characterized by including a process of requesting a user terminal to transmit data D and a process of specifying a content S based on the data D.

According to the present invention, there is provided a tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when a terminal accesses content T on a network, wherein the tracking server program is called from a user terminal operating in accordance with a command C embedded in the content T in advance. Then, there is provided a tracking server program including a process of acquiring the time t2. In this program, a content T is a website composed of a plurality of web pages, and an instruction C is embedded in each of the web pages.
By acquiring the time t2 for each call of the user terminal, a process for obtaining the stay time of the user terminal for each web page may be included.

According to the present invention, there is provided a tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when a terminal accesses a content T on a network, wherein a link L having the content T as a jump destination and the content S as a jump source is provided. A process of generating data D specifying the content S and transmitting a time t1 at which the data D was generated and the data D to the user terminal accessing the tracking server by following the link L; A process for requesting the user terminal to transmit data D and time t1 according to the user terminal accessed in accordance with the command C embedded in advance in T, obtaining the time t2, and processing the content S based on the data D Is specified, and information on time is obtained based on times t1 and t2. Providing a tracking server program, which comprises a physical.

Further, the present invention provides a computer which operates according to the above-mentioned tracking server program.

[0024]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A visitor tracking system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be outlined with reference to FIG.

A site to track a visitor is referred to as a site T, and sites having links to the site T as a jump destination are referred to as sites S1 and S2. Sites S1 and S2
Is operated by web servers 2 and 3. The site T is operated by the web server 4.

The site S1 and the site T and the site S
The link between the two sites T has been changed to relay the tracking server 5.

When a user of the web page visits one of the sites S 1 and S 2 using the user terminal 1 and selects a link to the site T, the user terminal 1 accesses the tracking server 5 once. Tracking server 5
Sends a jump instruction to the site T to the user terminal 1 and transmits cookie information. The cookie information includes information for specifying the jump source selected by the user terminal 1 when performing this jump, and the time when the user terminal 1 selects the jump source.

On the other hand, if the above-described cookie information exists in the hypertext describing the web page of the site T to which the user jumps, a tag instructing the user terminal 1 to transmit the cookie information to the tracking server 5 together with the current time. It is included.

As described above, the tracking server 5 collects the cookie information from the user terminal 1. By analyzing the collected cookie information, the number of viewers who have visited the site T via predetermined sites (sites S1 and S2), and the site T after the user terminal 1 selects a link to the site T It is possible to collect the time required until the transition to.

Further, the description will be given together with the hardware constituting the visitor system 100. The visitor tracking system 100 includes a user terminal 1, a web server 2, 3, 4,
It comprises a tracking server 5 and a network 6.

The user terminal 1 is an information processing terminal such as a personal computer. Although only one is shown in FIG. 1, an unspecified number of user terminals 1 may exist. The user terminal 1 can access websites provided by the web servers 2, 3, and 4 and display information of each website on a screen. In addition, the user terminal 1 receives and saves the cookie information from the tracking server 5, and sends back the cookie information received from the tracking server 5 to the tracking server 5 according to an instruction from the web server 4.

The web servers 2 and 3 are executed by an information processing device such as a workstation server and operate sites S1 and S2, respectively.

The web server 4 is executed by an information processing device such as a workstation server. The web server 4 operates the site T.

The tracking server 5 is executed by an information processing device such as a workstation server. The tracking server 5 has a banner cgi51 and a tracking c
gi52 and a totaling result creation cgi53. When a banner, an anchor, or the like from the site S1 or S2 to the site T is selected, the banner cgi 51 is information necessary for specifying the selected banner or the like on the network 6 (hereinafter, referred to as site banner information). , And the time when the banner or the like is selected is transmitted to the user terminal 1 as cookie information, and at the same time, the user terminal 1 is jumped to the site T.
The tracking cgi 52 receives the cookie information from the user terminal 1, generates a tracking log based on the received cookie information, and outputs the log to the log file 54. The aggregation result creation cgi 53 is used (for example, used by the administrator of the site T).
The analysis result of the log file 54 is output according to an instruction from the user terminal.

The network 6 is a network represented by the Internet. Although not shown, site T
May be a jump destination, and there may be many sites on the network 6 from which the link jumps without passing through the tracking server 5.

Next, assuming that the tracking server 5 does not yet exist on the network 6, FIG. 2 shows the preparation necessary for installing a new tracking server 5 and tracking visitors to the site T. It will be described with reference to FIG.

Before installing the tracking server 5, the banner (anchor) information of the sites S1 and S2 is described so as to link directly to the home page of the site T.
This banner information or the like is changed to tag information for jumping to the home page of the site T via the tracking server 5 (step A1).

Further, all the web pages belonging to the site T are changed and the log collection tag information is added (step A).
2). The user terminal 1 receiving the log collection tag information,
For the tracking server 5, the tracking cgi5
2 is requested.

The operation of tracking the visitor by the visitor tracking system 100 after steps A1 and A2 is completed will be described with reference to FIG.

A web page viewer accesses the site S1 using the user terminal 1 (step B1), and clicks on a banner linked to the site T (step B).
2), the user terminal 1 accesses the tracking server 5 according to the tag information changed in step A1.

The banner cgi 51 of the tracking server 5
Acquires the site banner information for specifying which banner of the site S1 the banner clicked in step B2 and the current time are output to the user terminal 1 (step B3). Subsequently, the banner cgi51 instructs the user terminal 1 to jump to the web page of the site T linked before the clicked banner is changed in step A1 (step B4).

With the change in step A2, the log collection tag information is added to the page of site T. Therefore,
The user terminal 1 that has jumped to the site T receives the log collection tag information from the site T (steps B5 and B6).
Then, the tracking cgi 52 of the tracking server 5 is started (step B7). Since each web page of the site T includes a log collection tag, the tracking cgi 52 is activated each time the user moves to another page in the site T. This operation is performed by browsing software (web browser) on the user terminal 1, for example.

The tracking cgi 52 is the user terminal 1
Retrieves the site banner information that would have been received in step B3 (step B8). When the tracking cgi 52 is present, the tracking cgi 52 receives the site banner information from the user terminal 1 and, together with the information designating the web page of the site T that called the tracking cgi 52, and the time when the user terminal 1 receives the web page. The data is received from the user terminal 1 and output to the log file 54 (step B9).

If the tracking cgi 52 cannot search the site banner information in step B8, it means that the user terminal 1 has accessed the site T without passing through the tracking server 5. That is, the user terminal 1 is connected to the site S1
And that the user did not access the site T via the banner of S2. Examples of such a case include a case where the viewer directly inputs the URL of the site T into the web browser on the user terminal 1 and a case where the site T is a jump destination but the process of step A1 is not performed. It is conceivable that the viewer visits the site T following a link that is a jump source. In such a case, the tracking cgi 52 outputs to the log file 54 the unknown site and banner (step B1).
0).

Steps B1 to B10 are executed each time the banner or the like which has performed the processing of step A1 is clicked on the user terminal 1. In steps B6 to B10, the user terminal 1 passes through the banner or the like that has performed the processing in step A1.
It is executed every time the user terminal 1 accesses the site T, regardless of whether the user terminal 1 accesses the site T. As a result, log information is accumulated in the log file 54.

To refer to the contents of the stored log file 54, the tracking server 5 is used by using the user terminal 1.
And activates the tgi result creation cgi 53. The counting result creation cgi 53 analyzes the contents of the log file 54 and outputs the number of viewers by banner, the transition time from each banner to the site T, the relationship between the number of visitors by banner and the time, and the like.

Next, a specific example will be described. Suppose now that the viewer who visits the site T is to be tracked. The web pages that make up site T are page P
1, P2 and P3. In addition, banner B1 is displayed on site S1.
And a banner B2, and the site S2 has a banner B3 and a banner B4.

First, the banners B1, B2, B3 and B4 jump to the page P1 on the site T via the banner cgi51 (step A1). At this time,
Identification information for identifying which banner of which site the banner selected by the user terminal 1 is and a URL indicating a page to which the banner jumps are set in each banner. The identification information and the jump destination URL are the banner cgi5
1 is notified to the banner cgi51.

The banner cgi51 is set to banner.cgi, and the anchor information of the banner B1 (banner1) of the site S1 (site1) is as shown in the following equation 1.

[0050]

(Equation 1) Here, the URL of the site T is http: //www.xxx.yyy, and the URL of the tracking server is http: //www.tracki.
ng.co.jp.

In order for the tracking cgi 52 to be activated when a page on the site T is referred to, the page P
The log collection tag information is added to 1, P2, and P3 (step A2). At this time, in order to notify the tracking cgi 52 which page of the site T outputs the log, the page identification information is specified together with the log collection tag information. When the tracking cgi 52 is track.cgi,
The log collection tag information to be added to the page P1 (Page1) of the site T is as shown in the following Expression 2.

[0052]

(Equation 2)

Next, the operation when the viewer using the user terminal 1 jumps to the page P1 of the site T using the banner B1 of the site S1 as a jump source will be described.

When the banner B1 is selected, the banner cgi51 on the tracking server 5, that is, banner.cgi is executed. At this time, banner.cgi is the site specified in the argument
1. Output the identification information of banner1 and the time when banner.cgi is activated to the user terminal 1 as site banner information.
Further, banner.cgi instructs the user terminal 1 to jump to the page P1 of the site T, that is, http: //www.xxx.yyy/page1.html.

When the user terminal 1 refers to the page P1,
The user terminal 1 calls the tracking cgi 52 (track.cgi) according to the log collection tag embedded in the page P1. The tracking cgi 52 determines the presence or absence of the site banner information output to the user terminal 1 and, if output, outputs a site S1 (site) from which jumping is performed.
1) and the identification information of the banner B1 (banner1) and the creation time of the site banner information are referred to. If no site banner information has been output, only page information is output.
This output is counted as visits (reference route unknown) that do not pass through the banners B1 to B4 at the time of counting.

On the basis of the log file 54 output from the tracking cgi 52 in this way, a cgi 53 for creating a tally result.
Calculates the number of viewers for each page and reference route of the site T. FIG. 4 shows an example of the result of the aggregation. According to the tally result of FIG. 4, among the visitors who visited this page, 150 persons went through the banner B1 of the site S1, and
Two people have passed through 2. Banner B3 of site S2
220 passed through, and 2 passed through banner B4
They are two. By adding 55 browsing users whose reference route is unknown, 449 browsing people visited page 1 of the site T during the counting period. Site S1
Paying attention to the banner B1, it can be seen that, out of 150 people who clicked this banner and visited page 1, 17 people visited page 2 and 6 of these 17 people visited page 3.

Further, the counting result creation cgi 53 refers to the generation time of the site banner information and the output time to the log file, and calculates the stay time of each page. FIG. 5 shows an example of the result of the aggregation. In this example, 100 people (94% of all visitors to page P1) stay for less than 20 minutes before a visitor to page P1 moves to another page in site T, and 40 minutes or more to 40 minutes. Less than 5 people (Page P1
4% of all visitors), and 1 person (2% of all visitors of page P1) is 40 minutes or more and less than 60 minutes. Also,
Of 100 people who stayed on page P1 for less than 20 minutes,
90 people visit page P2 and 80 people go to page P3
Are visiting.

Although the present invention has been described based on the embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is understood that changes and improvements can be made within the ordinary knowledge of those skilled in the art. Of course.

[0059]

The effects of the present invention are as follows.

A first effect is that a visitor tracking log can be collected without installing a program on a user terminal. The reason is that the mechanism for collecting logs is all realized as a server-side function.

A second effect is that a visitor tracking log for pages existing on different sites or different servers can be collected. The reason is that even if the sites and pages are distributed on different servers, the log aggregation is performed on one tracking server.

A third effect is that it is possible to easily count the visitors by route, which site or banner has been used to access the page. The reason is that it has a function of outputting the route information of the site and the banner as a log when accessing the page.

A fourth effect is that when a page distributor sets a link to which banner on which site, the visitor can effectively grasp which page visits. The reason is that the access status to each page is collected for each site and each banner.

The fifth effect is that it is necessary to know how long a page visitor has visited each page and to analyze the page arrangement that effectively guides the visitor to the page intended by the page provider. What you can do. The reason is the site,
This is because the log is output including the time of each page visited after selecting the banner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram of a visitor tracking system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a preparation stage prior to obtaining access route information by a visitor tracking system 100;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining acquisition of access route information by a visitor tracking system 100;

FIG. 4 is an example of an output of a tgi result creation cgi53.

FIG. 5 is an example of an output of a tgi result creation cgi53.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 User terminal 2, 3, 4 Web server 5 Tracking server 6 Network 51 Banner cgi 52 Tracking cgi 53 Aggregate result creation cgi 54 Log file

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A method for acquiring information on a route when a terminal accesses a content T on a network, comprising: setting a tracking server on the network; Providing a link L having the content S as a jump source, accessing the tracking server by the user terminal following the link L from the content S, and providing the user terminal with data D specifying the content S from the tracking server. Receiving and jumping to the content T; step 3; the user terminal calling the tracking server in accordance with a command C pre-embedded in the content T; and 4) transmitting the data D to the tracking server in response to a request from the tracking server. Stage to send 5, the access path information acquisition method characterized by comprising the step 6 the tracking server to identify the content S based on data D. 2. The access route information acquiring method according to claim 1, wherein the user terminal acquires the time t1 at which the data D was generated together with the data D in step 3, and the tracking server is called by the user terminal in step 4. In step 5, the data D and the time t1 are received from the user terminal, and the time t1 and the time t2 are received.
An access route information obtaining method, wherein information on time is obtained based on the information. 3. The access route information acquiring method according to claim 2, wherein the content T is a website composed of a plurality of web pages, and the command C is embedded in each of the web pages. Route information acquisition method. 4. The access route information acquisition method according to claim 3, wherein the tracking server acquires the time t2 for each call of the user terminal, thereby obtaining the stay time of the user terminal for each web page. Characteristic access route information acquisition method. 5. A process for relaying a link L having a content T as a jump destination and a content S as a jump source in a tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when the terminal accesses the content T on the network. Transmitting the data D specifying the content S to the user terminal accessing the tracking server by following the link L; and transmitting the user terminal according to the user terminal accessed according to the instruction C embedded in the content T in advance. A program for requesting the transmission of data D to the server, and a process of specifying the content S based on the data D. 6. A tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when a terminal accesses a content T on a network, wherein the tracking server program is called from a user terminal that operates according to a command C embedded in the content T in advance. A tracking server program including a process of acquiring a time t2. 7. The tracking server program according to claim 6, wherein the content T is a website composed of a plurality of web pages, and the command C is embedded in each of the web pages, and a time is set every time the user terminal is called. A tracking server program characterized by including a process of obtaining a stay time of a user terminal for each web page by acquiring t2. 8. A process for relaying a link L having a content T as a jump destination and a content S as a jump source in a tracking server program for causing a computer to acquire information on a route when the terminal accesses the content T on the network. Processing for generating data D specifying the content S and transmitting the time t1 and data D at which the data D was generated to the user terminal accessing the tracking server by following the link L; In response to the user terminal accessed in accordance with the received instruction C, the terminal requests the user terminal to transmit data D and time t1, and transmits the data t and time t2.
And the content S is specified based on the data D, and the time t
A process of obtaining information on time based on 1 and t2. 9. A computer that operates according to the tracking server program according to claim 5.