KR20040082633A - Method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks on the internet search engine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and a device for detecting an invalid click on an Internet search engine are provided to detect the invalid click for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine server. CONSTITUTION: A log storing part(305) stores a log for at least two information from an IP(Internet Protocol) address of a searcher terminal, a network address including the search terminal, a keyword, web browser information, a click time, cookie file information, search items, and the URL(Uniform Resource Locator) information by responding to the click of a searcher for the search item included in the search result web page provided from the Internet search engine. An invalid click pattern storing part(306) stores an invalid click pattern associated with an information pair. An invalid click judging part(309) judges that the click of the user is the invalid click based on the log stored in the log storing part and the invalid click pattern stored in the invalid click pattern storing part.

Description

TECHNICAL AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING INVALID CLICKS ON THE INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE}

The present invention relates to an Internet search engine server, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks on a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine server. The present invention also relates to a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks that can detect various attempts to unduly increase the number of clicks on a search item and can immediately deal with such attempts.

As the Internet becomes widespread, the number of information sources such as web pages that can be accessed through the Internet is increasing exponentially. In addition, in order to find the information needed by the searcher among a myriad of information sources, the searchers access the Internet search engine servers such as Naver, Yahoo, and Lycos and make a search request. The Internet search service provider generates and provides a search result web page including search items including information associated with a search word input from the searcher. For example, a search result web page when a searcher connects to a Naver search engine server and inputs a search term "Digital Camera" is shown in FIG. 2. Each item included in the search results web page is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

However, since the number of search items associated with a single search word is numerous, it is a very important problem for Internet search service providers to display such a plurality of search items in order. Internet search service providers combine a number of criteria to determine the order of listing search items. One of the most commonly used criteria is the number of clicks on users' search items. For example, if a user clicks on a search item a lot, it is displayed relatively to the top of the search result web page. Even when the Internet search service provider determines a list order of search items by combining a plurality of parameters, when one of the parameters is the number of clicks of users, a search item having a large number of clicks is relatively displayed at the top of a search result web page. .

In addition, the more likely users are to click to visit, the higher the search result web page generated by the Internet search server, so that network information providers of the web server display the search items associated with them at the top of the search result web page. I want to be. Some of these network information providers may intentionally access an Internet search server and click several times on their web page in order to ensure that the search item for their web page is displayed at the top of the search results web page. have. In some cases, you might write a program to have the same effect as a search item on their web page being clicked on. However, since invalid clicks on such search items do not reflect the natural search results of the entire user, Internet search service providers need to detect such invalid clicks.

In the related art, a service may be provided to charge a network information provider associated with the search item according to how many search items are clicked on the search result web page. Overture, a US Internet search service provider, receives input from a network information provider to pay for each click, and then, when a search item associated with the network information provider is clicked on a search result web page, the network information provider is charged per click. Perform. In this case, if a searcher artificially makes a large number of clicks on a particular search item, the network information provider would be unreasonably expensive. Therefore, even in this case, it is necessary to detect invalid clicks which are not intended to be searched but merely increase the number of clicks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to improve the above-described prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks on search items included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine server. .

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks that can detect various attempts to unjustly increase the number of clicks on a search item, and can immediately deal with such attempts.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks, which are difficult to counterfeit or alter various identifiers provided for detecting invalid clicks.

1 is a diagram illustrating a network connection between an Internet search server and a client terminal including an invalid click detection apparatus according to the present invention.

2 illustrates an example of a search result web page generated by an Internet search engine server.

3 is a block diagram showing an invalid click detection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 illustrates an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6A and 6B are flowcharts illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 illustrates an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a sequence of a method of generating a session identifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

10 illustrates an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

12 is an internal block diagram of a general purpose computer system that may be employed to construct a search engine server and an invalid click detection apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

101: client terminal 102: cookie file

103: the Internet

104: search engine server and invalid click detection device

105: log file 301: invalid click detection device

304: parameter input unit 305: log storage unit

306: Invalid click pattern storage unit 307: Invalid click verification unit

308: Invalid click reporting unit 309: Invalid click determination unit

In order to achieve the above object and to solve the problems of the prior art, the present invention comprises the steps of generating a search result web page in response to a search request from a searcher, obtaining a page identifier corresponding to the generated web page, Receiving a click on a search item included in the search result web page from a searcher, obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item, and the page identifier and the site identifier are different within a predetermined time A method of detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine comprising determining that the click is invalid when it matches a page identifier and a site identifier associated with the click.

In a method of detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine according to an aspect of the present invention, generating a search result web page in response to a search request from a searcher, the session identifier included in a session cookie file stored in the searcher's terminal Obtaining a click from a searcher for a search item included in the search result web page, obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item, and the session identifier and the site identifier Determining that the click is invalid if it matches a session identifier and a site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

In a method of detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine according to an aspect of the present invention, receiving a click on a search item included in a search result web page from a searcher, obtaining a client IP address corresponding to the searcher's terminal; Obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item, and invalidating the click if the client IP address and the site identifier match a client IP address and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time period. And determining as.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for detecting invalid clicks in an internet search engine may include generating a search result web page in response to a search request from a searcher, obtaining a terminal identifier corresponding to the searcher's terminal, Generating a user cookie file including the terminal identifier and storing the user cookie file in a terminal of the searcher; receiving a click for a search item included in the search result web page from the searcher; corresponding to the clicked search item Obtaining a site identifier, and determining the click as invalid if the terminal identifier and the site identifier match a terminal identifier and a site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

According to another aspect of the present invention, when a searcher clicks a search item included in a search result web page provided by an internet search engine, the IP address of the searcher's terminal, the network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, the search Receiving at least one of a search term associated with a result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, a click time associated with the click, and cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, and URL information associated with the search item; An invalid click detection apparatus is provided which determines whether or not the click is invalid based on information.

According to another aspect of the present invention, (1) in response to a searcher's click on a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, the IP address of the searcher's terminal, and the searcher's terminal belongs to. At least two of a network address, a search term associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, a click time associated with the click, cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, and URL information associated with the search item. (2) an IP address of the searcher's terminal, a network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search word associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, the click and Associated click time, cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal and the search item An invalid click pattern storage for storing invalid click patterns associated with at least two pairs of associated URL information, and (3) based on the log stored in the log storage and the invalid click pattern stored in the invalid click pattern storage. An invalid click detection device including an invalid click determination unit for determining whether a click of the searcher is an invalid click is provided.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a click count counting means for counting the number of clicks of a searcher per search term for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, An average click count calculation means for calculating an average click count of the search items belonging to a category belonging to the predetermined period, and determining means for determining a case where the number of clicks per search item is greater than a predetermined difference than the average click count. An invalid click detection apparatus is provided.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a click count counting means for counting the number of clicks of a searcher per search item for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, the search result web An average number of clicks for calculating an average number of clicks during the predetermined period of a predetermined first number of search items located above the search item on a page and a predetermined second number of search items located below the search item Means and an invalid click detection apparatus is provided that includes a means for determining when the number of clicks per search item is greater than a predetermined difference than the average number of clicks.

Invalid clicks are difficult to accurately define, and their ranges should be determined differently according to each embodiment and application. However, invalid clicks can generally be described as clicks that are not intended to actually be searched, but merely to increase the number of clicks.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described an embodiment of the present invention;

1 is a diagram illustrating a network connection between an Internet search server and a client terminal including an invalid click detection apparatus according to the present invention.

A searcher or an invalid click attempter attempting an invalid click connects to the Internet search server 104 through a client terminal 101 connected to the Internet 103. The invalid click attempter attempts to increase the number of clicks by using a method such as clicking a number of times a search item to increase the number of clicks among the search result web pages provided by the Internet search server 104. For example, in FIG. 2, the search item 202 is a search item associated with http://www.invalidclick.com, and an invalid click attempter causes the search item 202 to appear at the top of the search results web page. Consider a case where item 202 is continuously clicked.

The cookie file 102 indicates that when the client terminal 101 accesses the search engine server 104 or another web site, the search engine server 104 or the other web site is configured to store the hard disk of the client terminal 101. This is a special text file saved to disk. In the HTTP protocol used to access a web site, each request for a web page is independent of all other requests. Therefore, the web server cannot have any information about which page has been previously sent to the client terminal 101 or which work has been previously performed together. Thus, a cookie file is provided to establish a relationship between each of these independently processed requests, which serve to allow the web server to store information about the user on the user's computer. The present invention also uses various cookie files to detect invalid clicks. This will be described later in detail.

The log file 105 is a file that stores various logs related to user clicks. In the present invention, various parameters are used to detect invalid clicks, and parameters associated with each click are stored in a log file, and then a predetermined rule and pattern is used to determine whether an input is an invalid click. 5, 7 and 10 show an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram illustrating an invalid click detection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Invalid click detection device 301 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a parameter input unit 304, log storage unit 305, invalid click pattern storage unit 306, invalid click verification unit 307, invalid click reporting unit 308, the invalid click determination unit 309 is included.

When a searcher clicks on a search item included in a search result web page provided by an internet search engine, various parameters 302 associated with the click are input to the parameter input unit 304. The parameters are basic information for determining invalid clicks, the IP address of the searcher's terminal, the network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search word associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, and the click. Click time associated with the cookie, cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, URL information associated with the search item, and the like.

When the searcher makes a search request to the Internet search engine server 104, a search request packet is transmitted from the client terminal 101 to the Internet search engine server 104. The search request packet has a packet structure according to the HTTP protocol, and is also included in an Internet Protocol (IP) packet. However, since the configuration of the Internet protocol packet includes a source IP address field, the Internet search engine server 104 extracts a source IP address from a search request packet requesting a click, thereby extracting a source IP address. Extract the IP address.

The first part of the source IP address is the address of the network to which the searcher's terminal belongs. The IP address is composed of 4 bytes, the first part of which is a network address for identifying the network to which the searcher's terminal belongs, and the other part is an address for identifying the searcher's terminal in the network. Therefore, a network address is extracted from the source IP address. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the first three bytes are regarded as a network address, and a network address is obtained from a source IP address. For example, if the source IP address is 123.45.67.89, then extract 123.45.67 as the network address.

The search term associated with the search result web page is a value entered by the searcher into the Internet search server 104.

The information about the searcher's web browser is information about the web browser installed in the searcher's client terminal 101 and used by the searcher to access the Internet search server 104. The information about the web browser includes a type of a web browser, a version of the web browser, a product ID of the web browser, and the like. In particular, since the product ID of the web browser is different even when a plurality of searchers have the same type and the same version of the web browser, the product ID is good information for identifying the searcher's terminal.

According to the HTTP protocol used for web access, some of the client's environment variables are included in the HTTP packet and passed to the web server. The program (search engine program) of the web server may receive the environment variable and use it for detecting invalid clicks.

These environment variables include the following information:

REMOTE_HOST: The domain name of the contact

REMOTE_ADDR: IP address of connecting client host

REMOTE_USER: The name of the person connecting (appears if the web server is configured for user authentication)

REMOTE_IDENT: User ID (appears when the web server is configured for user authentication)

HTTP_USER_AGENT: The registration information of the program being run by the accessor, usually the name of the browser.

HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE: Language used by the visitor

HTTP_REFERER: Document name that invoked the corresponding CGI program

REQUEST_METHOD: How to send data to the server (GET, POST)

QUERY_STRING: Variable where the transmitted data is stored when data is transmitted by GET method

CONTENT_LENGTH: Total number of bytes of data sent (in bytes) when data was sent by POST

CONTENT_TYPE: MIME type sent when POST data is sent

AUTH_TYPE: variable to check the user's permissions

SERVER_NAME: domain name of current server

SERVER_SOFTWARE: The name of the web server program currently installed on the server

SERVER_PROTOCOL: Name and version of the web protocol used by the current server

SERVER_PORT: The port number currently used by the server (typically 80 for HTTP)

PATH_INFO: information about the current path of the called CGI program

PATH_TRANSLATED: Information about the path of resources that require a web on the web server

SCRIPT_NAME: the name of the CGI program currently being called

HTTP_ACCEPT: the type of resources currently accepted by HTTP

The click time associated with the clicker's click uses the time the click input is received from the searcher. According to another embodiment of the present invention, another time associated with the click time of the searcher may be used. For example, you might use the time that the searcher actually entered a click on the client.

The cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal is obtained by the Internet search server 104 accessing the cookie file 102 stored in the client terminal 101. In the present invention, the cookie file 102 may be used for various purposes, which will be described in detail through other embodiments.

The URL information associated with the search item clicked by the searcher is stored in a search database (not shown) associated with the search engine server 104 and can be obtained by referring to the search database. The URL information may be a domain name of a web server or information including a domain name, a directory, and a file name. For example, if you look at "http://www.naver.com" and "http://www.naver.com/download" by domain name only, they are all the same as www.naver.com, but when you look at the entire URL, Will be different. In the present invention, for convenience of explanation, an embodiment of using a URL up to a domain name will be described. However, the present invention includes all domain names, directories, and file names. All of the examples considered as include. In addition, in the present invention, the URL information should be interpreted to include all the above embodiments by the present description.

In addition to the parameters described above, other parameters useful for the detection of invalid clicks may also be used for detection of invalid clicks within the scope of the inventive concept.

The various parameters 302 as described above are input to the parameter input unit 304, and the parameters are stored in the log storage unit 305 again. Examples of logs stored in log storage in accordance with the present invention are shown in FIGS. 5, 7 and 10. In the drawings, a log including only some parameters is shown for the convenience of each description. However, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a log including all or part of the parameters 302 is stored in the log storage unit 305.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the log storage unit 305 may include an IP address of the searcher's terminal, a network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search word associated with the search result web page, and information about the searcher's web browser. And a log about at least two of a click time associated with the click, cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, and URL information associated with the search item. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the log storage unit 305 may include an IP address of the searcher's terminal, a network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search word associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, And a log about at least one of a click time associated with the click and cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal and URL information associated with the search item.

The invalid click pattern storage unit 306 may include an IP address of the searcher's terminal, a network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search word associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, and a click time associated with the click. Store invalid click patterns or rules associated with a pair of at least two pieces of information of a cookie file stored in the searcher's terminal and URL information associated with the search item. For example, a rule or a pattern of "if a click input for 10 minutes matches both the IP address of the searcher's terminal and the URL information associated with the search item" is stored. The invalid click pattern storage unit 306 which stores a rule for determining invalid clicks as described above may be stored in the form of a file using a language determined by a predetermined rule, or the rule or the like described above. If the pattern corresponds to the pattern may be stored in the form of a program to determine the invalid click.

The invalid click determination unit 309 determines whether the searcher's click is an invalid click based on the log stored in the log storage unit 305 and the invalid click pattern stored in the invalid click pattern storage unit 306.

The invalid click reporting unit 308 reports to the administrator 303 of the Internet search engine a click based on a predetermined criterion among the clicks determined to be invalid by the invalid click determining unit 309. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the invalid click reporting unit 308 reports all the clicks determined to be invalid by the invalid click determining unit 309 to the administrator of the Internet search engine. In this case, the predetermined criterion is the invalid click reporting unit 308 is all of the clicks determined to be invalid by the invalid click determining unit 309. According to another embodiment of the present invention, for each rule or pattern stored in the invalid click pattern storage unit 306, the field corresponding to the rule or pattern is stored, including a field relating to whether to report to the administrator 303. do. In this case, when the rule corresponding to the manager 303 needs to be reported, the invalid click reporting unit 308 reports to the manager 303.

The invalid click verification unit 307 changes the click detected as the invalid click by the invalid click determination unit 309 to a valid click by the input of the manager 303. Since the invalid click verification unit 307 can change a click determined to be invalid by mistake, the invalid click can be more accurately determined.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In step 401, the Internet search server 104 receives a search request from the searcher. When the searcher connects to the Internet search server 104 and inputs a search word, the search word is transmitted to the Internet search server 104 in a search request packet.

In step 402, the Internet search server 104 generates a search result web page in response to the search request. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a search result web page including a plurality of search items is provided to the searcher in response to the searcher input of the searcher.

In step 403, a page identifier corresponding to the generated search result web page is obtained. A page identifier is generated whenever a search result web page is generated and is an identifier for identifying the search result web page. Therefore, when the same searcher requests a search by repeatedly inputting the same search word in the search window of the Internet search server 104, a new page identifier is assigned every time. Similarly, when a searcher clicks on a "reload" item in a web browser displaying a search result web page, a search request packet is delivered from the client terminal 101 to the Internet search server 104, thereby searching the Internet. Server 104 assigns a new page identifier for the search results web page. It may be considered that different page identifiers are assigned to search result web pages that look the same at first glance, but when a new search request is received from the client terminal 101, a new search result web page is generated at that time. A search results web page different from the results web page may also be provided.

In step 404, the Internet search server 104 receives a click from a searcher for a search item included in the search results web page. When a click is received, a hyperlink to the search item first accesses the Internet search server 104, and then the Internet search server 104 performs the following processing and then the web site corresponding to the search item. Allow client terminals to connect. For example, as a hyperlink of a search item corresponding to "http" // www.invalidclick.com/ "," http://www.naver.com/abc/*http://www.invalidclick.com/ ", The search server first connects to the search server" http://www.naver.com ", and the search server searches for the http: according to the URL behind the hyperlink. Allow the client terminal to access //www.invalidclick.com.

In step 405, the Internet search server 104 obtains a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item. The site identifier is an identifier for identifying a search item and is generated based on URL information corresponding to the search item. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the site identifier uses the URL information corresponding to the search item as it is. The URL information used as basic information for generating the site identifier may be a domain name of a web server or information including a domain name, a directory, and a file name. For example, if you look at "http://www.naver.com/download" and "http://www.naver.com" by domain name only, they are all the same as www.naver.com, but when you look at the URL as a whole Will be different. In the present invention, for convenience of explanation, an embodiment of using a URL up to a domain name will be described. However, the present invention includes all domain names, directories, and file names. All of the examples considered as include. In addition, in the present invention, the site identifier should be interpreted to include all of the above embodiments by the present description.

In step 406, the invalid click detection apparatus determines that the click is invalid when the page identifier and the site identifier match the page identifier and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

The present invention stores the page identifier 509 and the site identifier 510 in the log file 500 whenever a user clicks on a search item. Reference numerals 501 to 508 are the logs stored for each click input.

The invalid click attempter connects to the Internet search server 104 and makes a search request. Then, the Internet search server 104 generates a search result web page, and generates a page identifier corresponding to the search result web page, "nCe249sisn0". The invalid click attempter continues to click on a particular search item included in the search results web page. Even if a user clicks on a specific search item in the generated search result web page, the page identifier is not newly generated and the page identifier continues to have the same value.

Therefore, the log 501, the log 502, and the log 504 in which the page identifier and the site identifier coincide among the logs for the click input for a predetermined time are determined to be invalid clicks. According to an embodiment of the present invention, one of the matching logs is determined as a valid click, and the other is determined as an invalid click.

An invalid click attempter updates the search results web page by clicking "refresh" in his web browser. In this case, the page identifier is also newly assigned, and the log thereof is the log 505. Thereafter, the log 506 is a case where an invalid click attempter clicks on the same search item again.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, if an invalid click attempter clicks on the same search item after "reloading" (in the case of log 506), it is not detected as an invalid click. A method of detecting an invalid click even when "refresh" is performed in this way is described in the following embodiments with reference to FIG.

6A and 6B are flowcharts illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 601, the Internet search server 104 receives a search request from the searcher, and in step 602, the Internet search server 104 generates a search result web page in response to the search request.

In operation 603, the invalid click determination apparatus determines whether a session cookie file is stored in the client terminal 101 that has made a search request. Steps 603 to 611 are for explaining a process of obtaining a session identifier.

If the session cookie file is not stored in the client terminal 101, the invalid click determination apparatus generates a new session identifier at step 604. In operation 605, the session cookie file including the session identifier is stored in the client terminal 101. The session cookie file also stores the update time of the session identifier. In step 609, the update time is stored in the session cookie file.

If it is determined in step 603 that the session cookie file is stored in the client terminal 101, it is determined in step 606 whether the last update time of the session identifier included in the session cookie file is within a predetermined time. .

If the final update time of the session identifier included in the session cookie file is within a predetermined time as a result of the determination in step 606, the session identifier included in the session cookie file is extracted in step 607.

If it is determined in step 606 that the last update time of the session identifier included in the session cookie file is not within the predetermined time, step 608 generates a new session identifier. In step 610, the session identifier included in the session cookie file is updated with the newly generated session identifier. In step 611, the update time of the session identifier is stored in the session cookie file.

In step 612, the Internet search server 104 receives a click from a searcher for a search item included in the search results web page.

In step 613, the Internet search server 104 obtains a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item.

In step 614, the invalid click detection apparatus determines that the click is invalid when the session identifier and the site identifier match the session identifier and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment stores the click time 710, the session identifier update time 711, the session identifier 712, and the site identifier 713 in the log file 700 each time a user clicks on a search item. do. Reference numerals 701 to 708 are the logs stored for each click input.

The invalid click attempter connects to the Internet search server 104 to make a search request, and the Internet search server 104 generates a search result web page. The Internet search server 104 receives a click for a search item included in the search result web page.

The Internet search server 104 checks whether the session cookie file is stored in the client terminal 101. If the session cookie file is not stored, a new session identifier is generated, and a session cookie file including the update time and the session identifier is stored in the client terminal 101. In this embodiment, the session identifier "xigw9492" and the update time "10:50:14" are recorded. In addition, the log file 700 stores the click time, the update time, the session identifier, and the site identifier corresponding to the search item in the log 701. When the session cookie file is first generated, the click time and the session identifier update time are the same because the session cookie file is generated on click and the session identifier is generated at that time.

An invalid click attempter clicks on the same search item on the same search results page. The Internet search server 104 checks whether the session cookie file is stored in the client terminal 101. Since the session cookie file generated above is already stored in the client terminal 101, the Internet search server 104 accesses the session cookie file stored in the client terminal 101. The session cookie file stores a session identifier and a last update time of the session identifier. In this embodiment, session identifier "xigw9492" and update time "10:50:14" are stored in the session cookie file.

The Internet search server 104 determines whether the click time for the search item from the searcher is within a predetermined time from the last update time associated with the session identifier. In this embodiment, the click time of the second click is "10:50:18". When the predetermined time is 5 minutes, the click time "10:50:18" is within a predetermined time from the last update time "10:50:14". Therefore, in this case, the session identifier stored in the session cookie file is set as the current session identifier, and the session identifier of the session cookie file is not updated. Therefore, in this case, the log 702 is recorded.

The log 702 is determined to be an invalid click because the log 701 has the same session identifier and site identifier.

Log 704 relates to the case where an invalid click attempter made a "refresh" request. Even when an invalid click attempter makes a "refresh" request, the session cookie file stored in the client terminal 101 is similarly referred to, and the session identifier is not updated because the last update time stored in the session cookie file is within a certain time. Therefore, it is recorded like the log 704, and since the log 704 is the same as the log 701, it is judged as an invalid click. That is, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to detect a case in which an invalid click attempter clicks on the same search item after performing a "refresh" within a short time.

Log 705 relates to the case where a click on the same search item is received from a different searcher than log 701, log 702, and log 704. In this case, since a new session identifier is assigned, it is not judged as an invalid click.

Log 709 relates to the case where the same searcher as log 701 clicked on the same search item after quite a long time. In this case, since a click is received after a considerable time, it is not judged as an invalid click.

According to the present embodiment, when the same search item is clicked for a predetermined time after the session identifier is generated, it is determined as an invalid click.

Similarly, according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the invalid click may be determined as a case within a predetermined time from the last click time for the same search item as a criterion for invalid click determination.

When receiving a click from the searcher, it is determined whether the session cookie file is stored in the terminal. When the session cookie file is stored in the terminal, it is determined whether the click time for the search item from the searcher is within a predetermined time from the last click time associated with the session identifier.

If the click time for the search item is within a predetermined time from the last click time, the session identifier included in the session cookie file is obtained, and the last click time is updated with the click time for the search item.

If the click time for the search item is not within a predetermined time from the last click time, a new session identifier is generated to update the session identifier included in the session cookie file. The last click time is also updated to the click time for the search item.

For example, in FIG. 7, if there are a plurality of clicks on the same search item from the same client terminal, and it is determined that 5 seconds from the last click is valid, the click associated with the log 704 is the last click time before the " It is judged to be valid because the user clicks on "10:50:31" 13 seconds after 10:50:18 ". According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the time criterion is determined according to the purpose of detecting invalid clicks.

8 is a flowchart illustrating a sequence of a method of generating a session identifier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The session identifier must be uniquely assigned to distinguish it from other session identifiers, and at the same time, it must be difficult to forge or tamper with. If you assign it only, an invalid click attempter will either process the session identifier and store it in a session cookie, or prepare a program that clicks while continuously changing the session identifier through the program to increase the number of clicks unfairly. Because it can.

The source data 801 is basic data for generating the session identifier 805. The source data 801 may be a variety of data such as current time information, a search word, and a product ID of a searcher's web browser. Or a randomly selected number. This source data 801 is applied to a hashing function 802 to generate an encoded string 803. A checksum is then added to the encoded string 803 to generate a session identifier 805. By using the checksum, it prevents an invalid click attempter from forging a session identifier.

The method of generating a session identifier according to the present embodiment may also be applied to generate a page identifier, a site identifier, and a terminal identifier of the embodiment described above.

9 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 901, the Internet search server 104 receives a click from a searcher for a search item included in a search results web page. In step 902, the Internet search server 104 obtains a client IP address corresponding to the searcher's terminal 101. The IP address of the client may be extracted from the source IP address field of the received IP packet.

In step 903, the Internet search server 104 obtains a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item.

In step 904, the invalid click retrieval device determines that the click is invalid if the client IP address and the site identifier match the client IP address and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a log file according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment stores the click time 1010, the client IP address 1011, and the site identifier 1012 in the log file 1000 whenever a user clicks on a search item. Reference numerals 1001 to 1009 are the logs stored for each click input.

If the user of the same client terminal continues to click the same search item, the clicks are likely to be invalid clicks if the click is repeated within a certain time. However, after quite a long time, a user of the same client terminal often clicks on the same search item. That is, the user tends to visit a high-interest web site frequently. However, it is determined that this is an invalid click because it is difficult to see the visit continuously in a short time. For example, assuming that the time base is 5 minutes, logs 1002, logs 1004, and logs 1005 having the same client IP address and site identifier as logs 1001 are determined to be invalid clicks, and 20 minutes After a degree, the click associated with the clicked log 1009 is determined to be valid.

However, there are cautions when determining invalid clicks based on the client IP address. This is because when the client terminal uses a proxy server or an IP router, there is a risk that it is determined to be an invalid click even though the client terminal is actually clicked on the same search item from another client terminal. Therefore, the present embodiment is preferably configured in combination with the embodiment using other parameters such as a session identifier.

Conversely, although the client IP addresses of the client terminals making click requests for the same search item are different, the network addresses may be the same. For example, a group of people gather in one place to continue trying to make an invalid click, or use a program to request a click while changing the source IP address. In this case, the network address of the client terminal that made the click request for the same search item is the same, and other conditions are satisfied (for example, the condition that the number of clicks is excessively larger than the average number of clicks in the directory to which the search item belongs). Can be determined to be invalid.

11 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a method for detecting invalid clicks according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 1101, the Internet search server 104 receives a search request from a searcher, and in step 1102 generates a search result web page.

In step 1103, the Internet search server 104 determines whether a user cookie file including the terminal identifier is stored in the terminal.

As a result of the determination of step 1103, if the user cookie file including the terminal identifier is not stored in the terminal, the terminal identifier is generated in step 1104, and in step 1105, the Internet search server 104 generates the terminal identifier. A user cookie file including a terminal identifier is generated and stored in the searcher's terminal.

As a result of the determination of step 1103, if the user cookie file including the terminal identifier is stored in the terminal, the terminal identifier is extracted from the user cookie file in step 1106.

In step 1107, the Internet search server 104 receives a click from a searcher for a search item included in the search result web page, and in step 1108 obtains a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item. .

Finally, in step 1109, the invalid click determination apparatus determines that the click is invalid when the terminal identifier and the site identifier match the terminal identifier and the site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time.

According to the present embodiment, even when the client terminal uses a proxy server or an IP router, the client terminal can be distinguished by a terminal identifier. Therefore, even when different client terminals use a proxy server or an IP router, it is appropriate. To identify clicks from the different clients.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the number of clicks of a searcher per search item for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine belongs to a category to which the search item belongs. If it is too large, it is suspected of invalid clicks and is reported to the administrator.

The invalid click detection apparatus according to the present embodiment includes click count counting means for counting the number of clicks of a searcher per search term for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, and the search item An average click count calculating means for calculating an average click count for the predetermined period of search items belonging to the category to which the category belongs, and determining means for determining a case where the number of clicks per search item is larger than a predetermined difference than the average click count. do. If the number of clicks per search item is greater than a predetermined difference than the average number of clicks, the invalid click reporter 308 reports the result to the administrator.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the number of clicks of a searcher per search item for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine is determined. The first number of search items located above and the second predetermined number of search items located below the search item are compared with the average number of clicks during the predetermined period of time. For example, comparing the number of clicks for a particular search item with the number of clicks for the same time period for two search items located directly above the specific search item and two search items located directly below the specific search item. . If the comparison results in a number of clicks on the particular search item more than five times the number of clicks on other search items around it, for example, it is reported that the possibility of invalid clicks is high and the manager is reported.

Various methods for determining invalid clicks have been described above. The invalid click determination method may be used alone or in combination with other invalid click determination methods. For example, the invalid click pattern storage unit 306 may store a rule that invalidates a client IP address, a page identifier, and a site identifier corresponding to a search item within 5 minutes from the last click on the search item. .

In the present invention, the Internet search server and the illegal click identification device are confused and described as one device. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the Internet search server and the illegal click identification device are separately implemented according to their functions. Can be managed by different administrators.

Components shown and described as separate components in the present invention may be physically configured as one system or may be physically separate systems.

In addition, although various embodiments have been described in the present invention, a combination or exclusion of some of the technical ideas described in the plurality of embodiments within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is also common in the technical field to which the present invention belongs. It is apparent to those skilled in the art that they are within the technical scope of the invention.

Embodiments of the invention also include computer-readable media containing program instructions for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The medium or program instructions may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. The medium may be a transmission medium such as an optical or metal wire, a waveguide, or the like including a carrier wave for transmitting a signal specifying a program command, a data structure, or the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

12 is an internal block diagram of a general purpose computer system that may be employed to construct a search engine server and an invalid click detection apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

Computer system 1200 includes one or more processors 1201 coupled with a main memory including random access memory (RAM) 1202 and read only memory (ROM) 1203. The processor 1201 is also called a central processing unit (CPU). As is well known in the art, the ROM 1203 serves to transfer data and instructions to the CPU unidirectionally, and the RAM 1202 typically transfers data and instructions bidirectionally. Used to. RAM 1202 and ROM 1203 may include any suitable form of computer readable media. Mass storage 1204 is bidirectionally coupled to processor 1201 to provide additional data storage capability and may be any of the computer readable recording media described above. The mass storage device 1204 is used to store programs, data, and the like, and is a secondary memory device such as a hard disk which is generally slower than the main memory device. Certain mass storage devices such as CD ROM 1206 may be used. The processor 1201 may include one or more input / output interfaces, such as a video monitor, trackball, mouse, keyboard, microphone, touchscreen display, card reader, magnetic or paper tape reader, voice or handwriting reader, joystick, or other known computer input / output device. 1205. Finally, the processor 1201 may be connected to a wired or wireless communication network through the network interface 1207. Through this network connection, the procedure of the method described above can be performed. The apparatus and tools described above are well known to those skilled in the computer hardware and software arts.

The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention.

According to the present invention, a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks on a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine server are provided.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is provided a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks that can detect various attempts to unjustly increase the number of clicks on a search item, and can immediately deal with such attempts. That is, when an invalid click attempt of a new pattern is found, the pattern or rule is stored in the invalid click pattern storage unit according to the present invention, so that an invalid click attempt of the new pattern can be immediately dealt with.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method and apparatus for detecting invalid clicks, which are difficult to forge or alter various identifiers provided for detecting invalid clicks.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which can be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Modifications are possible. Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, and all equivalent or equivalent modifications thereof will belong to the scope of the present invention.

Claims (21)

Generating a search result web page in response to a search request from the searcher; Obtaining a page identifier corresponding to the generated web page; Receiving a click on a search item included in the search result web page from a searcher; Obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item; And Determining that the click is invalid if the page identifier and the site identifier match a page identifier and a site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time period Invalid click detection method in the Internet search engine comprising a. The method of claim 1, wherein the page identifier and the site identifier comprise a checksum. Generating a search result web page in response to a search request from the searcher; Obtaining a session identifier included in a session cookie file stored in the searcher's terminal; Receiving a click on a search item included in the search result web page from a searcher; Obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item; And Determining that the click is invalid if the session identifier and the site identifier match the session identifier and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time period Invalid click detection method in the Internet search engine comprising a. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining a session identifier included in a session cookie file stored in the searcher's terminal comprises: Determining whether the session cookie file is stored in the terminal; And If the session cookie file is not stored in the terminal, generating a new session identifier and storing a session cookie file including the generated session identifier in the terminal. Invalid click detection method in the Internet search engine comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein If the session cookie file is stored in the terminal, determining whether the last update time of the session identifier included in the session cookie file is within a predetermined time; And Acquiring a session identifier included in the session cookie file when the last update time is within the predetermined time; The method for detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine further comprising. The method of claim 5, If the last update time is not within the predetermined time, generating a new session identifier to update the session identifier included in the session cookie file; And Storing the update time of the session identifier in the session cookie file The method for detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine further comprising. The method of claim 4, wherein If the session cookie file is stored in the terminal, determining whether a click time for the search item from the searcher is within a predetermined time from a last click time associated with the session identifier; Obtaining a session identifier included in the session cookie file when the click time for the search item is within a predetermined time from the last click time; And Updating the last click time with a click time for the search term The method for detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine further comprising. The method of claim 7, wherein If a click time for the search item is not within a predetermined time from the last click time, generating a new session identifier to update the session identifier included in the session cookie file; And Updating the last click time with a click time for the search term The method for detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine further comprising. The method of claim 3, wherein the session identifier and the site identifier comprise a checksum. Receiving a click from a searcher for a search item included in a search results web page; Obtaining a client IP address corresponding to the searcher's terminal; Obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item; And Determining that the click is invalid if the client IP address and the site identifier match the client IP address and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time period. Invalid click detection method in the Internet search engine comprising a. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said site identifier is generated including a checksum. Generating a search result web page in response to a search request from the searcher; Obtaining a terminal identifier corresponding to the terminal of the searcher; Generating a user cookie file including the terminal identifier and storing the user cookie file in the searcher's terminal; Receiving a click on a search item included in the search result web page from a searcher; Obtaining a site identifier corresponding to the clicked search item; And Determining that the click is invalid if the terminal identifier and the site identifier match the terminal identifier and site identifier associated with another click within a predetermined time Invalid click detection method in the Internet search engine comprising a. The method of claim 12, Determining whether a user cookie file including the terminal identifier is stored in the terminal; And If the user cookie file including the terminal identifier is stored in the terminal, receiving the terminal identifier from the user cookie file The method for detecting invalid clicks in an Internet search engine further comprising. The invalid click detection method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the terminal identifier and the site identifier comprise a checksum. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 and 10 to 13. When a searcher clicks a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, the IP address of the searcher's terminal, the network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, the search word associated with the search result web page, the search Receiving at least one of information about a web browser of the child, a click time associated with the click, and cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, and URL information associated with the search item, and according to a predetermined criterion based on the received information. Invalid click detection device, characterized in that for determining whether the click is invalid. In response to a searcher's click on a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine, the IP address of the searcher's terminal, the network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, a search term associated with the search result web page, A log storage unit for storing a log about at least two of information about the searcher's web browser, a click time associated with the click, cookie file information stored in the searcher's terminal, and URL information associated with the search item; The IP address of the searcher's terminal, the network address to which the searcher's terminal belongs, the search word associated with the search result web page, information about the searcher's web browser, the click time associated with the click, the cookie file stored in the searcher's terminal An invalid click pattern storage unit for storing an invalid click pattern associated with at least two pairs of information and URL information associated with the search item; And An invalid click determination unit that determines whether a click of the searcher is an invalid click based on the log stored in the log storage unit and an invalid click pattern stored in the invalid click pattern storage unit. Invalid click detection apparatus comprising a. 18. The invalid click detection apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising an invalid click report unit for reporting a click of a click determined to be invalid according to a predetermined criterion to an administrator of the Internet search engine. 19. The invalid click detection apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising an invalid click verification unit that changes the invalid click into a valid click by an input of the administrator. Click number counting means for counting the number of clicks of the searcher per search item for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine; Average click count calculation means for calculating an average click count during the predetermined period of search items belonging to a category to which the search item belongs; And Determination means for determining when the number of clicks per search item is greater than a predetermined difference than the average number of clicks Invalid click detection apparatus comprising a. Click number counting means for counting the number of clicks of the searcher per search item for a predetermined period of time for a search item included in a search result web page provided by an Internet search engine; Calculating an average number of clicks during the predetermined period of the predetermined first number of search items located above the search item and the predetermined second number of search items located below the search item in the search result web page; Mean click count calculation means; And Determination means for determining when the number of clicks per search item is greater than a predetermined difference than the average number of clicks Invalid click detection apparatus comprising a.