HK1227204B - Method and apparatus to measure media - Google Patents

Description

Method and apparatus for measuring media

Related applications

This patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/920,048, filed December 23, 2013, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring media, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for measuring media using media object characteristics.

Background Art

Traditionally, audience measurement entities determine audience engagement levels for media programming based on registered panel members. That is, the audience measurement entity registers individuals who consent to being monitored into a panel. The audience measurement entity then monitors those panel members to determine the media programs (e.g., television or radio programs, movies, DVDs, etc.) to which those panel members are exposed. In this way, the audience measurement entity can determine exposure metrics for different media based on the collected media measurement data.

The technology for monitoring user access to Internet resources (such as web pages, advertisements, and/or other Internet-accessible media) has developed significantly over the years. Some known systems perform such monitoring primarily through server logs. In particular, entities serving media on the Internet can use known techniques to record the number of requests received for their media (e.g., content and/or advertisements) at their servers.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides a method for measuring media, the method comprising:

Based on a first instruction in a collector media object presented at a client device, collecting a first characteristic of the collector media object and collecting second characteristics corresponding to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object; and

Based on a second instruction associated with the collector media object, reporting multiple impressions corresponding to presentation of the collector media object and the second media object at the client device, the reporting of the multiple impressions comprising sending the first characteristic and the second characteristic, and an identifier associated with the client device, in a single communication to an audience measurement entity.

The present invention provides a method for measuring media, the method comprising:

receiving a communication from a collector media object presented at a client device, the communication including a first characteristic corresponding to the collector media object and second characteristics corresponding respectively to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object, the first and second characteristics being collected for transmission in the communication based on instructions embedded in the collector media object;

Receive demographic information from the database owner; and

The demographic information is associated with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the first characteristic and the second characteristic received in the same communication from the client device.

The present invention provides a device for measuring a medium, the device comprising:

a collecting device that collects a first characteristic of the collector media object based on a first instruction in the collector media object presented at a client device and collects second characteristics corresponding to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object; and

A reporting device that reports a plurality of impressions corresponding to presentation of the collector media object and the second media object at the client device based on a second instruction associated with the collector media object, wherein the reporting of the plurality of impressions comprises sending the first characteristic and the second characteristic, and an identifier associated with the client device, to an audience measurement entity in a single communication.

The present invention provides a device for measuring a medium, the device comprising:

means for receiving a communication from a collector media object presented at a client device, the communication comprising a first characteristic corresponding to the collector media object and second characteristics corresponding respectively to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object, the first and second characteristics being collected for transmission in the communication based on instructions embedded in the collector media object;

means for receiving demographic information from a database owner; and

Means for associating the demographic information with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the first characteristic and the second characteristic received in a same communication from the client device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an example client device user interface presenting multiple media objects.

2 depicts an example system that may be used to correlate media impressions with user demographic information based on characteristics of the media object of FIG. 1 and demographic information distributed across a large number of database owners.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example manner in which a media object is granted causal credit for being identified as a creative opportunity to present other media to a user.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example manner in which causal crediting is granted to media objects based on a hierarchical ranking system.

5 is a communication flow diagram of an example manner in which an audience measurement entity (AME) may collect impressions and demographic information based on client devices reporting impressions to the AME and to a distributed database owner.

6 depicts a communication flow diagram of an example manner in which an AME may receive demographic information from a database owner based on per-beacon reporting.

7 depicts a communication flow diagram of an example manner in which an AME may receive demographic information from a database owner based on a key or other identifying information maintained by both the AME and the database owner.

8 is a flow diagram representative of example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the client device of FIGS. 1 and 2 to report media object impressions to AME and/or one or more database owners.

9 is a flow diagram representative of example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the apparatus of FIG. 2 at the AME to record impressions for a media object.

10 is a flow diagram representative of example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the apparatus of FIG. 2 at the AME to associate demographic information with impressions for media objects concurrently presented at a client device.

11 is an example processor system that may be used to execute the example instructions of FIG. 8-FIG . 10 to implement the example devices and systems disclosed herein.

12 depicts an example web page interface showing a media player presenting sequential media objects including content and advertisements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The technology for monitoring user access to internet-accessible media (such as web pages, advertisements, content and/or other media) has developed significantly over the years. In the past, this monitoring was primarily performed through server logs. In particular, entities serving media on the internet would record the number of requests received for their media at their servers. Internet usage studies based on server logs are problematic for a number of reasons. For example, server logs may be tampered with directly or by bots that repeatedly request media from the server to increase server log counts. Secondly, media is sometimes retrieved once, cached locally, and then repeatedly viewed from the local cache without involving the server for repeated viewings. Server logs cannot track these views of cached media. As a result, server logs are susceptible to both over-counting and under-counting errors.

The invention disclosed in Blumenau's U.S. Patent 6,108,637 fundamentally changes the way internet monitoring is performed and overcomes the limitations of the aforementioned server-side log monitoring techniques. For example, Blumenau discloses a technique for tagging internet media to be tracked with beacon instructions. Specifically, the monitoring instructions are associated with the HTML of the media to be tracked. When a client requests the media, both the media and the beacon instructions are downloaded to the client. Thus, the beacon instructions are executed each time the media is accessed from the server or from a cache.

The beacon instructions cause monitoring data reflecting information about access to the media to be sent from the client downloading the media to a monitoring entity. Typically, the monitoring entity is an Audience Measurement Entity (AME) (e.g., Nielsen Company, LLC), which does not provide the media to the client and is a trusted (e.g., neutral) third party that provides accurate usage statistics. Advantageously, because the beacon instructions are associated with the media and are executed by the client browser each time the media is accessed, monitoring information is provided to the AME regardless of whether the client is a member of the AME's panel.

Audience measurement entities and/or other businesses often desire to link demographic information to monitoring information. To address this problem, AME establishes a panel of users who agree to provide their demographic information and have their Internet browsing activity monitored. When individuals join a panel, they provide AME with detailed information about their identity and demographic information (e.g., gender, age, race, income, home location, occupation, etc.). The audience measurement entity sets a cookie on the panel member's computer that enables the audience measurement entity to identify the panel member each time the panel member accesses tagged media and thereby sends monitoring information to the audience measurement entity.

Because most of the clients providing monitoring information from tagged media are not panel members and are therefore unknown to the audience measurement entity, statistical methods must be used to impute demographic information based on data collected for panel members to the larger group of users providing data for the tagged media. However, the panel size of the audience measurement entity is still small compared to the general population of users. Therefore, the problem arises as to how to increase the panel size while ensuring that the demographic data for the panel is accurate.

There are many database owners operating on the Internet. These database owners provide services to a large number of subscribers. In exchange for service provision, subscribers register with the owner. As part of this registration, subscribers provide detailed demographic information. Examples of such database owners include social network providers, email providers, and the like (such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Yahoo!, Google, etc.). These database owners set cookies on their subscribers' computers to enable the database owners to identify users when they visit their web pages.

The protocols of the Internet make cookies inaccessible outside the domain (e.g., Internet domain, domain name, etc.) in which they are set. Thus, a cookie set within the amazon.com domain is accessible by servers within the amazon.com domain, but not by servers outside that domain. Thus, while audience measurement entities may find it advantageous to access cookies set by database owners, they are unable to do so.

Another drawback of previous beaconing processes is that each beacon request corresponds to a single piece of tagged media provided or presented via a client computer (e.g., via a web browser, application, etc.). Similarly, impression information is generally not collected about other media co-located on a web page or simultaneously presented by a web browser. This previous beaconing process provides a limited understanding of the internet-accessible media to which a user is exposed. For example, a beacon request from a previous beaconing process may indicate the address of a primary web page and the media identifier of a media item presented on that primary web page. However, this does not provide information about what other media is presented on the primary web page. Consequently, this previous beaconing process cannot be used to measure correlation or causal relationships between different media on a web page. For example, a user may visit a social network web page that serves as a portal to access movie trailers. In addition to the movie trailers, the portal may also display tagged banner ads. Although the tagged banner ads may cause the client computer to send a beacon request including the ad identifier for the tagged banner ad and the URL for the primary web page URL, the beacon request will not convey any content related to the concurrently displayed movie trailer. Likewise, the main web page will receive sufficient credit for generating an impression of the tagged banner ad, but the displayed movie trailer will not receive credit for attracting the user's attention in order to facilitate display of the tagged banner ad. The examples disclosed herein extend the data collection process so that beacon requests transmit information about a large number of media objects simultaneously presented on the client device to the AME.

The examples disclosed herein enable AME to utilize information or characteristics about a large number of media objects displayed simultaneously at a client device, allowing AME to simultaneously record impressions for a large number of media objects presented simultaneously at a client device. The examples disclosed herein also enable causal relationships between a large number of presented media objects to be determined. The examples disclosed herein also enable AME to utilize existing databases of database owners to collect a larger amount of Internet usage and demographic data by expanding the beaconing process to include participating database owners and by using such database owners as temporary data collectors.

Examples disclosed herein relate to tagging media objects (e.g., advertisements, product images (e.g., for e-commerce, online purchases, etc.), television programming, news reports, etc.) delivered via the Internet by embedding instructions (e.g., collector instructions and beacon instructions) into the media objects. The collector instructions and beacon instructions are executed by the client device when the client device reproduces the received media object for display or playback. When the client device executes the collector instructions and beacon instructions, the collector instructions and beacon instructions cause the client device to collect characteristics of the presented media object and send the collected characteristics in a signaling request to a collection facility. The collector instructions collect media object characteristics (e.g., embedded identifiers, embedded codes, embedded information, signatures, etc.) from the media object, enabling the collection facility to identify the media object and related information based on the characteristics. In some examples, the media object characteristics provide information (such as program name, service domain, primary website address (Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), media owner, campaign identifier, product name, product manufacturer, etc.). In this manner, the beacon request and media object parameters enable the collection facility to record impressions of corresponding media objects when those media objects are presented at the client device.

The examples disclosed herein facilitate using a single communication from a client device to transmit multiple impressions about multiple media objects simultaneously presented at the client device to a collection facility. When multiple media objects are provided on a display of a client device or otherwise presented by a client device, one of the media objects is designated as a master or collector media object that includes collector instructions and beacon instructions (e.g., a master tag including such instructions). The collector media object operates to collect media object characteristics from all other media objects simultaneously presented at the client device. In this way, instead of all simultaneously presented media objects sending corresponding beacon requests to the collection facility, the collector media object sends a single beacon request with all collected media object information from all other presented media objects. This significantly reduces the amount of network bandwidth and communication resources requested by the client device to report the simultaneously presented media objects to the collection facility. In addition, this enables the determination of relationships (e.g., causal relationships) between different media objects.

Reporting of media object parameters for multiple concurrently displayed media objects enables the creation of multiple entities with causal relationships of ad/media impressions. For example, if a media clip (media object) of the television show "Breaking Bad" is accessed by a user via a socialnetwork.com. webpage as embedded media, and the webpage also concurrently displays a large number of tagged ads (media objects), a master tag in one of the media objects collects the media object parameters for the "Breaking Bad" clip and the displayed ads. The master tag then sends a beacon request with all of the collected media object parameters to the collection facility. The collected parameters for all media objects enable the recording of impressions for the displayed ads and granting causal credit to both the "Breaking Bad" clip and the socialnetwork.com webpage, indicating that both the "Breaking Bad" clip and the socialnetwork.com webpage attracted the user's attention, such that the displayed ads were served on the same webpage.

The examples disclosed herein can be implemented by an audience measurement entity (e.g., any entity interested in measuring or tracking audience exposure to advertising, content, and/or any other media) in partnership with any number of database owners (e.g., online web service providers). Such database owners/online web service providers can serve social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.), multi-service sites (e.g., Yahoo!, Google, Experian, Axiom, Catalina, etc.), online retailer sites (e.g., Amazon.com, Buy.com, etc.), and/or any other web service site that maintains user registration records.

To increase the likelihood that the measured television audience is accurately attributed to the correct demographic, the examples disclosed herein use demographic information located in the records of the audience measurement entity and demographic information located at one or more database owners that maintain records or profiles for users with accounts. In this way, the examples disclosed herein can be used to supplement a ratings entity (e.g., an AME that collects media exposure measurements and/or demographics, such as the Nielsen Company of Schaumburg, Illinois, USA) with demographic information from one or more different database owners.

The examples disclosed herein enable a client device to send a single beacon request to AME to report multiple media objects presented at the client device. In this way, by using a single beacon request to report multiple media objects, AME can record a large number of impressions for media objects presented on the client device while receiving relatively few communications from the client device notifying the presented media objects. In addition, the examples disclosed herein enable recording relationships between different media objects. As used herein, an impression is defined as an event in which a household or individual is exposed to corresponding media (e.g., content and/or advertisements). Thus, an impression represents a household or individual that has been exposed to media (e.g., an advertisement, content, a group of advertisements, etc. and/or a collection of content). In Internet advertising, the number of impressions or impression count is the total number of times a media (e.g., an advertisement or an advertising campaign) is accessed by a network population (e.g., the number of times the media is accessed, such as by, for example, pop-up ad blocking or by, for example, retrieval from a local cache). As used herein, a demographic impression is defined as an impression associated with characteristics (e.g., demographic characteristics) of the person exposed to the media.

FIG1 depicts an example client device 102 configured to present multiple media objects 104a-104d via a user interface. The client device 102 of the illustrated example can be any device capable of accessing media across a network. For example, the client device 102 can be a computer, tablet, mobile device, smartphone, or any other internet-enabled device or appliance. The examples disclosed herein can be used to collect impression information for any type of media including content and/or advertisements. Media objects (such as media objects 104a-104d) can include web pages, streaming video, streaming audio, Internet Protocol television (IPTV) content, movies, television programs, and/or other programs, and such media objects are generally referred to herein as content. In some examples, media objects 104a-104d include, for example, user-generated media that is uploaded to a media upload site (such as YouTube) and subsequently downloaded and/or streamed for playback by a number of client devices. Media objects (such as media objects 104a-104d) can also include advertisements. Advertisements are typically distributed with content. Traditionally, content is provided to audiences at little or no cost because the content is subsidized by advertisers who pay to have their advertisements distributed with the content.As used herein, "media" refers collectively and/or individually to content and/or advertising.

In the example shown in FIG1 , media object A 104a and media object D 104d are advertisements, media object B 104b is a main webpage, and media object C 104c is a video. In other examples, media objects 104a-104d can be used to present any other media. For example, media object B 104b can be a website, a portal, a web app, etc., where media object A 104a is an information panel that displays facts or other information (e.g., statistics about sports teams or players, information or reviews about movies or TV shows) about a video (e.g., a sports video, a movie, a TV show, a news show, etc.) presented in media object C 104c. The examples disclosed herein can be used to collect impression information about multiple media objects (e.g., media objects A, B, C, and D) presented simultaneously at a client device, so that the impression information can be used to determine relationships between the different media presented simultaneously to a user via the client device. This relationship can be a causal relationship, indicating that an impression of a particular media object (such as an advertisement) can be the result of a person visiting a particular website (identified by a corresponding URL) or watching a particular streaming television channel (e.g., identified by a channel number or network name) to access a particular television program or other media. In this way, causal credit can be awarded to the visited website or streaming television channel as well as the accessed television program or media (e.g., content), attracting the user's attention to create an opportunity for presentation of other media (e.g., an advertising media object).

In the example shown, media objects 104a-104d are provided to client device 102 by one or more media providers 106. In the example shown, media providers 106 may be media providers (e.g., content providers), media publishers, and/or advertisers that distribute media objects 104a-104c via the Internet to users accessing websites and/or online television services (e.g., web-based TV, Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), etc.). Media objects 104a-104c may additionally or alternatively be distributed via broadcast television services to traditional, non-Internet-based (e.g., RF-based, terrestrial, or satellite-based) television sets that utilize the techniques disclosed herein and/or other techniques for television audience monitoring.

While a single client device 102 is shown in the illustrated example of FIG. 1 , the examples disclosed herein can be used to collect impression information from multiple client devices used simultaneously by a user. For example, client device 102 can be a tablet device that operates as a second screen to view additional media (e.g., advertisements, character/actor bios, behind-the-scenes footage, director's commentary, etc.) while the user is also viewing related primary media (e.g., a television program, movie, etc.) via a primary screen (such as a television). The examples disclosed herein facilitate collecting impression information from both primary and secondary screens and analyzing the impression information with demographic information of the same user for both the primary and secondary screens. For example, both the primary and secondary screen devices can store the same identifier that can be used to identify the user and/or demographic information associated with those devices. Thus, impressions can be recorded for both those devices based on the same identifier, so that the same demographic information is associated with all impressions recorded in conjunction with that identifier. Alternatively, the primary and secondary screens can have different respective identifiers that identify the same user and/or demographic information associated with the primary and secondary devices. Likewise, impressions may be recorded for both of these devices based on respective identifiers such that the same demographic information is associated with all impressions recorded in conjunction with the primary and secondary devices.

In the example shown in FIG1 , media objects 104a, 104c, and 104d are embedded media objects within media object B 104b (e.g., a container media object). The media objects 104a, 104c, and 104d of the example shown are parallel media objects. The examples disclosed herein can also be used in conjunction with sequential media objects, as shown in the example shown in FIG12 . For example, a sequential media object is an object that is presented in a sequential manner (e.g., one by one). For example, FIG12 shows a timeline 1200 and webpage media objects 1202, illustrating sequential media objects at different times t ₀ 1204, t ₁ 1206, and t ₂ 1208 along the timeline 1200. 12 , a web page media object 1202 displays a media player media object 1212 presenting a content media object 1214 at time t ₀ 1204, a first advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_A) at time t ₁ 1206, and a second advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218 at time t ₂ 1208. In the illustrated example, the content 1214, the first advertisement 1216, and the second advertisement 1218 are presented sequentially, as they do not appear concurrently within the media player media object 1212. Additionally, the media player media object 1212 of the illustrated example is a container object in which the content 1214, the first advertisement 1216, and the second advertisement 1218 are embedded media objects within the media player media object 1212. In some examples, the video (e.g., a movie, a television program, a sports stream or video, a news program, etc.) displayed within the media player media object 1212 is a container object, and the advertisements 1216 and 1218 are embedded media objects within the video container object. The examples disclosed herein can be used to monitor and measure sequential media objects (such as content 1214, first advertisement 1216, and second advertisement 1218), parallel media objects (such as media objects 104a, 104c, and 104d of Figure 1), and embedded media objects (such as media objects 104a, 104c, and 104d of Figure 1 embedded in media object 104b and content 1214, first advertisement 1216, and second advertisement 1218 of Figure 12 embedded in media player media object 1212).

FIG2 depicts an example system 200 in which AME 202 can associate media impressions with user demographic information based on characteristics of the media objects 104a-104d of FIG1 and distributed demographic information located across a plurality of database owners 204. As used herein, "distributed demographic information" refers to demographic information obtained from at least two sources, at least one of which is a database owner 204 (such as an online network service provider). In the examples disclosed herein, database owner 204 maintains user account records corresponding to users registered for an Internet-based service provided by the database owner. Demographic information may include, for example, gender, age, race, income, home location, education level, occupation, etc.

In the illustrated example, to facilitate the transmission of impression information regarding multiple media objects 104a-104d from client device 102 to AME 202, at least one of media objects 104a-104d is configured as a collector object, and the other media objects 104a-104d are configured as passive objects. In the illustrated example, a collector object is a media object that operates to collect media object characteristics from all other media objects presented concurrently at client device 102. In the illustrated example, a passive object is an object whose characteristics are collected by the collector object for transmission to AME during impression reporting. In the illustrated example, media object A 104a is a collector object, and media objects 104b-104d are passive objects. Media object A 104a of the illustrated example includes collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208. In the illustrated example, instructions 206 and instructions 208 form a master tag. The master tag in the illustrated example is embedded in the media object, enabling the media object to operate as a collector object. For example, in FIG2 , a master tag with instructions 206 and 208 is provided to media object A 104a, enabling media object A 104a to operate as a collector object. Furthermore, all media objects 104b-104d of the illustrated example include object characteristics 210a-210d. As a collector object, media object A 104a collects object characteristics from itself and from other media objects 104b-104d, and transmits the collected object characteristics to AME 202. To accomplish this, collector instructions 206, when executed, cause client device 102 to collect object characteristics 210a-210d from media objects 104b-104d. Furthermore, beacon instructions 208, when executed, cause client device 102 to transmit object characteristics 210a-210d in a beacon request 212 to AME 202.

In some examples, a media object called by a user is a master object (e.g., media object A 104a), and media objects called by the master object are designated as slave objects (e.g., media objects 104b-104d). In some examples, a slave object can become a master object relative to other media objects. For example, a media object called by another media object can become a slave object relative to the media object that called it. Similarly, a slave object (e.g., a first-level slave object) can become a master object relative to another slave object (e.g., a second-level slave object).

As discussed above in conjunction with FIG1 , media objects 104a, 104c, and 104d are parallel media objects relative to one another and are embedded objects within media object 104b. The examples disclosed herein can also be used in conjunction with sequential media objects, such as content media object 1214, advertisement (ADVRETISEMENT_A) media object 1216, and advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218 of FIG12 . In the illustrated example of FIG12 , to facilitate collecting media object properties corresponding to content media object 1214, advertisement (ADVRETISEMENT_A) media object 1216, and advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218, media player media object 1212 is provided with a master tag 1222 having collector instructions and beacon instructions (e.g., similar or identical to collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208 of FIG2 ). Additionally, content media object 1214 is provided with object property 1226, advertisement (ADVRETISEMENT_A) media object 1216 is provided with object property 1228, and advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218 is provided with object property 1230. In the illustrated example, media player media object 1212 remains presented as a container object (e.g., remains instantiated and/or displayed) at times 1204, 1206, and 1208 as shown in FIG. 12 while embedded sequential media objects 1214, 1216, and 1218 are sequentially presented within media player media object 1212. Because the media player media object 1212 remains presented, the collector instructions in the main tag 1222 of the media player media object 1212 collect object characteristics 1226 when the content media object 1214 is presented at time t ₀ 1214, collect object characteristics 1228 when the advertisement (ADVRETISEMENT_A) media object 1216 is presented at time t ₁ 1206, and collect object characteristics 1230 when the advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218 is presented at time t ₂ 1208. The beacon instructions of the main tag 1222 can then send the collected object characteristics 1226, 1228, and 1230 to the AME 202.

In some examples, the main tag 1222 is provided within the content media object 1214, and the content media object 1214 is a container object that remains instantiated or loaded (e.g., in the background) while the advertisement media objects 1216 and 1218 are presented. In this example, the collector instructions within the main tag 1222 of the content media object 1214 collect object characteristics 1226 when the content media object 1214 is presented at time t ₀ 1214, collect object characteristics 1228 when the advertisement (ADVRETISEMENT_A) media object 1216 is presented at time t ₁ 1206, and collect object characteristics 1230 when the advertisement (ADVERTISEMENT_B) media object 1218 is presented at time t ₂ 1208. The beacon instructions within the main tag 1222 of the content media object 1214 can then send the collected object characteristics 1226, 1228, and 1230 to the AME 202.

In the illustrated example, the collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208 are computer-executable instructions (e.g., Java, JavaScript, or any other computer language or script) embedded in the media object A 104a by the creator of the media object A 104a and/or another entity (e.g., a subsequent media distributor or publisher, such as the media provider 206 of FIG. 1 ). In some examples, instead of embedding the collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208 in the media object A 104a, one or more hyperlinks are instead provided in the media object A 104a to direct a web browser to download or retrieve the collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208 from one or more designated servers. This enables, for example, the AME 202 to change the instructions without involving the media provider of the media object A 104a. In some examples, the instructions 206 and 208 are executed by the web browser that is presenting the media objects 104a-104d. In other examples, the instructions are executed by the application (or "app" on a mobile device) that is presenting the media objects 104a-104d. In yet other examples, the instructions are executed as a separate program. For example, a smart TV can execute the instructions as a separate program. In the example shown, media object A 104a is referred to as being tagged with a main tag that includes collector instructions and beacon instructions 208.

The object properties 210a-210d may be information embedded in the media objects 104a-104d. In some examples, instead of embedding the object properties 210a-210d in the media objects 104a-104d, one or more hyperlinks are instead provided in the media objects 104a-104d to direct a web browser to download or retrieve the object properties 210a-210d from one or more designated servers. This enables, for example, the AME 202 to modify the object properties 210a-210d without involving the media provider of the media objects 104a-104d. In some examples, the embedded information may include an identification code (e.g., metadata) identifying the associated media, a campaign identifier (ID) identifying an associated advertising campaign, a creative ID (e.g., identifying Flash-based media or ads, banner ads, rich ads, etc.), a source ID (e.g., identifying the publisher of the media), and a layout ID (e.g., identifying the physical layout of the media on the screen). In some examples, object characteristics 210a-210d are derived from visual and/or auditory characteristics of media objects 104a-104d. For example, collector instructions 206 may be configured to cause client device 102 to generate video, image, or audio signatures from portions of media objects 104a-104d. For example, collector instructions 206 may cause client device 102 to perform a screenshot or screen scan to collect one or more images representing media objects 104a-104d and generate signatures corresponding to media objects 104a-104d based on the images. Additionally or alternatively, collector instructions 206 may cause client device 102 to intercept and/or capture audio of media objects 104a-104d and generate one or more signatures corresponding to media objects 104a-104d based on the audio. In this manner, AME 202 may use the signature collected from one of media objects 104a-104d to identify one of media objects 104a-104d based on a matching reference signature stored at AME 202. In some examples, collector instructions 206 may cause client device 102 to perform optical character recognition (e.g., text recognition) or logo recognition based on the screenshot image and use the recognized text and/or logo associated with media objects 104a-104d as part of object features 210a-210d.

After collecting the object characteristics 210a-210d based on the collector instructions 206, execution of the beacon instructions 208 causes the client device 102 to send a beacon request 212 to the server (e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) address or URL) of the AME 202 specified in the beacon instructions 208. In the illustrated example, the beacon instructions 208 cause the client device 102 to locate the identifier 214 and the object characteristics 210a-210d in the beacon request 212. The beacon request 212 of the illustrated example is an impression request that causes the AME 202 to record impressions for the media objects 104a-104d. In the illustrated example, the impression request is a report to the AME 202 of the occurrence of the media object presented at the client device 102. The beacon/impression request 212 can be implemented as a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request. However, while the HTTP request sent identifies the web page or other resource to be downloaded, the beacon/impression request 212 includes as its payload audience measurement information (e.g., object characteristics 210a-210d and identifier 214). The server to which the beacon/impression request is directed is programmed to record the audience measurement information of the beacon/impression request 212 as an impression (e.g., a media impression, such as an advertisement and/or content impression depending on the nature of the media object whose object characteristics are transmitted in the beacon/impression request).

The identifier 214 of the illustrated example can be any identifier used to associate demographic information with one or more users of the client device 102. In some examples, the identifier 214 can be a device identifier (e.g., an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), a Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID), a Media Access Control (MAC) address, etc.), a unique web browser identifier (e.g., a cookie), a user identifier (e.g., a username, a login ID, etc.), an Adobe client identifier, identifying information stored in an HTML5 database, or any other identifier that AME 202 and/or database owner 204 stores in association with demographic information about users of the client devices. In this manner, when AME 202 receives the identifier 214 in the beacon/impression request 212, AME 202 can obtain demographic information corresponding to the user of the client device 102 based on the identifier 214 that AME 202 received from the client device 102 in the beacon/impression request 212. In some examples, the identifier 212 can be encrypted (e.g., hashed) at the client device 102 so that only the intended end recipient of the identifier 212 can decrypt the hashed identifier 212. For example, if the identifier 212 is a cookie set by the AME 202 in the client device 102, the identifier 212 can be hashed so that only the AME 202 can decrypt the identifier 212. If the identifier 212 is an IMEI number, the client device 102 can hash the identifier 212 so that only the wireless carrier (e.g., one of the database owners 204) can decrypt the hashed identifier 212 to recover the IMEI for use in accessing demographic information corresponding to the user of the client device 102. By virtue of the hashed identifier 214, an intermediary receiving the beacon request cannot directly identify the user of the client device 102. For example, if the intended ultimate recipient of the identifier 214 is one of the database owners 204 , the AME 202 cannot recover the identifier information when the identifier 214 is hashed by the client device 102 for decryption by only the intended database owner 204 .

The example AME 202 is provided with an example device 216 that receives beacon requests (e.g., beacon/impression request 212) based on information in the beacon requests (e.g., identifier 214 and object characteristics 210a-210d) and records impressions and/or demographic impressions for different media objects (e.g., media objects 104a-104d). The example device 216 is provided with an example impression monitor 218, an example creditor 220, an example panel member profile retriever 222, an example panel database 224, an example demographic modifier 226, an example demographic collector 228, an example attributor 230, and an example report generator 232. The example impression monitor 218, example logger 220, usage panel member profile retriever 222, example panel database 224, example demographic modifier 226, example demographic collector 228, example attributer 230, and example report generator 232 can be constructed as one or more devices in AME 202.

The impression monitor 218 of the illustrated example is configured to record impressions of media (e.g., impressions of media objects 104a-104d) based on received beacon/impression requests (e.g., beacon/impression request 212). The creditor 220 of the illustrated example is configured to award causal credit to specific media objects (e.g., some of media objects 104a-104d) that are responsible for attracting the user's attention to create a presentation for other media objects (e.g., other media objects in media objects 104a-104d). For example, if media object B 104b of Figures 1 and 2 represents a web page, and media object C 104c of Figures 1 and 2 represents a movie trailer video accessed by a user via the web page, because the user's attention was attracted to the web page based on the user's interest in accessing the movie trailer video, the creditor 220 may award causal credit to the web page represented by media object B 104b and the movie trailer video represented by media object C 104c. A particular web page and a particular movie trailer video that the user is interested in attract the user's attention, creating an opportunity to present other media (e.g., advertisements) represented by media object A 104 a and media object D 104 d. Similarly, the impressions recorded by impression monitor 218 can be further processed by creditor 220 to determine which media objects should be awarded causal credit for attracting the person's attention, resulting in the creation of an opportunity to present advertisements or other media that may complement or be relevant to the person's interests.

Although the above example is relevant to the media delivery environment in which media object C 104c is a movie trailer video, the example disclosed herein can be similarly used in other types of Internet media scenarios. For example, the media objects 104a-104d of Figures 1 and 2 can be presented on an e-commerce website (e.g., an online shopping website, such as Amazon.com, ebay.com or other online retailers), and AME 202 may be interested in identifying retail products for sale, which creates an opportunity to present supplementary/related media and/or advertisements. In this example scenario, media object B 104b of Figures 1 and 2 represents an online retailer webpage, and media object C 104c of Figures 1 and 2 represents a video about a product that a user is interested in when purchasing from an online retailer. In this example, both the specific online retailer webpage and the specific product that the user is interested in attract the user's attention, creating an opportunity to present other media (e.g., advertisements) represented by media object A 104a and media object D 104d. In this example, the creditor 110 awards causal credit to media object B 104b and media object C 104c for creating presentation opportunities for other media (eg, advertisements or other media) represented by media object A 104a and media object D 104d.

In an example associated with a television delivery service, the client device 102 may be a smart TV tuned to a particular channel represented by media object B 104b. In this example, the user is drawn to the particular channel to watch the television program represented by media object C 104c. Similarly, the creditor 220 of the illustrated example of FIG. 2 grants causal credit to the tuned channel and television program for creating presentation opportunities for the media (e.g., advertisements or other media) represented by media object A 104a and media object D 104d. Thus, the examples disclosed herein may be used to grant causal credit to media in the area of internet-based media delivery services, to grant causal credit to products in the area of product-based e-commerce, and to grant causal credit to media delivery networks or channels and television programs in the area of internet-based streaming media and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services. The examples disclosed herein may also be used in other types of media delivery and e-commerce areas where people access information of interest, which results in opportunities being created for simultaneous presentation of other media.

FIG3 illustrates an example manner in which causal credits are granted to media objects identified as creating opportunities for presenting other media to a user. The example technique illustrated in FIG3 can be used to grant causal credits as described above. In the example illustrated in FIG3 , the creditor 220 grants causal credits 302 and 304 to media objects B 104 b and C 104 c. In the example illustrated, the causal credit 302 granted to media object B 104 b references media identifiers identifying media objects A 104 a, C 104 c, and D 104 d, which are presented as a result of the opportunity created by media object B 104 b. In the example illustrated, the causal credit 304 references media identifiers identifying media objects A 104 a, B 104 b, and D 104 d, which are presented as a result of the opportunity created by media object C 104 c. Thus, in the illustrated example of FIG. 3 , the creditor 220 awards causal credit 302 and causal credit 304 to media object 104b and media object 104c for creating the opportunity to present each other and media object 104a and media object 104d.

In some examples, the creditor 220 is configured to grant causal credits based on the hierarchical ranking of media objects. That is, the creditor 220 of the illustrated example may grant causal credits to higher-ranked media objects for generating opportunities to present lower-ranked media objects. FIG4 illustrates an example manner in which subordinate causal credits are granted to media objects based on a hierarchical ranking system. The illustrated example of FIG4 shows a hierarchical ranking structure 400 in which media object C 104c is ranked higher than media object 104a, media object 104a, and media object 104d, and media object B 104b is ranked higher than media object 104a, media object 104c, and media object 104d. In this example, the creditor 220 grants causal credits 402 to media object B 104b for opportunities created to present media objects 104a, media object 104c, and media object 104d that are subordinate in the hierarchical structure relative to media object B 104b. 4 . In addition, the creditor 220 grants media object C 104c a causal credit 404 corresponding to the opportunity created to present media object 104a and media object 104d, which are subordinate in the hierarchical structure relative to media object C 104c. Unlike the causal credit 304 of FIG. 3 , which credits media object C 104c for creating the opportunity to present media object B 104b in addition to media object 104a and media object 104d, the creditor 220 of the illustrated example of FIG. 4 does not grant media object C 104c a causal credit corresponding to the opportunity to present media object B 104b because media object C 104c has a lower priority ranking in the example hierarchical ranking structure 400. Additionally, because media objects 104a and 104d have a lower priority ranking in the illustrated hierarchical ranking structure 400, the creditor 220 does not grant causal credit to media objects 104a and 104d corresponding to the presentation of media objects 104b and 104c. Furthermore, because media objects 104a and 104d are ranked at the same level (e.g., ranking level 3) in the hierarchical ranking structure 400, the creditor 220 does not grant any causal credit to media objects 104a and 104d related to the presentation of each other. That is, the creditor 220 of the illustrated example is configured to grant causal credit to media objects for the impressions of subordinate media objects, but does not grant causal credit to media objects for the impressions of higher-ranked or equally-ranked media objects.

In the illustrated example, media object B 104b is a higher-level object relative to subordinate media object A 104a, subordinate media object B 104b, and subordinate media object D 104d. In some examples, the higher-level object is also the master object. The creditor 220 of the illustrated example determines which of the media objects 104a-104d is the higher-level object to be credited with a causal credit 302 based on the higher-level object identifier. For example, when the creditor 220 identifies the higher-level object identifier in media object B 104b, the creditor 220 determines that media object B 104b is the higher-level object to be awarded a causal credit 302 for creating the opportunity to present subordinate media object A 104a, subordinate media object B 104b, and subordinate media object D 104d.

Media objects can be higher-level objects based on different events or criteria. In some examples, media requested by a user (e.g., a movie, television program, sports stream or video, news stream or video, etc.) is designated as a higher-level object, and other media objects (e.g., advertisements or movies) presented in parallel, embedded, or sequentially are subordinate media objects relative to the higher-level object. In some examples, a media object called by another media object is a subordinate object relative to the media object that called it. For example, a master media object requested by a user (e.g., a movie, television program, news video, sports video, etc.) can call an advertisement object. Similarly, a subordinate object (e.g., a first-level subordinate object) can become a higher-level object (e.g., a second-level subordinate object) relative to another subordinate object. In some examples, the higher-level object or master object tracks which media object is the caller object (e.g., the higher-level object) and which object is the called object (e.g., the subordinate object called by the higher-level object), so that the creditor 220 can identify the higher-level object and the subordinate object to determine which media object should be granted causal credit.

Hierarchical prioritization of media objects can be specified by AME 202 ( FIG. 2 ), media publisher 106 ( FIG. 1 ), and/or any other entity that defines how impressions for media objects are analyzed relative to one another. In some examples, the prioritization can be set within the media object as part of the media object's object properties 210 a-210 d. In other examples, the hierarchical prioritization can be set to AME 202 as a separate process from the beacon request. For example, AME 202 can receive a hierarchically ranked list of all media objects participating in beaconing, and AME 202 can then use the hierarchically ranked list each time AME 202 records an impression based on a received beacon request. In some examples, media objects 104 a-104 d are configured so that client device 102 requests and retrieves the prioritization from one or more designated servers (e.g., one or more servers of media publisher 106, AME 202, and/or any other entity that specifies, stores, and/or provides the prioritization) when the media objects 104 a-104 d are accessed. In this manner, the media publisher 106, the AME 202, and/or any other entity that specifies priority rankings may change the priority rankings without having to change or update the media objects 104a-104d.

Returning to FIG. 2 , the illustrated example panelist profile retriever 222 is configured to retrieve demographic information corresponding to a panelist from a panelist database 224 when the identifier 214 of the beacon/impression request corresponds to a panelist of AME 202. In the illustrated example, AME 202 stores the demographic information of the panelist in the panelist database 224. To generate and maintain a panelist of audience members, AME 202 enrolls individuals who consent to being monitored into the panelist database. During enrollment, AME 202 receives demographic information from the enrolled individuals, enabling subsequent association between recorded media impressions and panelist members corresponding to different demographic segments. In some examples, panelist database 224 also stores purchasing behavior, product affinity information, and/or other consumer behaviors and/or interests associated with the panelist. AME 202 may collect this information directly from the panelist and/or may gather information over time by observing the panelist's online behavior. In this manner, when AME 202 records an impression corresponding to a panelist, AME 202 can correlate such impression with demographics, purchasing behavior, product affinity information, and/or any other consumer behavior and/or interests stored in panelist database 224. To enable panelist profile retriever 222 to retrieve demographic information for different users identified in beacon requests (e.g., beacon/impression request 212), panelist database 224 stores reference identifiers of panelists and corresponding demographic information for those panelists in association.

The demographic information collector 228 of the illustrated example of FIG. 2 is configured to obtain demographic information from one or more of the database owners 204. Various techniques for obtaining this demographic information from the database owners 204 are described below in conjunction with FIG. 5-7. In the examples disclosed herein, the database owner 204 is an entity that operates based on a user registration model. As used herein, the user registration model is one in which users subscribe to the services of those entities by creating an account and providing demographically relevant information about themselves. In some examples, the demographic information stored at and provided by the database owner 204 may include purchasing behavior, product affinity information, and/or other consumer behaviors and/or interests associated with the registered users of the database owner 204. The database owner 204 may collect this information directly from the registered users and/or may collect the information over time by observing the online behavior of the registered users.

Sharing demographic information associated with registered users of database owner 204 enables AME 202 to expand or supplement its panel data in panel database 224 with generally reliable demographic information from external sources (e.g., database owner 204), thereby expanding the coverage, accuracy, and/or completeness of demographic-based audience measurements collected by AME 202. This access to database owner 204 also enables AME 202 to monitor individuals who do not participate in AME 202's panel. Any entity with a database that identifies demographic profiles of a group of individuals can collaborate with AME 202. Such entities, referred to herein as "database owners," may include entities such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Twitter, Apple iTunes, Experian, and the like.

The demographics reviser 226 of the illustrated example is configured to analyze demographic information received from the database owner 204 relative to the panelist demographic information stored in the panelist database 224 for corresponding media impressions, thereby revising or adjusting the demographic information received from the database owner 204. In the example disclosed herein, the panelist demographic information stored in the panelist database 224 is reliable, high-quality data believed to have a degree of accuracy derived from the methodology used by AME 202 to recruit panelists and collect their demographic information. For example, AME 202 may conduct personal or telephone interviews with panelists to confirm the accuracy of the collected demographic data. Furthermore, AME 202 may employ agents to review the demographic information in the panelist database 224 for possible inaccuracies or missing information and follow up with panelists to correct the demographic information. Furthermore, AME 202 may incentivize panelists to provide demographic information by offering them monetary rewards or other forms of compensation in exchange for true, complete, and accurate demographic information. Similarly, demographic revisor 226 can correct demographic information received from database owner 204 based on accurate panelist demographic information. For example, for a media impression recorded for a particular media object (e.g., one of media objects 104a-104d), demographic revisor 226 receives panelist demographic information from panelist database 224 for known panelists exposed to the particular media object. Demographic revisor 226 also receives demographic information from database owner 204. In some examples, database owner 204 provides aggregated demographic information. Aggregated demographic information includes demographic information for a large number of users combined to show different demographic segments for multiple groups of people exposed to the particular media object (e.g., the percentage of users who are female or male, the percentage of users across different age ranges, etc.). Demographic information collected by database owner 204 is sometimes less accurate than panelist demographic information due to lack of authenticity, forgetfulness, misunderstandings, etc. during the registration process when people register for database owner 204's services. Likewise, the example demographics modifier 226 is configured to apply adjustments or modifications to demographic information received from the database owner 204 based on panelist demographic information stored in the panelist database 224. For example, if the panelist demographic information from the panelist database 224 shows that a higher percentage of panelists exposed to a particular media correspond to an age range of 35-40 years old, and the demographic information from the database owner 204 shows significant outliers in the age ranges of 28-21 years old and 75+ years old, the demographics modifier 226 may adjust the outlier demographic information to better align with the more prominent age ranges observed from the panelist database 224.

In the illustrated example, attributor 230 is configured to attribute demographic information to media objects (e.g., media objects 104a-104d). Some examples disclosed herein enable attributing the same demographic profile of a user to multiple media objects simultaneously presented on a client device. For example, in the illustrated example of FIG. 2 , client device 102 simultaneously presents media objects 104a-104d, and beacon instructions 208 in media object A 104a cause client device 102 to send object characteristics 210a-210d and identifier 214 in a beacon/impression request 212 to AME 202. Based on the information in beacon request 214, attributor 230 can determine that the same user corresponding to identifier 214 was exposed to all of media objects 104a-104d. Likewise, the attributer 230 of the illustrated example receives demographic information corresponding to the user (e.g., corresponding to the identifier 214) from the demographic profile modifier 226 and attributes (or associates) the demographic information to all of the recorded impressions for the media objects 104a-104d represented by the object characteristics 201a-210d in the beacon/impression request 212. In this manner, the attributer 230 can associate the same demographic information with multiple impressions recorded from a single beacon/impression request 212, which advantageously reduces the number of communications (e.g., beacon requests) required from the client device 102 to record impressions and corresponding demographic information for a large number of media objects presented on the client device 102.

In the example shown, the report generator 232 is configured to generate demographic-based impression reports showing statistics for different demographic segments of recorded impressions for different media objects (e.g., media objects 104a-104d). In the example shown, the AME 202 can sell and/or provide such demographic-based impression reports to advertisers, product manufacturers, service providers, media producers, media distributors, media networks, and/or any other entities interested in creating, producing, and/or distributing media, and/or any other entities interested in purchasing and/or selling advertising space. Such demographic-based impression reports can help entities decide where to spend money in creating, producing, and/or distributing media and/or where to spend advertising dollars to reach specific demographic segments.

Although an example manner of implementing the example device 216 is shown in FIG2 , one or more of the elements, processes, and/or devices shown in FIG2 may be combined, split, rearranged, omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in any other manner. Further, the example impression monitor 218, the example logger 220, the example panel member profile retriever 222, the example panel database 224, the example demographics modifier 226, the example demographics collector 228, the example attributor 230, and the example report generator 232 of FIG2 and/or more generally the example device 216 may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, and/or any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of the example impression monitor 218, the example logger 220, the example panel profile retriever 222, the example panel database 224, the example demographics modifier 226, the example demographics collector 228, the example attributor 230, and the example report generator 232, and/or more generally the example devices 216 of Figure 2 may be implemented by one or more analog or digital circuits, logic circuits, programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs) and/or field programmable logic devices (FPLDs). When reading any of the apparatus or system claims of this patent covering a purely software and/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example impression monitor 218, the example logger 220, the example panel member profile retriever 222, the example panel database 224, the example demographics modifier 226, the example demographics collector 228, the example attributor 230, and/or the example report generator 232 is expressly defined herein as comprising a tangible computer-readable storage device or storage disk (such as a memory, a digital versatile disc (DVD), a compact disc (CD), a Blu-ray disc, etc.) storing software and/or firmware. Still further, the example device 216 of FIG. 2 may include one or more elements, processes, and/or devices in addition to or in lieu of those shown in FIG. 2 , and/or may include more than one of any or all of the elements, processes, and devices shown.

FIG5 is a communication flow diagram 500 illustrating an example manner in which the AME 202 of FIG2 can collect impressions and demographic information based on client devices reporting impressions to the AME 202 and distributed database owner 204 of FIG2 . The example communication flow diagram 500 illustrates an example manner in which the example device 216 of FIG2 records impressions reported by client devices (e.g., client device 102). The example chain of events illustrated in FIG5 occurs when a client device 102 accesses tagged media (e.g., one or more of the tagged media objects 104a-104d of FIG1 and FIG2 ). Thus, the events of FIG5 begin when a client sends an HTTP request for media to a server (e.g., one or more of the media providers 106 of FIG1 ), which in this example is tagged to forward impression requests (e.g., beacon/impression request 212) to the AME 202. In the example illustrated in FIG5 , the client device 102 receives the requested media object A 104a from a media provider (e.g., one of the media providers 106 of FIG1 ). In some examples, client device 102 requests a web page containing media of interest (e.g., www.weather.com), and the requested web page contains the media of interest and a link to an advertisement downloaded and provided within the web page. The advertisement may be from a different server than the originally requested media of interest.

In the example shown, media object A 104a is tagged with beacon instructions 208 (and collector instructions 206 of FIG. 2 , not shown in FIG. 5 ). Beacon instructions 208 cause client device 102 to send a beacon/impression request 212 to impression monitor 218 when client device 102 accesses media object A 104a. In the example shown, client device 102 sends beacon/impression request 212 using an HTTP request addressed to a URL of impression monitor 218, for example, at a first internet domain. The beacon/impression request 212 of the example shown includes media object characteristics 210a-210d for all media objects 104a-104d of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 . In the example shown, collector instructions 206 cause client device 102 to collect media object characteristics 210a-210d from media objects 104a-104d. Collector instructions 206 can be provided in media object A 104a when it is served to client device 102, or client device 102 can send a beacon request before requesting collector instructions 206 from the server in beacon/impression request 212. In either case, by reporting media object characteristics 210a-210d, the examples disclosed herein can be used to report multiple impressions for multiple media objects (e.g., media objects 104a-104d) presented at a client device using a single beacon request (e.g., beacon/impression request 212) that includes information about all presented media objects (e.g., media object characteristics 210a-210d). This example approach of reporting multiple impressions in a single beacon request reduces the amount of bandwidth and processing resources required by the client device, the receiving server (e.g., impression monitor 218), and the network. In addition, the beacon/impression request 212 of the illustrated example includes an identifier 214 as shown in FIG. In other examples, the identifier 214 may not be transmitted until the client device 102 receives a request sent by a server of the AME 202 in response to, for example, the impression monitor 218 receiving the beacon/impression request 212 .

In response to receiving the beacon/impression request 212, the impression monitor 218 records impressions for all media objects 104a-104d by recording the media object characteristics 210a-210d included in the beacon/impression request 212. In some examples, the impression monitor 218 records the impressions by recording media identification information determined based on the media object characteristics 210a-210d. For example, if the media object characteristics 210a-210d include codes and/or signatures collected from the media objects 104a-104d by the collector instructions 206 (Figure 2), the impression monitor 218 can use any suitable technique known in the art to look up identification information corresponding to the media objects 104a-104d based on the codes and/or signatures.

In some examples, the impression monitor 218 records impressions regardless of whether the client device 102 sends the identifier 214 to the impression monitor 218. However, if the client device 102 sends the identifier 214 and the identifier 214 matches the user ID of a panelist (e.g., a panelist corresponding to a profile stored in the panelist database 224 of FIG. 2 ), then the recorded impressions for the media objects 104 a-104 d will correspond to the panelist of the AME 202. If the identifier 214 does not correspond to the panelist of the AME 202, then even though the impression monitor 218 will not have a record of the user ID (and thus the corresponding demographic profile) for the impressions recorded based on the beacon/impression request 212, the impression monitor 218 will still benefit from recording the impressions for the media objects 104 a-104 d.

In the example shown in FIG5 , to compare or supplement the panel member demographics of AME 202 with the demographics of one or more of the database owners 204 ( FIG2 ), impression monitor 218 returns a beacon response message 504 (e.g., a first beacon response) to client device 102 that includes an HTTP “302 Found” redirect message and a URL of a participating database owner 204, e.g., at a second internet domain. In the example shown, the HTTP “302 Found” redirect message in beacon response 504 instructs client device 102 to send a second beacon request 508 to database owner A 204a. In other examples, instead of using an HTTP “302 Found” redirect message, the redirection can be implemented using, for example, an iframe source directive (e.g., <iframe src="">) or any other directive that can instruct the client device to send a subsequent beacon request (e.g., second beacon request 508) to a participating database owner 204. In the illustrated example, impression monitor 218 uses rules and/or any other suitable type of selection criteria or process to determine the database owner 204a specified in beacon response 504. In some examples, impression monitor 218 determines the particular database owner to which to redirect the beacon request based on, for example, empirical data indicating which database owner is most likely to have demographic information for a user corresponding to identifier 214. In some examples, beacon instructions 208 include predefined URLs for one or more database owners 204 to which client device 102 should send subsequent beacon requests 508. In other examples, when a first database owner 204a cannot identify identifier 214 ( FIG. 2 ) as corresponding to one of its registered users (and thus does not have demographic information corresponding to identifier 214), and/or does not record an impression of a media object 104a-104d, the same database owner is always identified in the first redirection message (e.g., beacon response 504), and that database owner always redirects the client device 102 to the same second database owner 204b via beacon response 512.

In some examples, before sending the beacon response 504 to the client device 102, the impression monitor 218 replaces the website ID (e.g., URL) of the media provider 106 ( FIG. 1 ) that supplied the media objects 104 a-104 d with a modified website ID (e.g., a replacement website ID) that can only be detected by the impression monitor 218 as corresponding to the media provider 106. In some examples, the impression monitor 218 can also replace the primary website ID (e.g., www.acme.com) with a modified primary website ID (e.g., a replacement primary website ID) that can only be detected by the impression monitor system 218 as corresponding to the primary website. In this manner, the source and/or primary website of the media objects 104 a-104 d are masked from the participating database owners 104 a-104 d. In some examples, the impression monitor 218 also replaces the media object characteristics 210 a-210 d with modified media characteristics or modified media identifiers that correspond to the media object characteristics 210 a-210 d. In some examples, the impression monitor 218 does not send the website ID, primary website ID, media object characteristics 210a - 210d , or modified versions in the beacon response 504 .

In the illustrated example, the impression monitor 218 maintains a modified ID mapping table 514 that maps initial website IDs to modified (or alternative) website IDs and/or maps modified media properties or identifiers to media object properties 210-d to obscure or hide such information from the database owner. Also in the illustrated example, the impression monitor 218 encrypts all of the information received in the beacon/impression request 212 and the modified information to prevent any intercepting party from decoding the information. The impression monitor 218 of the illustrated example sends the encrypted information to the client device 102 in a beacon response 504. In the illustrated example, the impression monitor 218 uses encryption that can be decrypted by the selected partner website specified in the HTTP "302 Found" redirect message.

Periodically or aperiodically, impression data collected by database owner 204 is provided as batch data to demographics collector 228 of AME 202. As described above, some user IDs (e.g., identifiers 214 of FIG. 2 ) may not match panel members of AME 202, but may match registered users of one or more database owners 204. During the data collection and merging process that combines demographic and impression data from AME 202 and database owner 204, the user IDs of some impressions recorded by one or more database owners 204 may match the user IDs of impressions recorded by impression monitor 218, while others will not. In some examples, AME 202 can use demographic-based impressions from the matching user ID logs provided by database owner 204, as necessary, to access and/or improve the accuracy of its own demographic data stored in panel database 224 of FIG. 2 . For demographic-based impressions associated with unmatched user ID logs, AME 202 may use such impressions to derive demographic-based online ratings even if the impressions (eg, ad impressions, content impressions, and/or any other media impressions) are not associated with a panelist of AME 202 .

Other examples of semaphore instruction processing that can be used to implement FIG5 are disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 8,370,489 to Mainak et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In addition, other examples of semaphore instruction processing that can be used to implement such semaphore instructions are disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 6,108,637 to Blumenau, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

6 depicts a communication flow diagram 600 illustrating an example manner in which the AME 202 may receive demographic information from the database owner 204 based on per-beacon reporting. The communication flow diagram 600 of the illustrated example involves generating an AME to database owner user ID mapping based on a redirection from the AME 202 to the partner database owner 204. In the illustrated example of FIG6 , the media object A 104a is tagged with the beacon instruction 208 (and the collector instruction 206 of FIG2 , not shown in FIG6 ).

In the example shown in FIG6 , when the impression monitor 218 receives the beacon/impression request 212 from the client device 102, the impression monitor 218 determines whether the beacon/impression request 212 includes an AME user identifier (e.g., identifier 214 of FIG2 ) that can be used by AME 202 to identify the client device 102. In some examples, the AME user identifier is an AME cookie set by AME 202 in the AME internet domain. If the beacon/impression request 212 does not include an AME user identifier, the impression monitor 218 creates an AME user identifier for the client device 102. If the beacon/impression request 212 does not include an AME user identifier, the impression monitor 218 determines whether the AME user identifier is associated with a database owner user identifier for the database owner 204 (e.g., mapped to a database owner user identifier of the database owner 204). If a database owner user identifier is present, the example impression monitor 218 stores the impression in association with the AME user identifier corresponding to the client device 102. The impression monitor 218 may or may not correspond to the beacon/impression request 212. In the example shown, the impression monitor 218 responds to the beacon/impression request 212 with something that is not intended to affect the display of the media objects 104a-104d, for example, with a transparent 1x1 pixel image or other requested media such as a placeholder. In some examples, the beacon/impression request 212 does not elicit a response.

In the illustrated example of FIG6 , the example impression monitor 218 sends a redirect message (e.g., an HTTP "302 Found" redirect message) to the client device 102 in a beacon response 606 in response to the beacon/impression request 212. If the illustrated example impression monitor 218 creates an AME user identifier (e.g., identifier 214 of FIG2 ) for the client device 102, or if there is no database owner user identifier for the client device 102 associated with (e.g., mapped to) an existing AME user identifier, the example impression monitor 218 adds the AME user identifier 602 to the URL parameters of the beacon response 606. The example impression monitor 218 also adds the Internet address 608 of the database owner 204a or multiple addresses of the database owners 204a to the URL parameters of the beacon response 606. For example, the impression monitor 218 can select one or more of the multiple database owners (e.g., from a list of partner database owners) based on, for example, the desired demographics of the users to whom the media is being served by the media provider 106. In some examples, the impression monitor 218 selects a default database owner 204 and one or more alternate database owners 204. For example, the default database owner and the alternate database owners 204 can be used by the client device 102 to send redirect beacon requests 612 to multiple database owners 204 one by one until one of the database owners 204 confirms that it recognizes the client device 102 as corresponding to one of its registered users.

The example client device 102 receives the beacon response 606 and sends a beacon request 612 to the database owner 204a based on (e.g., using) the internet address 608. In the illustrated example, the client device 102 sends the beacon request 612 to the internet address 608 of the database owner A 204a and includes the AME user identifier (e.g., AME_UID_value) in the parameters of the URL 616 that includes the internet address 608. In the illustrated example, the client device 102 may have a database owner user identifier (not shown) created and managed by the database owner 204a to identify the client device 102 and/or a registered user associated with the client device 102. If the client device 102 has a database owner user identifier for the domain of the database owner 204a, the example client device 102 also provides the database owner user identifier to the beacon request 612. In some examples, beacon instructions 208 may cause client device 102 to also locate other information in beacon request 612 (such as a media ID, a media type ID, an ad campaign ID, a placement ID, and/or any other information related to media object A 104A).

When database owner A 204a of the illustrated example receives the beacon request 612, database owner A 204a determines whether the AME user ID 602 was provided by the client device 102 in the beacon request 612. If the beacon request 612 includes the AME user ID 602, the example database owner 204a maps the AME user ID 602 to a database owner user ID 622 (e.g., DBP_UID). In the illustrated example, database owner A 204a locates (e.g., stores an association between the AME user ID 602 and the database owner user ID 622) the mapped AME user ID 602 and the database owner user ID 622 as parameters in a URL 618 that includes the internet address of AME 202. Database owner A 204a uses the URL 618 to send a message to the example demographics collector 228 indicating the mapping between the AME user identifier 602 and the database owner user identifier 622. Thus, in the example shown, the message sent using URL 618 provides, as a parameter of URL 618 , a mapping between the AME user identifier 602 and the database owner user identifier 622 for impressions recorded by the impression monitor 218 based on the beacon/impression request 212 .

In the example shown in FIG6 , the URL 618 also includes demographic information 626 associated with the client device 102 (e.g., demographic information for the user of the client device 102) known to the database owner A 204a as a parameter of the URL 618. The demographic information 626 includes age (Y_Age=45) and gender (Y_Gender=M). However, any other type of demographic information may alternatively or additionally be provided in the URL 618. In some examples, the URL 618 also includes a timestamp for the user identifier mapping. In some other examples, the impression monitor 218 and/or the demographic profile collector 228 stores timestamps derived from HTTP messages sent and received during the mapping process. In some examples, the AME user identifier 602 is unique, such that a timestamp is not necessary to match the AME user identifier 602 and/or the database owner user identifier 622 with impression data.

In the illustrated example, the demographics collector 228 stores a mapping between the AME user identifier 602 and the database owner user identifier 622, and stores demographic information 626 in conjunction with the mapped identifiers. For subsequent beacon requests received from the client device 102 for the same AME user identifier 602, the example impression monitor 218 records the corresponding impression and does not need to redirect to the user device 102, thereby reducing traffic to the database owner 204a.

Additional examples that can be used to collect demographic impressions based on providing demographic information in URL parameters and/or mapping AME to database owner user identifiers are disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/915,381, filed Jun. 11, 2013, to Seth et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In the illustrated example, based on receiving demographic information 626 in URL 618 in conjunction with AME user identifier 602, AME 202 can associate demographic information 626 with media impressions for all media objects 104a-104d (Figures 1 and 2) recorded by impression monitor 218 based on beacon/impression requests 212. Thus, by using collector instructions 206 and beacon instructions 208 in media object A 104a shown in Figure 2 to cause client device 102 to report impressions for all media objects 104a-104d in a single beacon/impression request 212, AME 202 can record a large number of impressions using corresponding demographic information received from database owner 204a based on a single beacon request (e.g., beacon/impression request 212) reporting a large number of impressions. In this way, the number of collected impressions can be increased without significantly increasing the bandwidth and processing resources required by client devices 102, networks, and servers.

FIG7 depicts a communication flow diagram 700 illustrating an example manner in which AME 202 may receive demographic information from database owner 204 based on a shared key or other identifying information shared between AME 202 and database owner 204. In the example shown in FIG7 , beacon instructions 208 for media object A 104a cause client device 102 to send shared key 702 in a beacon/impression request 212. The shared key 702 of the illustrated example may implement identifier 214 of FIG2 . In addition, beacon/impression request 212 also includes media object characteristics 210a-210d for all media objects 104a-104d of FIG1 and FIG2 . In this manner, beacon/impression request 212 may be used to report multiple impressions for multiple media objects.

When the impression monitor 218 receives the beacon/impression request 212, the impression monitor 218 records a plurality of impressions corresponding to the plurality of media objects 104a-104d. In addition, the impression monitor 218 sends a demographic information request 704 to one or more of the database owners 204. In the illustrated example, the demographic information request 704 includes a shared key 702. The shared key 702 of the illustrated example is an identifier that uniquely identifies the client device 102 to one or more of the AME 202 and the database owner 204. For example, the one or more database owners 204 that identify the shared key 702 that uniquely identifies the client device 102 may store the shared key 702 in association with a user registration account corresponding to a user or users of the client device 102. Similarly, the AME 202 may also store the shared key 702 in association with one or more panel membership records corresponding to the user of the client device 102 in the panel database 224 of FIG. 2 . In this way, when the impression monitor 218 and one or more database owners 204 receive the shared key 702, the AME 202 and the database owner 204 can retrieve demographic information corresponding to the client device 102 based on the shared key 702.

In the illustrated example, impression monitor 218 includes an encrypted media object ID 708 in demographic information request 704. The encrypted media object ID 708 of the illustrated example is a media identifier corresponding to media objects 204a-204d of Figures 1 and 2. For example, impression monitor 218 can generate encrypted media object ID 708 based on media object IDs retrieved from media object characteristics 210a-210d in media/impression request 212 and/or based on media object IDs determined by impression monitor 218 (e.g., via a lookup table or media reference database) based on media characteristics obtained from media object characteristics 210a-210d. In either case, to obfuscate the identifiers of media objects 104a-104d from interception parties and/or from database owner 204, impression monitor 218 of the illustrated example encrypts the media object IDs corresponding to media objects 104a-104d to generate encrypted media object ID 708. In some examples, database owner 204 is provided with information (e.g., an encryption key) to decrypt encrypted media object ID 708. In other examples, database owner 204 does not decrypt encrypted media object ID 708. In still other examples, impression monitor 218 does not encrypt the media object ID, but rather sends the media object ID in demographic information request 704 without masking the media object ID.

In the illustrated example, the database owner 204 retrieves the demographic information 712 corresponding to the shared key 702 and associates the demographic information 712 with the encrypted media object ID 708 (or unencrypted media object ID). The database owner 204 then sends a demographic information response 714 including the associated demographic information 712 and the encrypted media object ID 708 to the demographic profile collector 228 at the AME 202. In this manner, the AME 202 can associate the demographic information 712 with the impressions recorded by the impression monitor 218 for the corresponding media objects 104a-104d based on the demographic information 712 associated with the corresponding encrypted media object ID 708. In the illustrated example, the database owner 204 includes the shared key 702 in the demographic information response 714 in association with the demographic information 712 and the encrypted media object ID 708. In other examples, the shared key 702 is omitted from the demographic information response 714. For example, the database owner 204 may want to return anonymous demographics so that the AME 202 can associate demographic information with media impressions but cannot determine which demographics correspond to which client devices. In this way, the database owner 204 can obfuscate the connection between client devices and specific demographics while still providing the AME 202 with the ability to accurately associate demographic information with corresponding media objects based on the demographic information 712 associated with the corresponding encrypted media object ID 708.

Using the example processing shown in Figures 5-7, impressions (e.g., ad impressions, content impressions, and/or any other type of media impression) can be mapped to corresponding demographics when multiple impressions for a large number of media objects (e.g., media objects 104a-104d of Figures 1 and 2) are reported in a single beacon request (e.g., beacon/impression request 212 of Figures 2 and 5-7). In addition, the example processing of Figures 5-7 enables mapping impressions to demographics even when beacon requests are received from client devices that are not associated with a panel member of AME 202. That is, during the impression collection or merging process, AME 202 can collect distributed impressions recorded by (1) impression monitors 218 and (2) any participating database owners 204. As a result, the collected data covers more of the population with richer demographic information than was previously possible. In addition, by receiving multiple impressions in a single beacon request, demographic information can be associated with significantly more media impressions without significantly increasing bandwidth requirements or processing resource requirements of client devices, networks, and/or servers. Thus, by polling the resources of the distributed databases described above, it is possible to generate accurate, consistent, and meaningful online ratings. The example process of Figures 5-7 generates online ratings based on a large number of combined demographic databases distributed among unrelated parties (e.g., Nielsen, Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, etc.). Because the selection of participating partner websites can be tracked as if the participating partner websites were members of the panel maintained by AME 202, the end result appears to be that the user to whom the recorded impression is attributed is part of a large virtual panel formed by registered users of the audience measurement entity. This is accomplished without violating confidentiality agreements and Internet policies.

Although Figures 5 and 7 illustrate direct communication between AME 202 and database owner 204, in other examples, an intermediary server (e.g., a third party) may be used to broker communication and process data exchanged between AME 202 and database owner 204. For example, the intermediary third-party server may merge and/or adjust demographic information provided by AME 202 and database owner 204. The intermediary third-party server may then provide the merged and/or adjusted demographic information to AME 202 and to database owner 204 in such a way that AME 202 and database owner 204 can attribute the demographic information to corresponding recorded impressions.

Figures 8-10 illustrate flowcharts representing example machine-readable instructions for implementing the client device 102 of Figures 1, 2, and 5-7 and/or the example device 216 of Figure 2. In this example, the machine-readable instructions comprise a program for execution by a processor (such as the processor 1112 shown in the example processor platform 1100 discussed below in conjunction with Figure 11). The program can be implemented as software stored on a tangible computer-readable storage medium (such as a CR-ROM, floppy disk, hard drive, digital versatile disk (DVD), Blu-ray disk, or memory associated with the processor 1112), but the entire program and/or portions of the program can alternatively be executed by a device other than the processor 1112 and/or embodied as firmware or dedicated hardware. Furthermore, while the example program is described with reference to the flowcharts shown in Figures 8-10, many other methods of implementing the example client device 102 and/or the example device 216 can alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocks can be changed, and/or some of the blocks can be changed, eliminated, or combined.

As described above, the example processes of Figures 8-10 can be implemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machine-readable instructions) stored on a tangible computer-readable storage medium, such as a hard drive, flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), cache, random access memory (RAM), and/or any other storage device or storage disk that stores information for any duration (e.g., for an extended period of time, permanently, in brief instances, while temporarily buffering and/or caching information). As used herein, the term tangible computer-readable storage medium is expressly defined to include any type of computer-readable storage device and/or storage disk and to exclude propagating signals. As used herein, "tangible computer-readable storage medium" and "tangible machine-readable storage medium" are used interchangeably. Additionally or alternatively, the example processes of Figures 8-10 may be implemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machine readable instructions) stored on a non-transitory computer and/or machine readable medium, such as a hard drive, flash memory, read-only memory, optical disc, digital versatile disc, cache, random access memory, and/or any other storage device or storage disk that stores information for any duration (e.g., for an extended period of time, permanently, in brief instances, while temporarily buffering and/or caching information). As used herein, the term non-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined to include any type of computer readable device and/or disk and to exclude propagating signals. As used herein, when the phrase "at least" is used as a transition term in the preamble of a claim, the phrase is open ended in the same manner as the term "comprising" is open ended.

FIG8 is a flow diagram illustrating example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the client device 102 of FIG1 , FIG2 , and FIG5 - FIG7 to report media object impressions to the AME 202 ( FIG2 and FIG5 - FIG7 ) and/or one or more database owners 204 ( FIG2 and FIG5 - FIG7 ). First, the client device 102 receives a plurality of media objects (e.g., media objects 104a - 104d of FIG1 and FIG2 ) (block 802). The client device 102 presents the media objects 104a - 104d (block 804). For example, the client device 102 may present the media objects 104a - 104d via a display interface and/or an audio interface. The client device 102 determines which of the media objects 104a - 104d is a collector media object (block 806). In the illustrated example, the client device 102 determines that media object A 104a is a controller media object, as shown in FIG2 . For example, the client device 102 may identify media object A 104a as a collector media object by detecting collector instructions 206 (FIG. 2) embedded in media object A 104a. Additionally or alternatively, media object A 104a may inform the client device 102 that it is a collector media object.

The client device 102 executes the collector instructions 206 to collect media object characteristics (e.g., media object characteristics 210a-210d of FIG. 2 ) from the media objects presented by the client device 102 (block 808). In the illustrated example, the collector instructions 206 cause the client device 102 to collect media object characteristics from the collector media object A 104a and the passive media objects 104b-104d shown in FIG. 2 . The client device 102 locates the media object characteristics 210a-210d and an identifier (e.g., identifier 214 of FIG. 2 , FIG. 5 , and FIG. 6 and/or shared key 702 of FIG. 7 ) in a beacon request (e.g., beacon/impression request 212 of FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 - FIG. 7 ) (block 810). The client device 102 sends the beacon/impression request 212 to the AME 202 (block 812). For example, the client device 102 sends a beacon/impression request 212 to the impression monitor 218 of the AME 202 based on the beacon instruction 208 ( FIG. 2 ), as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5 - FIG. 7 .

The client device 102 determines whether to send any beacon requests to any database owners (e.g., database owners 204 of Figures 2 and 5-7) (block 814). For example, the beacon instructions 208 may include URLs of one or more database owners 204 to which the client device 102 sends beacon requests (e.g., beacon request 508 of Figure 5 and/or beacon request 612 of Figure 6). Additionally or alternatively, the client device 102 may receive one or more beacon responses (e.g., beacon response 504 of Figure 5 and/or beacon response 606 of Figure 6) from the impression monitor 218 and send one or more beacon requests to the one or more database owners 204 based on the one or more URLs located in the beacon responses.

If the client device 102 determines at block 814 that the one or more beacon requests should not be sent to one or more database owners 204, the example process of FIG. 8 ends. Otherwise, if the client device 102 determines at block 814 that the one or more beacon requests should be sent to one or more database owners 204, the client device 102 determines which one or more database owners 204 are the intended recipients of the one or more beacon requests (block 816). For example, the intended database owners 204 may be indicated in the beacon instruction 208 and/or the beacon response from the impression monitor 218. The client device 102 generates one or more beacon requests (e.g., beacon request 508 of FIG. 5 and/or beacon request 612 of FIG. 6) (block 818). For example, the client device 102 may generate beacon requests intended for one or more database owners as discussed above in connection with FIG. 5 and/or FIG. 6. The client device 102 sends the beacon requests to the one or more database owners 204 (block 820). Then, the example process of FIG. 8 ends.

FIG9 is a flow diagram representing example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the device 216 ( FIG2 ) at the AME 202 to record impressions of media objects (e.g., the media objects 104 a - 104 d of FIG1 and FIG2 ). First, the impression monitor 218 ( FIG2 and FIG5 - FIG7 ) receives a beacon/impression request 212 ( FIG2 and FIG5 - FIG7 ) from the client device 102 ( FIG2 and FIG5 - FIG7 ) (block 902). The impression monitor 218 identifies the media objects 104 a - 104 d based on the media object characteristics 210 a - 210 d located in the beacon/impression request 212 (block 904). For example, the media object characteristics 210 a - 210 d may include a media ID that identifies the media objects 104 a - 104 d. Alternatively, the media object characteristics 210a-210d may include other characteristics (e.g., a signature, code, identifier, publisher URL, etc.) that the impression monitor 218 can use to look up the corresponding media ID (e.g., using a reference media lookup database) to identify the media objects 104a-104d. The impression monitor 218 records the impression for the media objects 104a-104d (block 906).

The creditor 220 ( FIG. 2 ) determines a media object hierarchy for the media objects 104 a-104 d (block 908). For example, the media object hierarchy may be implemented as disclosed above in conjunction with FIG. 4 . The creditor 220 awards one or more causal credits based on one or more of the media objects 104 a-104 d based on the media object hierarchy (block 910). For example, the creditor 220 may award one or more causal credits to some of the media objects 104 a-104 d based on the identified media object hierarchy, as disclosed above in conjunction with FIG. 4 . The example process of FIG. 9 then ends.

FIG10 is a flow diagram representing example machine-readable instructions that may be executed by the apparatus at AME 202 ( FIG2 ) to associate demographic information with a media object impression. First, the panelist profile retriever 222 ( FIG2 ) determines whether the client device 102 ( FIG1 , FIG2 , and FIG5 - FIG7 ) is identified as being associated with a panelist (Block 1002 ). For example, the panelist profile retriever 222 may determine whether the identifier 214 of FIG2 , FIG5 , and FIG6 (and/or the shared key 702 of FIG7 ) received in the beacon/impression request 212 is stored in association with the panelist record in the panelist database 224. If the client device 102 is associated with the panelist, the panelist profile retriever 222 retrieves the demographic information associated with the panelist from the panelist database 224 (Block 1004 ). For example, the panelist profile retriever 222 retrieves demographic information based on the identifier 214 and/or the shared key 702 .

After retrieving the demographic information from the panel database 224 at block 1004, or if the panel member profile retriever 222 determines at block 1002 that the client device 102 is not associated with a panel member, the demographics collector 228 receives demographic information from one or more of the database owners 204 (FIGS. 2 and 5-7) (block 1006). For example, the demographics collector 228 may receive the demographic information from the database owners 204 using any suitable technique, including any of the processes described above in connection with FIGs. 5-7.

Demographics modifier 226 ( FIG. 2 ) determines whether it should adjust any of the demographic information from panel database 224 and/or the demographic information from database owner 204 (block 1008 ). For example, demographics modifier 226 may be configured to analyze the demographic information from panel database 224 relative to the demographic information from database owner 204 and adjust any missing and/or inaccurate demographic information. In some examples where demographics modifier 226 is not provided and/or defective, device 216 does not adjust the demographic information. If demographics modifier 226 determines that it should not adjust the demographic information, control proceeds to block 1012 . Otherwise, if demographics modifier 226 determines that it should adjust the demographic information (block 1008 ), demographics modifier 226 adjusts the demographic information (block 1010 ). For example, demographics reviser 226 can adjust demographic information from panel database 224 by filling in missing data and/or correcting inaccurate data using demographic information from database owner 204. Additionally or alternatively, demographics reviser 226 can adjust demographic information from database owner 204 based on demographic information from panel database 224 to fill in missing data and/or correct inaccurate data.

The attributor 230 ( FIG. 2 ) associates demographic information with a corresponding media object (e.g., collector media object A 104a shown in FIG. 2 ) (block 1012). Additionally, the attributor 230 identifies one or more passive media objects reported in conjunction with collector media object A 104a via the same beacon/impression request 212 (block 1014). For example, the attributor 230 may use impressions recorded by the impression monitor 218 to determine that passive media objects 104b-104d are reported in the same beacon/impression request 212 that reported collector media object A 104a. The attributor 230 associates demographic information with one or more impressions in the corresponding passive media objects 104b-104d (block 1016). In this manner, the attributor 230 can attribute the same demographic information retrieved for collector media object A 104a to the passive media objects 104b-104d reported in the same beacon/impression request 212. This technique is useful for accurately associating demographic information with multiple media object impressions recorded based on a single beacon request from a client device. Likewise, the client device does not need to use additional resources to send multiple beacon requests to AME 202 to report impressions for multiple media objects. The example process of FIG. 10 then ends.

11 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1100 capable of executing the example instructions of FIG8-10 to implement the client device 102 of FIG1, FIG2, and FIG5-7 and/or the apparatus 216 of FIG2. The processor platform 1100 may be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a mobile device (e.g., a cellular phone, a smartphone, a tablet (such as an iPad ^™ tablet)), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a digital versatile disc (DVD) player, a compact disc (CD) player, a digital video recorder, a Blu-ray player, a game console, a personal video recorder, a set-top box, or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example includes a processor 1112. The processor 1112 of the illustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor 1112 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors, or controllers from any desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 1112 of the illustrated example includes a local memory 1113 (e.g., a cache). The processor 1112 of the illustrated example communicates with a main memory including a volatile memory 1114 and a non-volatile memory 1116 via a bus 1118. The volatile memory 1114 can be implemented by synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), RAMBUS dynamic random access memory (RDRAM), and/or any other type of random access memory device. The non-volatile memory 1116 can be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memories 1114 and 1116 is controlled by a memory controller.

The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example also includes an interface circuit 1120. The interface circuit 1120 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB), and/or a PCI express interface.

In the example shown, one or more input devices 1122 are connected to the interface circuit 1120. The input devices 1122 allow a user to enter data and commands into the processor 1112. The input devices may be implemented by, for example, an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, buttons, a mouse, a touch screen, a trackpad, a trackball, isopoint, and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1124 are also connected to the interface circuit 1120 of the illustrated example. Output device 1124 can be implemented, for example, by a display device (e.g., a light emitting diode (LED), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a liquid crystal display, a cathode ray tube display (CRT), a touch screen, a tactile output device, a light emitting diode (LED), a printer, and/or a speaker). Thus, the interface circuit 1120 of the illustrated example typically includes a graphics driver card.

The interface circuitry 1120 of the illustrated example also includes communication devices (such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers, modems, and/or network interface cards) that facilitate exchanging data with an external machine (e.g., any kind of computing device) via a network 1126 (e.g., an Ethernet connection, a digital subscriber line (DSL), a telephone line, a coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 1100 of the illustrated example also includes one or more mass storage devices 1128 for storing software and/or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1128 include floppy disk drives, hard drives, CD drives, Blu-ray disk drives, RAID systems, and DVD drives.

The illustrated example encoded instructions 1132 represent example machine-readable instructions represented by the flowcharts of Figures 8 to 10. The encoded instructions 1132 may be stored in the mass storage device 1128, in the volatile memory 1114, in the non-volatile memory 1116, and/or on a removable tangible computer-readable storage medium such as a CD or DVD.

From the above, it will be appreciated that there has been disclosed a method for facilitating the transmission of multiple impressions regarding multiple media objects simultaneously presented/displayed at a client device to a collection facility using a single communication from a client device. When multiple media objects are presented by a client device, one of the media objects is operated as a collector media object. The collector media object collects media object parameters from all other media objects simultaneously presented at the client device. In this way, instead of all simultaneously presented media objects sending corresponding beacon requests to the collection facility, the collector media object sends a single beacon request with all collected media object information from all other presented media objects. This significantly reduces the amount of network bandwidth and communication resources required by the client device to report to the collection facility regarding the simultaneously presented media objects. In addition, this enables relationships (e.g., causal relationships) between different media objects to be determined.

Although certain methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture have been disclosed herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims (36)

1. A method for measuring media, the method comprising: collecting, based on first instructions in a collector media object presented at a client device, a first characteristic of the collector media object and collecting second characteristics corresponding to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object; and Based on a second instruction associated with the collector media object, reporting multiple impressions corresponding to presentation of the collector media object and the second media object at the client device, the reporting of the multiple impressions comprising sending the first characteristic and the second characteristic, and an identifier associated with the client device, in a single communication to an audience measurement entity. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a second communication to a database owner requesting demographic information associated with the client device. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein said sending of said second communication to said database owner is based on rules located in said collector media object. 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sending of the second communication to the database owner is based on an address of the database owner located in a redirect request received at the client device. 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier is a first cookie corresponding to the audience measurement entity, and the sending of the second communication comprises sending a second cookie corresponding to the database owner in the second communication. 6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the database owner is a social networking service. 7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first characteristic is first metadata encoded in the collector media object, and the second characteristic is at least one of second metadata encoded in the second media object or a signature generated based on the second media object. 8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the second characteristic is a signature of the second media object, and collecting the signature comprises performing a screenshot and generating the signature based on a corresponding image of the second media object. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: sending the uniform resource locators of the main websites of the collector media object and the second media object to the audience measurement entity based on the second instruction located in the collector media object. 10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein each of the collector media object and the second media object comprises at least one of an advertisement, a video, or an audio. 11. A method for measuring media, the method comprising: receiving a communication from a collector media object presented at a client device, the communication including a first characteristic corresponding to the collector media object and second characteristics corresponding respectively to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object, the first and second characteristics being collected for transmission in the communication based on instructions embedded in the collector media object; Receive demographic information from the database owner; and The demographic information is associated with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the first characteristic and the second characteristic received in the same communication from the client device. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the collector media object and the second media object are presented on a web page provided at the client device. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the client device is at least one of a computer, a television, a tablet, or a mobile phone. 14. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the collector media object and the second media object comprises at least one of an advertisement, a video, or an audio. 15. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 14, further comprising: requesting demographic information corresponding to the client device from a database owner; and The requested demographic information is received from the database owner as part of a parameter in a hypertext transfer protocol request. 16. The method of any one of claims 11 to 14, further comprising: receiving a first identifier in a communication from the client device, the first identifier corresponding to an audience measurement entity; and sending a redirect request to the client device, the redirect request instructing the client device to send a second communication to a database owner including a second identifier corresponding to the database owner. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first identifier is a first cookie corresponding to the audience measurement entity at a first internet domain, and the second identifier is a second cookie corresponding to the database owner at a second internet domain. 18. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 14 further comprises: recording impressions of the media corresponding to the collector media object and the second media object, and associating the demographic information with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the first characteristic and the second characteristic received in the same communication comprises: associating the demographic information with the recorded impressions. 19. A device for measuring a medium, the device comprising: a collecting device that collects a first characteristic of the collector media object based on a first instruction in the collector media object presented at a client device and collects second characteristics corresponding to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object; and A reporting device that reports a plurality of impressions corresponding to presentation of the collector media object and the second media object at the client device based on a second instruction associated with the collector media object, wherein the reporting of the plurality of impressions comprises sending the first characteristic and the second characteristic, and an identifier associated with the client device, to an audience measurement entity in a single communication. 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the apparatus further comprises means for sending a second communication to a database owner requesting demographic information associated with the client device. 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the sending of the second communication to the database owner is based on rules located in the collector media object. 22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the sending of the second communication to the database owner is based on an address of the database owner located in a redirect request received at the client device. 23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the identifier is a first cookie corresponding to the audience measurement entity, and the sending of the second communication comprises sending a second cookie corresponding to the database owner in the second communication. 24. The apparatus of any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein the database owner is a social networking service. 25. The apparatus of any one of claims 19 to 23, wherein the first characteristic is first metadata encoded in the collector media object, and the second characteristic is at least one of second metadata encoded in the second media object or a signature generated based on the second media object. 26. The apparatus of any one of claims 19 to 23, wherein the second characteristic is a signature of the second media object, and collecting the signature comprises performing a screenshot and generating the signature based on a corresponding image of the second media object. 27. An apparatus according to any one of claims 19 to 23, wherein the apparatus further comprises a device for sending the uniform resource locator of the main website of the collector media object and the second media object to the audience measurement entity based on the second instruction located in the collector media object. 28. The apparatus of any one of claims 19 to 23, wherein each of the collector media object and the second media object comprises at least one of an advertisement, video, or audio. 29. A device for measuring a medium, the device comprising: means for receiving a communication from a collector media object presented at a client device, the communication comprising a first characteristic corresponding to the collector media object and second characteristics corresponding respectively to a plurality of second media objects presented at the client device concurrently with the collector media object, the first and second characteristics being collected for transmission in the communication based on instructions embedded in the collector media object; means for receiving demographic information from a database owner; and Means for associating the demographic information with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on the first characteristic and the second characteristic received in a same communication from the client device. 30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the collector media object and the second media object are presented on a web page provided at the client apparatus. 31. The device of claim 29, the client device being at least one of a computer, a television, a tablet, or a mobile phone. 32. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein each of the collector media object and the second media object comprises at least one of an advertisement, video, or audio. 33. The apparatus according to any one of claims 29 to 32, further comprising: means for requesting demographic information corresponding to the client device from a database owner; and Means for receiving the requested demographic information from the database owner as part of a parameter in a hypertext transfer protocol request. 34. The apparatus according to any one of claims 29 to 32, further comprising: means for receiving a first identifier in the communication from the client device, the first identifier corresponding to an audience measurement entity; and Means for sending a redirect request to the client device, the redirect request instructing the client device to send a second communication to the database owner including a second identifier corresponding to the database owner. 35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the first identifier is a first cookie corresponding to the audience measurement entity at a first internet domain, and the second identifier is a second cookie corresponding to the database owner at a second internet domain. 36. An apparatus according to any one of claims 29 to 32, wherein the apparatus further comprises a device for recording impressions of media corresponding to the collector media object and the second media object, and associating the demographic information with the first characteristic and the second characteristic based on receiving the first characteristic and the second characteristic in the same communication comprises associating the demographic information with the recorded impressions.