HK40009017A - Apparatus, methods and storage medium to share online media impressions data - Google Patents

Description

Apparatus, method, and storage medium for sharing online media impression data

The application is a divisional application of an invention patent application with a primary application number of 201380029272.8 (international application number: PCT/US2013/045211, application date: 6/11/2013, invention name: method and equipment for sharing online media impression data).

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring media and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for determining impressions (impressions) using distributed demographic information.

Background

Traditionally, audience measurement entities determine audience engagement levels for media programs based on registered panel (panel) members. That is, the audience measurement entity recruits people who agree to be monitored into the panel. The audience measurement entity then monitors those panelists to determine the media programs (e.g., television or radio programs, movies, DVDs, etc.) with which those panelists have been exposed. In this way, the audience measurement entity may determine exposure measures for different media content based on the collected media measurement data.

Over the years, techniques for monitoring user access to internet resources (e.g., web pages, advertisements, and/or other content) have evolved significantly. Some known systems perform this monitoring primarily through server logs. In particular, an entity providing a content service on the internet may use known techniques to record the number of requests received for its content at its server.

Disclosure of Invention

An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising: means for redirecting to send a response to a first request, the first request identifying media provided to a client device, the response including an identification of a first cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity and an indication of a database proprietor, the response causing the client device to send a second request to the database proprietor, the second request including the identification of the first cookie; means for communicating to receive a network communication from at least one of the client device or the database proprietor, the network communication including a mapping of the first cookie to a second cookie and demographic information, the second cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor and the demographic information associated with the second cookie of the database proprietor; and means for associating to associate the second cookie and the demographic information with the impression of the media.

Drawings

FIG. 1 depicts an example system that generates an Audience Measurement Entity (AME) to partner cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to a partner Database Proprietor (DP).

FIG. 2 depicts an example message flow diagram corresponding to the example system of FIG. 1 for generating an AME to partner cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to a partner DP.

FIG. 3 depicts another example system that generates an AME to partner DP1cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to the partner DP1 and also sends a request to a second partner DP (partner DP2) to identify registered users of the partner DP 2.

Fig. 4 depicts an example message flow diagram corresponding to the example system of fig. 3 that generates an AME-to-partner DP1cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to the partner DP1 and also sends a request to a second partner DP (partner DP2) to identify the registered user of partner DP 2.

FIG. 5A is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to collect distributed demographic information from first and second partner database owners in conjunction with collecting online campaign audience share (OCR) data from the first partner DP.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example process of the system of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions of FIG. 5A.

FIG. 6A is a flow diagram representing example machine readable instructions that may be executed to collect distributed demographic information from first and second partner database owners without an OCR collection process that collects OCR data from the first partner DP.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example process of the system of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions of FIG. 6A.

FIG. 7A is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to perform user-level cookie synchronization processing.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example process of the system of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions of FIG. 7A.

Fig. 8A is a flow diagram representing example machine readable instructions that may be executed to perform an impression level cookie synchronization process.

FIG. 8B illustrates an example process of the system of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions of FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to implement the example browsers of FIGS. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to implement mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies of the browsers.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to implement the example AME server of FIGS. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to begin mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies.

Fig. 11 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to implement the example AME server of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to associate demographic data obtained from partner DPs with online activity monitoring information.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to implement the example partner DP server of FIGS. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to map an AME cookie to a partner DP cookie.

Fig. 13 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions that may be executed to implement the example beacon instruction generator of fig. 1 to generate beacon instructions (e.g., tags) to be served by a web server (e.g., the web server of fig. 1).

Fig. 14 is an example processor system that may be used to execute the example instructions of fig. 5A-13 to implement the example devices and systems disclosed herein.

Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and the written description to refer to the same or like parts.

Detailed Description

Over the years, techniques for monitoring user access to internet resources (e.g., web pages, content, advertisements, and/or other media) have evolved significantly. In the past, this monitoring was done primarily through server logs. In particular, an entity that provides a media (e.g., content and/or advertising) service on the internet will record, at its server, the number of requests received for its media. There are problems with conducting internet usage surveys based on server logs for a number of reasons. For example, server logs may be tampered with either directly or via a zombie (zombie) program that repeatedly requests media from the server to increase the server log count. Second, media is sometimes acquired once, cached locally, and then repeatedly viewed from the local cache without involving the server in repeated viewing. The server log cannot track the viewing of these cached media. Thus, server logs are prone to both over-counting (over-counting) errors and under-counting (under-counting) errors.

The invention disclosed in Blumenau, U.S. patent 6,108,637, fundamentally changes the way internet monitoring is performed and overcomes the limitations of the server-side log monitoring technique described above. For example, Blumenau discloses a technique in which internet media (e.g., content and/or advertisements) to be tracked is tagged with beacon instructions. In particular, the monitoring instructions are associated with the HTML of the media to be tracked. When the client requests the media, both the media and beacon instructions are downloaded to the client. Thus, the beacon instructions are executed whenever the media is accessed (whether from a server or from a cache). U.S. Pat. No.6,108,637 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The beacon instructions cause monitoring data reflecting information about access to the media to be transmitted from the client downloading the media to a monitoring entity. Typically, the monitoring entity is an audience measurement entity that does not provide media to the client, but rather a trusted third party (e.g., Nielsen Company, LLC) that provides accurate usage statistics. Advantageously, because the beacon instructions are associated with the media and executed by the client browser each time the media is accessed, the monitoring information is provided to the audience measurement company regardless of whether the client is a panelist of the audience measurement company.

However, it is important to link demographic data to monitoring information. To address this problem, audience measurement companies have established groups of users who agree to provide their demographic information and agree that their internet browsing activities are monitored. When individuals join the panel, they provide detailed information about their identity and demographic data (e.g., gender, race, income, home address, occupation, etc.) to the audience measurement company. The audience measurement entity sets a cookie on the panelist computer that enables the audience measurement entity to identify the panelist each time the panelist accesses the tagged media, thus sending monitoring information to the audience measurement entity.

Since most clients providing monitoring information from tagged pages are not panelists and therefore are unknown to the audience measurement entity, it is necessary to use statistical methods to attribute demographic information based on data collected for panelists to a larger population of users providing data for tagged media. However, the panel size of the audience measurement entity is still small compared to the general population of users. Thus, there is a problem how to increase the panel size while ensuring that the demographic data of the panel is accurate.

There are many database proprietors operating on the internet. These database proprietors provide services to a large number of subscribers. In exchange for providing the service, the subscriber registers with the owner. As part of this registration, the subscriber provides detailed demographic information. Examples of such database proprietors include social network providers such as Facebook, Myspace, and the like. These database proprietors set cookies on their subscribers' computers to enable the database proprietors to identify users when they visit their websites.

Internet protocol makes cookies inaccessible outside of the domain in which they are set (e.g., internet domain, domain name, etc.). Com cookies set in the amazon.com domain are therefore accessible to servers in the amazon.com domain, but not to servers outside the domain. Thus, while audience measurement entities may find it advantageous to access cookies set by the database proprietor, they cannot do so.

In view of this, audience measurement companies want to collect more extensive internet usage and demographic data with the existing databases of database owners. However, to achieve this, audience measurement entities face a number of problems. For example, the problem of how to access data of a database owner without compromising privacy of the subscriber, panelist, or owner of the tracked media is addressed. Another problem is how to access this data with technical limitations imposed by internet protocols that prevent audience measurement entities from accessing cookies set by the database proprietor. In examples disclosed herein, the beaconing process is extended to cover collaborating database owners and to utilize these collaborators as temporary data collectors. For example, the audience measurement entity and/or beacon instructions (e.g., Java, javascript, or any other computer language or script) may be re-directed so that the client browser requests the partner database proprietor to record the impression. In this way, if the partner database proprietor knows the audience member corresponding to the client browser, the partner database proprietor may provide demographic information corresponding to the audience member. In these examples, the number of redirect messages to the partner database owner may be numerous, as a redirect message is generated each time the client browser presents the media with embedded beacon instructions. An example technique for redirecting to one or more partner database owners to leverage distributed demographic data in an impression collection process is disclosed in international PCT application No. PCT/US2011/052623 entitled "Methods and Apparatus to deletion expressions Using distributed demographics Information," filed on 21/9/2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In addition, an example technique for gathering Impressions and leveraging Distributed demographic data stored at one or more partner database proprietors is disclosed in international PCT application No. PCT/US2011/065881 entitled "Methods and associated apparatus to Determine Media expressions Using Distributed demographic information," filed on 19.12.2011, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein utilize cookie mapping techniques to collect audience exposure data in which Audience Measurement Entity (AME) cookies for a particular audience member are mapped once to a collaboration database proprietor cookie (partner cookie) during cookie lifetime (e.g., while the cookie is valid in a client machine and/or not deleted or replaced). In this way, the AME need only redirect the client browser to a particular database owner once (during the cookie's validity period) to determine that partner cookies are mapped to AMEcookie in the client browser. Once the cookie mapping is complete, the AME may utilize the client browser to monitor media exposure of one or more panelists and/or non-panelist audience members based on the AME cookie and receive demographic information of the audience members from the collaborators based on the AME-to-collaborator cookie mapping. This reduces the number of redirections required by the database proprietor (e.g., only once during the lifetime or validity of the AME and partner cookies). By reducing the number of redirections, fewer interruptions, less interference and/or less background processing that negatively impacts the performance of the client browser, the overall user experience of the audience member is improved. Network traffic is also reduced, improving the overall efficiency of the network environment by reducing network congestion and latency. Furthermore, the amount of processing required by the database proprietor is reduced. In addition, the amount of data (e.g., the number of impressions) shared with the database proprietor is reduced.

Using AME-to-partner cookie mapping, the audience measurement entity may request demographic information from partner database owners of partner cookies mapped to their AME cookies in the AME-to-partner cookie mapping. In response, the collaboration database proprietor provides their logs and demographic information to the audience measurement entity, which then compiles the collected data into a statistical report that accurately identifies the demographic data of the person accessing the tagged media. The data obtained from this process is extremely accurate, reliable, and detailed, since the identification of the client is done with reference to a vast database of users far beyond the number of people in a traditional audience measurement team. In some examples, the collaboration database proprietor may be provided with audience demographic and exposure information collected by other collaboration database proprietors by agreeing to audience measurement efforts to participate in the collaboration. In this way, the collaborative database proprietor may supplement their own audience exposure metrics with information provided by other collaborative database proprietors.

Example methods, apparatus, and products disclosed herein may be used to determine media impressions (e.g., content impressions and/or advertisement impressions), media exposure (e.g., content exposure and/or advertisement exposure) using demographic information distributed across different databases (e.g., different website owners, service providers, streaming media providers, etc.) on the internet. The example methods, apparatus, and products disclosed herein not only enable more accurate correlation of internet media exposure to demographic data, but also effectively scale up groups and extend composition beyond those participating in a group of audience measurement entities and/or ratings entities (ratings entitlements) to those registered in other internet databases (e.g., databases of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc., and/or any other internet sites such as Yahoo |, amazon. This expansion effectively creates large, demographically accurate panels with the media tagging capabilities of ratings entities and the use of databases of non-ratings entities (e.g., social media and/or other websites) to obtain accurate, reliable measures of exposure to internet media such as content, advertisements, and/or programs.

Traditionally, audience measurement entities (also referred to herein as "ratings entities") determine demographic ranges of media (e.g., advertisements and content programs) based on registered panelists. That is, the audience measurement entity recruits people who agree to be monitored into the panel. During recruitment, the audience measurement entity receives demographic information from the recruited people so that correlations may then be made between the media exposure (e.g., ad/content exposure) of those panelists and the different demographic markets. Unlike conventional techniques in which audience measurement entities rely solely on their own panelist data to collect demographic-based audience measurement data, example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein enable audience measurement entities to use demographic information of other entities that operate based on a user registration model. As used herein, a user registration model is a model in which users subscribe to the services of those entities by creating accounts and providing demographic-related information about themselves. Sharing demographic information associated with registered users of the database proprietor enables the audience measurement entity to extend or supplement their panel data with substantially reliable demographic information from external sources (e.g., the database proprietor), thereby extending the coverage, accuracy, and/or completeness of their demographic-based audience measurement. This growth also enables audience measurement entities to monitor people who do not join the audience measurement panel, but who share their demographic data with the database proprietor. Any entity having a database of demographic data identifying a group of individuals may cooperate with the audience measurement entity. These entities may be referred to as "database proprietors," including entities such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo! MSN, Twitter, Apple iTunes, Experian, etc.

Example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein may be implemented by audience measurement entities (e.g., any entity interested in the measurement or tracking of audience exposure to advertisements, content, and/or any other media) that cooperate with any number of database proprietors (e.g., online web service providers) to obtain online media exposure metrics. These database proprietors/online web service providers may be social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.), multi-service sites (e.g., Yahoo |, Google, expert, etc.), online retailer sites (e.g., amazon.

To increase the likelihood that the measured media exposure is accurately attributed to correct demographic data, the example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein use demographic information in the records of the audience measurement entity and at one or more database proprietors (e.g., web service providers) that maintain records or profiles of users with their accounts. As such, the example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein may be used to supplement demographic information maintained by an audience rating entity (e.g., an audience measurement company such as nielsen (schoomberg, illinois, usa) that collects media exposure measurements and/or demographic data) with demographic information from one or more different database proprietors (e.g., web service providers).

Using demographic information from different data sources (e.g., high quality demographic information from a panel of audience measurement entities and/or registered user data of a web service provider) improves the reporting effectiveness of metrics for both online and offline advertising campaigns. Example techniques disclosed herein use online registration data to identify demographics of users, and use server impression counts, tags (also referred to as beacons), and/or other techniques to track the number of impressions attributable to those users. Online web service providers (collectively and individually referred to herein as database proprietors), such as social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) and multi-service providers (e.g., Yahoo |, Google, Experian, etc.), maintain detailed demographic information (e.g., age, gender, geographic location, race, income level, education level, religious beliefs, etc.) collected via the user registration process. An impression corresponds to a family or individual being exposed to corresponding media (e.g., content and/or advertisements). Thus, an impression indicates that a family or person is exposed to an advertisement or content or a group of advertisements or content. In internet advertising, the number of impressions or impression count is the total number of times an advertisement or advertisement campaign is visited by a web demographic (e.g., the number of visits may be decreased due to, for example, a pop-up blocker and/or increased due to, for example, retrieval from a local cache).

Example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein may also be capable of reporting TV and online ratings (e.g., utilizing a general reception viewpoint (GRP)) in a parallel manner. For example, the counting disclosed herein enables advertisers to report the number of individual people and users individually and/or collectively covered by a TV and/or online advertisement.

Example methods, apparatus, and/or products disclosed herein also collect impressions that map to demographic data at various locations on the internet. For example, the audience measurement entity collects these impression data for its panel and recruits one or more online demographic owners to collect impression data for their subscribers. By combining these collected impression data, the audience measurement entity may then generate GRP metrics for different advertisement campaigns. These GRP metrics may be correlated or otherwise associated with a particular demographic segment and/or market of coverage.

An example method disclosed herein includes sending a first request to an audience measurement entity, and sending a second request to cause a database proprietor to send a cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies corresponding to clients to database proprietor cookies to the audience measurement entity. Some example methods further include storing the database proprietor cookie. In some examples, the sending of the first request to the audience measurement entity is in response to executing a beacon instruction in a web page. In some examples, the second request also causes the database proprietor to transmit the demographic characteristics associated with the client to the audience measurement entity.

Some example methods also include sending a third request to the audience measurement entity, and sending a fourth request to cause the second database proprietor to send the audience measurement entity a second cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies to the second database proprietor cookies. In some such examples, the second request causes the database proprietor to asynchronously send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity. Some example methods also include sending a third request to the audience measurement entity, the third request including a cookie mapping.

An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a communication interface and a web browser. The web browser sends a first request to the audience measurement entity via the communication interface and a second request via the communication interface to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies corresponding to the client to the database proprietor cookies to the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the web browser sends the audience measurement entity cookie in the first request. In some example devices, a web browser sends a first request to an audience measurement entity in response to execution of beacon instructions in a web page.

In some example devices, the second request also causes the database proprietor to transmit the demographic characteristics associated with the client to the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the web browser sends the third request to the audience measurement entity and sends the fourth request to the second database proprietor to cause the second database proprietor to send a second cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies to second database proprietor cookies to the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the second request causes the database proprietor to asynchronously send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the web browser sends a third request to the audience measurement entity, the third request including a cookie mapping.

An example method disclosed herein includes: sending a response to the request, the response including an identification of a first cookie used by the audience measurement entity and an indication (indication) of a partner database proprietor; and receiving, by the partner database proprietor, a mapping of the first cookie to a second cookie used by the partner database proprietor and demographic information associated with the second cookie. In some example methods, the mapping and demographic information is received from the partner database proprietor in an asynchronous communication. In some examples, the response includes a redirect message that causes the client device to send a request to the partner database proprietor.

In some example methods, the mapping is received at a first time and the demographic information is received at a second time after the first time. Some example methods also include selecting a database proprietor from a list of database proprietors based on the website that initiated the beacon request. In some examples, selecting the database proprietor includes determining a quality of demographic information provided by the database proprietor for an expected demographic group associated with the website. Some example methods also include determining whether the beacon request includes a first cookie, and generating the first cookie when the beacon request does not include the first cookie.

An example apparatus disclosed herein includes: a redirector to send a response to the request, the response including an identification of a first cookie used by the audience measurement entity and an indication of a partner database proprietor; and a communication interface to receive, by the partner database proprietor, a mapping of the first cookie to a second cookie used by the partner database proprietor and demographic information associated with the second cookie. In some example devices, the communication interface receives the mapping and demographic information from the partner database proprietor in an asynchronous communication.

In some examples, the response includes a redirect message that causes the client device to send a request to the partner database proprietor. In some examples, the communication interface receives the mapping at a first time and receives demographic information at a second time after the first time. Some example apparatus also include a partner selector to select a database proprietor from a list of database proprietors based on the website from which the request originated. In some examples, the partner selector selecting the database proprietor includes determining a quality of demographic information provided by the database proprietor for an expected demographic group associated with the website. Some example apparatus further include a cookie generator, the redirector to determine whether the request includes a first cookie, and when the request does not include the first cookie, the cookie generator to generate the first cookie.

An example method disclosed herein includes: receiving a first request from a client device, the first request including an audience measurement entity cookie identifier; and determining a cookie mapping of an audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client to the database proprietor cookie. Some example methods also include sending a redirect message to cause the client to send a cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity. In some such examples, the redirect message includes a database proprietor cookie identifier, an audience measurement entity cookie identifier, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie identifier and the audience measurement entity cookie identifier.

Some example methods also include sending a message to the audience measurement entity, the message including a cookie mapping. In some such examples, the message further includes a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie identifier of the second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

An example method disclosed herein includes: receiving a first request from a client device, the first request including an audience measurement entity cookie identifier; and providing a cookie mapping to an audience measurement entity associated with the cookie, the cookie mapping comprising an association between a database proprietor cookie and an audience measurement cookie associated with the client. In some examples, providing the cookie mapping includes sending a redirect message to cause the client to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity. In some such examples, the redirect message includes a database proprietor cookie identifier, an audience measurement entity cookie identifier, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie identifier and the audience measurement entity cookie identifier.

In some example methods, providing the cookie mapping includes sending a message to an audience measurement entity, the message including the cookie mapping. In some such examples, the message further includes a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie identifier of the second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

An example apparatus disclosed herein includes: a communication interface to receive a first request from a client device, the first request including an audience measurement entity cookie identifier; and a cookie mapper that determines a cookie mapping of an audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client to a database proprietor cookie. In some example devices, the communication interface provides a cookie mapping to an audience measurement entity associated with the cookie, the cookie mapping including an association between a database proprietor cookie and an audience measurement cookie associated with the client.

In some examples, the communication interface provides the cookie mapping by sending a redirect message to cause the client to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity. In some such examples, the redirect message includes a database proprietor cookie identifier, an audience measurement entity cookie identifier, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie identifier and the audience measurement entity cookie identifier. In some example devices, the communication interface provides cookie mapping by: sending a message to an audience measurement entity, the message including the cookie mapping. In some such examples, the message further includes a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie identifier of the second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

An example apparatus disclosed herein includes: a communication interface to receive a first request from a client device, the first request including an audience measurement entity cookie identifier, and to provide a message to an audience measurement entity associated with the cookie, the message including a cookie mapping including an association between a database proprietor cookie and an audience measurement cookie associated with the client; and a processor that executes instructions that cause the processor to generate the message.

An example method disclosed herein includes providing instructions to be included in a website, the instructions when executed cause a client to initiate a process comprising: sending a first request to an audience measurement entity; and sending a second request to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies corresponding to the client to the database proprietor cookies to the audience measurement entity. Some example methods also include receiving information associated with the website and generating instructions based on the information. In some examples, the processing further includes receiving a redirect message from the audience measurement entity, the redirect message including an identifier of the audience measurement cookie.

An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a communication interface and a processor that generates instructions to be included in a website and causes the communication interface to provide the instructions to a web server associated with the website, the instructions, when executed, cause a client to begin a process comprising: sending a first request to an audience measurement entity; and sending a second request to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping of audience measurement entity cookies corresponding to the client to the database proprietor cookies to the audience measurement entity. In some examples, the communication interface receives information associated with a website, and the processor generates the instructions based on the information. In some example devices, the processing further includes receiving a redirect message from the audience measurement entity, the redirect message including an identifier of the audience measurement cookie.

Fig. 1 depicts an example system 100 that generates an Audience Measurement Entity (AME) to partner cookie mapping based on a redirection from an AME102 to a partner Database Proprietor (DP) 104. Fig. 2 depicts an example message flow diagram 200 corresponding to the example system 100 of fig. 1 for generating an AME to partner cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME102 to the partner DP 104.

In the example of fig. 1, the web server 106 provides access to one or more websites. The example system 100 determines an AME-to-partner cookie mapping for a web browser (e.g., the example web browser 110) requesting access to a website served by the web server 106. Although an example web browser 110 is shown for illustration, the example system 100 of FIG. 1 may duplicate and/or repeat the process shown in FIG. 1 for the web browser 110 and/or other web browsers. The example web browser 110 of FIG. 1 is a specific example of a web browser computer application executing on a particular computing device (e.g., a personal computer, mobile device such as the processing platform 1400 of FIG. 14). However, an example implementation of the example system 100 of FIG. 1 will typically involve many such browsers.

The example web pages available from the example web server 106 of FIG. 1 are tagged with beacon instructions. In some examples, the AME102 provides the web server 106 with tags or beacon instructions to be included in websites or elements of websites (e.g., media, advertisements, and/or other elements of websites) served by the web server 106. The provided beacon instructions may allow and/or require the web server to modify based on the particular page being marked and/or based on any arguments and/or other variables present on the web page.

When the example browser 110 requests a web page from the web server 106 (e.g., arrow (1) of fig. 1), the example web server 106 returns the page content with the beacon instruction (e.g., arrow (2) of fig. 1). The example beacon instructions of fig. 1 are provided by the AME102 and/or modified from instructions provided by the AME102 to the web server 106, and include a URL112 that points to the AME server 114 and specifies (among other things) the media presentation and/or exposure resulting from the web server 106 providing the requested page; and an indication (e.g., bolded text in URL 112) of the web server or publisher (e.g., web server 106) that provided the beacon instruction (e.g., arrow (3) of fig. 1). In some examples, the web server 106 is controlled by the partner DP104 or another database proprietor. In some such examples, the web server 106 includes an identifier or other representation of the partner DP104 in the URL 112. If the browser 110 previously stored a cookie (e.g., an AME cookie) corresponding to the AME102 (and the cookie has not expired), the example browser 110 provides the AME cookie with the beacon request.

The example AME server 114 includes a beacon request redirector 120, a cookie generator 122, a partner selector 124, a beacon instruction generator 126, and a communication interface 128. When the AME server 114 receives the beacon request from the browser 110, the example beacon request redirector 120 determines whether the beacon request includes an AME cookie. If the beacon request does not include an AMEcookie, the example cookie generator 122 creates an AME cookie for the browser 110. If the beacon request includes an AMEcookie, the example beacon request redirector 120 determines whether the AME cookie is associated with (e.g., mapped to) a DP cookie value of a DP (e.g., partner DP 104). If a DP cookie exists, the example AME server 114 stores the beacon in association with the browser 110. The AME server 114 may or may not respond to the beacon request. In the illustrated example, the AME server 114 responds to beacon requests that are not intended to affect the displayed content of the marked-up web page or advertisement (e.g., utilizing a transparent 1x1 pixel image or other requested media (e.g., placeholders)). In some examples, the beacon request does not elicit a response.

If the illustrated example AME server 114 creates an AME cookie for the browser 110, or if there is no DP cookie value associated with (e.g., mapped to) the browser 110 (e.g., tagged web page or tagged advertisement does not come from a DP server) an existing AME cookie, the example beacon request redirector 120 adds the AME cookie to the URL parameter 116 of the response to the beacon request. The example beacon request redirector 120 sends a redirect response (e.g., an HTTP "302 Found" redirect message) to the browser 110 in response to the beacon request (e.g., arrow (4) of fig. 1). The example URL parameters 116 of FIG. 1 include the address of the partner DP server 108 (e.g., bold and underlined text in the URL 116 of FIG. 1) and an identifier or value (e.g., bold but not underlined text) of the AME cookie to be mapped to the cookie of the partner DP 104. The example URL parameter 116 also includes the address of the partner DP server 108. The example partner selector 124 selects a partner DP server to which the redirect message is to be directed. For example, the partner selector 124 may select one or more of the plurality of partner DPs (e.g., from a list of collaborating partner DPs) based on, for example, expected demographic data of the media (e.g., tagged media) served by the web server 106. In some other examples, the partner selector 124 selects the default partner DP and one or more alternate partner DPs.

The example beacon instruction generator 126 of fig. 1 receives information associated with the example web server 106 and/or a website to be served by the web server 106. The information may include an address and/or a URL range of the web server 106 and/or the media. Based on the information, the example beacon instruction generator 126 generates beacon instructions to be used by the example web server 106 to tag media served by the web server 106. In some other examples, the beacon instruction generator 126 provides general instructions to the web server 106 that are modifiable by the web server 106 based on the served media.

The example communication interface 128 communicatively links the example AME server 114 to the example browser 110 (e.g., via a network such as the internet). The example communication interface 128 includes a combination of hardware and software and/or firmware to send and receive communications (e.g., beacon requests and redirect responses). In some examples, the communication interface 128 includes load balancing features for dividing the bulk of communications among the multiple AME servers 114.

The example browser 110 receives the redirect response to the beacon request and makes the request to the author DP server 108 based on (e.g., using) the URL 116 (e.g., arrow (5) of fig. 1). If the browser 110 has a cookie for the domain of the partner DP104, the example browser 110 provides the cookie on request. The example partner DP server 108 of fig. 1 includes a cookie mapper 130 and a communication interface 132. The partner DP server 108 determines whether the browser 110 provides a cookie. If the browser 110 provides a cookie on request, the example partner DP server 108 identifies the cookie (e.g., via the cookie mapper 130) and maps the partner DP cookie to the AME cookie identified in the URL 116 (e.g., stores an association between the partner DP cookie and the AME cookie). The example partner DP server 108 sends a message to the example AME server 114 indicating a mapping between the AME cookie and the partner DP cookie of the browser 110 (e.g., arrow (6) of fig. 1). The example message includes a URL 118 (e.g., bolded text) that provides the mapping.

The example cookie mapper 130 may additionally or alternatively be implemented in the AME server 114. As described below, in some examples, the AME server performs mapping between AME cookies and partner DP cookies based on AME cookies, partner DP user identifiers, and/or partner DP cookies associated with the browser 110.

The example communication interface 312 communicatively links the example partner DP server 108 to the example browser 110 (e.g., via a network such as the internet). The example communication interface 132 includes a combination of hardware and software and/or firmware to send and receive communications (e.g., beacon redirection, cookie mapping, and demographic information). In some examples, the communication interface 132 includes load balancing features for dividing a large number of communications among the plurality of partner DP servers 108.

In the example of FIG. 1, the mapping URL 118 also includes demographic information associated with the browser that is known by the partner DP104 (e.g., demographic information of the user of the browser). For example, the user of the browser 110 may have provided demographic information to the partner DP104 in exchange for using the services provided by the partner DP 104. In some examples, the mapping URL 118 also includes a timestamp of the mapping and/or a timestamp of another event that caused the mapping to facilitate mapping of AME cookies and/or partner DP cookies to impression data. In some other examples, the AME server 114 stores timestamps derived from HTTP messages sent and received during the mapping process. In some examples, the AME cookie is unique such that matching the AME cookie and/or partner DP cookie to the impression data does not require a timestamp.

The example AME server 114 of fig. 1 stores a mapping between AME cookies and partner DP cookies. The example AME server 114 of fig. 1 also stores demographic information for the browser 110 received from the partner DP (if any). For subsequent beacon requests received from the browser 110 for the same AME cookie, the example AME server 114 stores the beacon request (and associated page view volume and/or exposure information) and does not redirect the browser 110, thereby reducing traffic to the DP and also reducing data (e.g., impression count) provided to the DP.

FIG. 3 depicts another example system 300 that generates an AME to first partner DP cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to the partner DP1, and also sends a request to a second partner DP (partner DP2) to identify registered users of the partner DP 2. Fig. 4 depicts an example message flow diagram corresponding to the example system of fig. 3 to generate an AME-to-partner DP1cookie mapping based on a redirection from the AME to the partner DP1, and also to send a request to a second partner DP (partner DP2) to identify the registered user of partner DP 2. The example system 300 of FIG. 3 includes the AME102, the first partner DP104, the web server 106, the first partner DP server 108, the example browser 110, and the AME server 114 of FIG. 1. The example system 300 of fig. 3 also includes a second partner DP 302, the second partner DP 302 including one or more second partner DP servers 304.

In a manner similar to arrows (1) and (2) of fig. 1, the example browser 110 requests a web page from the first web server 106 and receives media (e.g., web page, advertisement) with beacon instructions. The request to the web server 106 may be for any media that is tagged (e.g., a web page, a portion of a web page (e.g., an advertisement)). The web page itself may be marked up and/or the advertisement or other portion within the page may be marked up. Example beacon instructions include a URL 306 (e.g., bold) that specifies the web server, publisher, and/or website owner that initiated the beacon instruction. In a manner similar to arrow (3) of fig. 1, the example browser 110 makes a beacon request to the example AME server 114 upon receiving a beacon instruction. If the browser 110 previously stored a cookie corresponding to the AME102 (and the cookie has not expired), the example browser 110 provides AMEcookie at the beacon request. In the example of fig. 1 and 3, the AME server 114 need not determine whether the AME cookie is expired because the browser 110 does not send (e.g., delete) the expired AME cookie (or any expired cookies).

When the AME server 114 receives the beacon request from the browser 110, the example AME server 114 determines whether the beacon request includes an AME cookie. If the beacon request does not include an AME cookie, the example AME server 114 creates an AME cookie for the browser 110. The AME cookie may expire after a time period that may be set in the AME cookie, may be set by the browser 110, and/or may be a general upper limit for the lifetime of the cookie. When the AME cookie expires, the example browser 110 discards the AME cookie (e.g., deletes from storage). The next beacon request from the browser 110 does not include an AME cookie, so the AME server 114 treats the browser 110 as unknown and provisions a new AME cookie. If the beacon request includes an AME cookie, the example AME server 114 determines whether the AME cookie is associated with (e.g., mapped to) a DP cookie value for a DP specified in the URL112 (e.g., the partner DP 104). If a DPcookie is present, the example AME server 114 stores the beacon in association with the browser 110.

If the AME server 114 creates an AME cookie for the browser 110, or if there is no DP cookie value for the browser 110 associated with (e.g., mapped to) an existing AMEcookie, the example AME server 114 adds the AMEcookie to the URL parameter 308 of the redirect response to the beacon request. The example AME server 114 then sends a redirect response (e.g., an HTTP "302 Found" redirect message) to the browser 110 in response to the beacon request (e.g., in a manner similar to arrow (4) of fig. 1). The example URL parameters 308 of fig. 3 include an address of the first partner DP server 108 (e.g., bold but not underlined text) and an identifier or value of an AME cookie (e.g., bold and underlined text) to be mapped to a cookie of the first partner DP 104. If the browser 110 previously stored a cookie corresponding to the domain of the first partner DP104, the example browser 110 includes the first partner DP cookie in the request to the first partner DP server 108.

The example first partner DP server 108 determines whether the request includes a first DP cookie. If the request includes the first partner DP cookie, the example first partner DP server 108 sends a message to the AME server 114 that includes the URL 310. The URL 310 includes a mapping (e.g., bolded text) of the first partner DP cookie to the AME cookie. In some examples, the first partner DP server 108 stores the first partner DP cookie for later mapping and transmission to the AME server 114 (e.g., bulk transmission). At periodic or aperiodic intervals, the first partner DP server 108 sends a plurality of messages including URLs (e.g., URL 310) indicating respective mappings of the first partner DP cookie to the AME cookie.

In addition to or instead of mapping the AME cookie to a partner DP cookie of the first partner DP104 (e.g., a partner DP from which the browser requested the web page), the example system 300 maps the AME cookie of the browser 110 to a partner DP cookie of the second partner DP 302. The example second partner DP 302 may have information about the user of the browser 110 in addition to or instead of the first partner DP 104. In some examples, the first partner DP104 may have no information associated with the browser 110, while the second partner DP 302 has demographic or other information available for the AME 102.

In some examples, the system 300 maps the AME cookie to a second partner DP cookie to enable the second partner DP 302 to record an impression of a media (e.g., advertisement) campaign. The example second partner DP 302 provides the impression information tracked via the second partner DP cookie to the example AME102 along with a mapping of the second partner DP cookie to the example AMEcookie of the browser 110. In some examples, the second partner DP 302 also provides demographic information associated with the impression.

To map the AME cookie of the browser 110 to the second partner DP cookie, the example AME server 114 sends a redirect response to the beacon request including the URL 312 to the second partner DP 302 (e.g., to the second partner DP server 304). For example, the tagged media may include multiple beacons to enable the AME102 to redirect the browser 110 to multiple collaborators DP. Additionally or alternatively, the tagged media issues only one beacon request, and the AME server 114 may respond with multiple redirect messages. Additionally or alternatively, individual DPs (e.g., first partner DP104, second partner DP 304, etc.) may respond to the request resulting from the redirection by returning the redirection to another DP. In the example where the AME server 114 sends multiple redirections, the example URL 312 of fig. 3 is similar to the URL 308, except that the URL 310 specifies the address of the second partner DP server 304 instead of the address of the first partner DP server 108.

The example URL 310 of the illustrated example includes an AME cookie value. The example browser 110 receives the redirect response and sends a request to the example second partner DP server 304. If the browser 110 has a cookie for the second partner DP server 304, the browser 110 includes the cookie in the request. The example second partner DP server 304 determines whether the request from the browser 110 includes a cookie. If the request includes a cookie, the example second partner DP server 304 reads a value from the cookie that identifies the browser 110 or a user associated with the browser (e.g., that uniquely identifies the user).

Unlike the example first partner DP104, the example second partner DP 302 of the example shown in fig. 3 provides the AME cookie to second partner DP cookie mapping at intervals, rather than immediately upon generating the mapping. For example, the second partner DP 302 stores a mapping between the second partner DP cookie and the mapped AME cookie for later transmission to the AME server 114 (e.g., bulk transmission). At periodic or aperiodic intervals, the second partner DP server 304 sends one or more messages that include a corresponding mapping of the second partner DP cookie to the AME cookie. The example second partner DP server 304 may send a set of multiple mappings in one or more data files (e.g., arrays or other data structures) via one message. Additionally or alternatively, the second partner DP server 304 may send a plurality of messages (e.g., dummy HTTP requests), where each message includes a mapping (e.g., a URL containing mapping information). If the example second partner DP server 304 identifies the user (e.g., via a user identifier in a cookie), the example second partner DP server 304 sends a mapping message or other confirmation message to the example AME server 114 (e.g., a 200OK HTTP response message).

The examples of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B are illustrated in connection with operations that may be performed using machine-readable instructions executed by one or more servers or computers in the example systems 100, 300 of fig. 1 and 3.

In the examples of fig. 5A, 6A, 7A, and 8A, operations described as being performed by the AME may be implemented by, for example, the AME server 114 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B, and operations described as being performed by the partner DP may be performed by, for example, the partner DP servers 108, 304 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B. In the example of fig. 5A, the first database proprietor (DP1) agrees to provide cookie level data, while the second database proprietor (DP2) refuses to provide cookie level data, but agrees to provide summary data indicating an aggregation of its cookie level data by segment (bucket) or category (e.g., male, age 30-40).

Fig. 5A is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 500 that may be executed to collect distributed demographic information from first and second partner database owners. FIG. 5B illustrates an example process of the system 100 of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions 500 of FIG. 5A.

At block 510, when the browser accesses the media (e.g., arrow (1) of fig. 5B), beacon instructions included in and/or associated with the media (e.g., arrow (2) of fig. 5B) cause the browser to register the impression by sending a beacon request to the AME (e.g., arrow (3) of fig. 5B). At operation in process block 512, the AME collects online activity data for the browser. For example, the AME receives a beacon request from a browser (block 512a), collects and/or stores impression data included in or associated with the beacon request (block 512 b). The data associated with the beacon request may include AMEcookie associated with the browser and/or may identify the media that triggered the beacon request. The AME processes the collected impression data based on the corresponding AME cookie received from the browser, for example, to correlate web browsing and media exposure (block 512 c).

At block 514, the AME determines to which partner(s) DP the browser is to be redirected. The example AME may select the partner DP1, the partner DP2, and/or one or more additional partner DPs. For example, when the demographic information of the expected or estimated demographic composition of the partner DP1 is of higher quality than other partner DPs, the AME may select the partner DP1 based on the expected or estimated demographic composition of the tagged website. In some other examples, the AME may select multiple (e.g., all available) partner DPs (e.g., DP1 and DP 2). Based on the result of block 514, the example AME sends a redirect response to the client browser (e.g., arrow (4) of fig. 5B) to cause the client browser to send a redirect request to partner DP1 (e.g., arrow (5) of fig. 5B, initiating blocks 502 a-502 c) and/or to partner DP2 (e.g., initiating blocks 516 a-516 d).

In the illustrated example, the operations in processing block 502 are performed by the partner DP1 (rather than the AME) to collect impression data based on beacon requests received from web browsers on client computers. For example, after accessing the marked media, the client browser sends a beacon request to the AME and is redirected by the AME to one or both of the partner DP1 and/or the partner DP2 (block 514). For purposes of discussion, assuming the partner DP1 received a message from a client browser based on redirection (e.g., block 502a), the partner DP1 accesses tag information (e.g., media information, publisher information, timestamps, etc.) from the message received from the client, thereby collecting and/or storing impression data from the browser (e.g., block 502 b). The partner DP1 processes the tag information to associate the tag information with the partner DP1cookie identifier and/or AME cookie identifier for users who contact the marked media (block 502 c). Thus, the example operations of block 502 enable the partner DP1 to collect impression information from panelist and/or non-panelist users accessing tagged media. In addition to or instead of AME collecting impression information, impression information may be collected by the partner DP 1.

At block 504, the partner DP1 compresses the raw impression data (e.g., media information, cookie identifiers, timestamps, etc.) collected by the partner DP1 for transmission to the AME (e.g., arrow (6) of fig. 5B). The impression data provided by the partner DP1 to the AME includes a mapping between an AME cookie identifier (e.g., an identifier received via tag information) and a partner DP1cookie identifier (e.g., an identifier of a user known to the partner DP1 and stored, for example, by the client device). Fig. 5B illustrates an example table 524, the example table 524 including timestamps, impression information (e.g., media identifiers), and associations between partner DP1 user identifiers and AME cookie identifiers. The example partner DP1 sends the table 524 to the example AME server in a message corresponding to arrow (6) of fig. 5B. For privacy, the partner DP1cookie identifier may be anonymous in the impression data provided to the AME. The example mapping information enables the AME to correlate impression data between multiple collaborators DP (e.g., DP1, DP2, etc.). The example blocks 502 and/or 504 of FIG. 5A are repeatedly and/or continuously executed to repeatedly collect impression data and communicate the data to the AME.

At operation in process block 506, the partner DP1 generates a cookie level user demographic data file (block 506 a). For example, the partner DP1 may generate a file that includes partner DPcookie identifiers to be mapped to AME cookies, and also includes demographic information of users respectively identified by the partner DP cookies. For example, the partner DP1 includes a DP cookie identifier for the user from which the DP cookie was received in association with the tag redirect message (e.g., during a previous reporting period) and demographic information associated with the user. The Cookie-level demographic data file is compressed and transmitted to the AME (e.g., periodically, aperiodically, in response to a request, at a specified time, etc.) (e.g., block 506B, arrow (7) of fig. 5B). An example table 526 is shown in FIG. 5B, which includes demographic information associated with partner DP1cookie identifiers. The demographic data may be limited to the user for whom the cookie mapping was generated, or may cover a larger set of cookies for the database proprietor.

At operation represented by reference numeral 508, the AME merges and/or aggregates impression data and demographic data from the partner DP1 (block 508 a). For example, the AME may associate demographic information corresponding to each partner DP cookie with impression data (e.g., impression data received from the partner DP1 in block 504, impression data received from other partner DPs, and/or other impression data collected by the AME) corresponding to each partner DP cookie. The example AME aggregates findings of the collaborators DP1 (e.g., groups data by demographic groups and/or segments) (block 508 b). The partner DP demographic and impression information and/or summaries thereof may then be input to a calibration engine to facilitate adjusting (e.g., calibrating) and/or generating media impression reports (e.g., online activity ratings) based on known data (e.g., AME panelist data 520).

At operation in process block 516, upon receiving a request resulting from the redirection response of the AME (block 516a), the second partner DP2 (e.g., the server 304 of fig. 3) collects and/or stores activity information of the browser corresponding to a cookie known to the second partner DP2 (e.g., the second partner DP 302) (block 516 b). The example partner DP2 collects tag information (e.g., impression data) in a similar manner as the partner DP1, as described above with reference to the operations of block 502. The example partner DP2 processes the impression data based on the partner DP2cookie (block 516 c). The partner DP2 may perform the processing in block 516c in a similar manner as the processing performed by the AME in block 512 c. However, instead of compressing the data, the example second partner DP server 304 periodically aggregates the tag information and sends the tag information to the OCR calibration engine 518 (block 516 d). For example, the aggregation of data may include grouping impression information and/or demographic information by a larger demographic group rather than providing impression and/or demographic information for individual users and/or individual cookies. The example OCR calibration engine 518 also receives AME group factors 520 (e.g., weights applied to impression information based on characteristics of a representative AME group). The example OCR calibration engine 518 generates OCR reports 522 based on AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping, partner DP demographic data, partner DP activity measurements (e.g., impression data collection), and/or AME activity measurements (e.g., AME panelist and/or non-panelist impression collection). The example instructions 500 may include any number of partner DPs to perform blocks 502 and/or 504 and/or may include any number of partner DPs to perform block 516.

Fig. 6A is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 600 that may be executed to collect distributed demographic information from first and second partner database owners without collecting impression data at the first partner DP. FIG. 6B illustrates an example process of the system 100 of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions 600 of FIG. 6A. The example instruction 600 includes blocks 506 through 522 of fig. 5A (e.g., arrows (1) through (4) of fig. 6B). Unlike the instructions 500 of FIG. 5A, the example instructions 600 cause the AME to collect impression information while freeing the partner DP1 from the task of collecting impression information.

The example instructions 600 of fig. 6A include instructions, represented by reference numeral 602, that cause the AME to redirect the browser to a subdomain of the partner DP1 domain (e.g., a server of the AME of fig. 1 running under the subdomain of the partner DP1 domain, such as the AME server 604, instead of a server operated by the DP 1). An example manner of using subdomains of partner DP1 domains is described in U.S. patent application No.13/239,005 filed 2011 on 21/9, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. The example AME server 604 receives a tab redirection from the browser at the partner DP1 sub-domain address (block 602a) (arrow (5) of fig. 6B). Since it runs under the partner DP1 sub-domain, the example AME may receive the partner DP1cookie directly from the browser. The partner DP1cookie is merged or mapped to the AME cookie by the AME (e.g., by retrieving AMEcookie from the payload in the redirect request) (block 602 b). Thus, in fig. 6A, the partner DP1 is relieved of the responsibility of collecting and reporting impression or exposure data. The data collected by the AME via the AME server in the DP1 sub-domain may be used in block 508 by the same or a different AME server to merge the impression data with the demographic data sent at block 506. The example AME server 604 stores and/or sends the mapping information to another AME server 114 (e.g., arrow (6) of fig. 6B).

FIG. 7A is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 700 that may be executed to perform a user-level cookie synchronization process. FIG. 7B illustrates an example process of the system 100 of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions 700 of FIG. 7A. User level cookie synchronization refers to synchronizing an AME cookie associated with a user/device with a partner DP cookie associated with the same user/device. The example instruction 700 includes blocks 510, 512, and 516 through 522 of FIG. 5A.

During the collection process 702, the media of the partner DP1 site is tagged to allow the user cookie ID to be mapped to the AME cookie (block 702 a). For example, when a registered user of the partner DP1 site accesses the partner DP1 site (e.g., by accessing a tagged login page) (arrow (1) of fig. 7B), a tag associated with the partner DP1 site (arrow (2) of fig. 7B) causes the browser to send a beacon request to the AME, the beacon request including an AME cookie (if available) and a user identifier (e.g., alphanumeric code or value) of the user also known to the partner DP1 (block 702B). For example, the user identifier may be carried in the payload of the beacon request. To maintain privacy for the user, the example user identifier may be arbitrarily defined by the example partner DP1, and/or may change for the same user for various mappings of AME cookies to partner DP1 cookies. Further, the user identifier is mapped to the DP1cookie, but is not itself a DP1 cookie. The example AME stores an association between the user identifier and the received AME cookie. If there is no received AME cookie, the example AME stores the new AME cookie at the browser and records the association between the new AME cookie and the user identifier. In some examples where the partner DP1 provides a consistent user identifier for the user, the AME associates multiple AME cookies with impression data corresponding to the multiple AME cookies based on AME cookies mapped to the same partner DP1 cookie.

Independent of the mapping process 702, the example browser 110 accesses media (e.g., from a media server) at block 510 (arrow (4) of fig. 7B). As described above, the example AME collects and stores impression information received from the browser via the beacon request (e.g., block 512, arrows (5) and (6) of fig. 7B).

During demographic data processing 704, the partner DP1 generates a daily/weekly partner DP1 demographic table (e.g., table 708 of fig. 7B) that contains user IDs (e.g., the user ID sent to the AME via the beacon request) and key demographics (segments) (block 704 a). The example partner DP1 compresses and/or transmits the demographic data file to the AME (e.g., block 704B, arrow (7) of fig. 7B). Since the collaborator DP1 knows the association between its users and the user IDs provided to the AME, the example collaborator DP1 may match the user IDs with the demographic information of the corresponding users. In the example shown, the partner DP1 anonymizes the data to comply with privacy requirements. A mapping file between the AME cookie and the partner DP1cookie may be created using a mapping between the user (e.g., partner DP1) ID and the AME cookie (e.g., determined by the AME from the data provided by block 702) and a partner DP1 demographic data table (e.g., a demographic data file provided by the partner DP 1). The cookie mapping and/or the mapping between user IDs and AME cookies may then be used to associate audience demographics corresponding to online media impressions, and/or perform, for example, online campaigns and/or exposure calculations and reports. In the example shown, the AME applies profile corrections to correct or adjust for any demographic data that is deemed inaccurate.

During the reporting process 706, the partner DP1 demographic data table (e.g., received from process block 704) is matched (block 706a) to the AME collection table (e.g., the impression information table collected by the AME in process block 512) to facilitate aggregation and reporting (block 706 b). For example, the AME utilizes the partner DP1cookie to AME cookie mapping (e.g., received and/or determined from processing block 702 of fig. 7A and/or arrow (3) of fig. 7B) to match demographic data (e.g., received from processing block 704 of fig. 7A and/or arrow (7) of fig. 7B) corresponding to the partner DP1cookie with the activity monitoring data. As such, the demographic data is correlated with the impression data based on the AME cookie ID and/or the user identifier provided by the DP1 to associate the demographic data with the campaign data. The demographic and activity data may then be input into a calibration engine to facilitate generation of reports reflecting exposure to various demographic groups.

The example instructions 700 of fig. 7A do not redirect the browser to a DP1 server. In contrast, the cookie mapping between the partner DP1cookie (and/or the partner DP1 user identifier) and the AME cookie enables impression data collected by the AME to be mapped to demographic information provided by the partner DP 1. As a result, the number of redirections is reduced relative to the systems of fig. 5A-5B, 6A-6B, and 8A-8B, and thus network traffic is reduced. In addition, the reduced redirection of the browser results in an improved user experience, as the user experiences less of the delay associated with redirecting messages.

Fig. 8A is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 800 that may be executed to perform an impression level cookie synchronization process. FIG. 8B illustrates an example process of the system 100 of FIG. 1 implementing the instructions 800 of FIG. 8A. Impression level cookie synchronization refers to synchronizing an AME cookie associated with an impression with a partner DP cookie also associated with the same impression. The example instruction 600 includes blocks 510-522 of fig. 5A implementing at least arrows (1) -4 of fig. 8B.

During the collection process 802, the partner DP1 receives a redirect from the client browser (e.g., block 802a of fig. 8A, arrow (5) of fig. 8B). The redirection includes the AME cookie as a parameter to be sent to the partner DP1 (e.g., in the payload of the request). The partner DP1 receives the redirected request from the client browser and automatically returns a response containing a mapping between the AME cookie ID (provided by the AME via redirection) and the partner DP1cookie ID (received from the client browser (when present)) at block 802B, arrow (6) of fig. 8B. In some examples, the response is sent to the client browser, which forwards the data to the AME. In other examples, the response is sent directly (e.g., omitting the browser) from the partner DP1 to the AME (e.g., via asynchronous communication) to avoid additional messages involving the client browser that may degrade the user experience. The example cookie mapping during the collection process 802 results in a rapid collection (e.g., near real-time collection) of demographic information, enabling advertisers to more quickly identify inconsistencies between advertising targets and advertising results and/or to more quickly adjust placement and/or serving of advertisements to cover desired demographic composition.

For example, if an ad publisher is directed to placing advertisements on websites A and B to achieve 10,000 impressions per day for men aged 30-40, but in fact, as indicated by the data collection of the process of FIG. 8A, website A generates 6,000 impressions for men aged 30-40, and the majority of the impressions generated by website A are female, the ad publisher may increase the placement of advertisements on website B and decrease the placement of advertisements on website A during time periods associated with demographic objectives (e.g., seven day periods to meet daily objectives, hour periods to meet hourly objectives, etc.) to achieve its demographic impression objectives. Such switching of ad impressions may potentially occur in real-time to achieve desired advertising goals in the current ad campaign. In the past, demographic results were not available until the advertisement campaign was completed, thus resulting in missed targets.

The partner DP1 provides the user table (e.g., table 810 of fig. 8B) or other data structure to the AME containing the partner DP1cookie identifier and associated demographic surface periodically (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.) or non-periodically (e.g., with mapping information) (block 804a, arrow (6) and/or arrow (7) of fig. 8B). The cookie identifier provided in the user table corresponds to the cookie identifier mapped to the AME identifier in processing block 802. In the example shown, the data is anonymized (e.g., personal identification information removed) to comply with privacy requirements. In the example shown, the AME applies profile corrections to correct or adjust for any demographic data that is deemed inaccurate.

During the reporting process 806, the example AME uses the mapping received from block 802 to match the partner DP1 demographic data table (e.g., demographic data from block 804) with the AME collection table (e.g., online activity data from block 512) (block 806a) to facilitate aggregation and reporting (block 806 b). For example, the aggregation of data may include grouping impression information and/or demographic information by a larger demographic group rather than providing impression and/or demographic information for individual users and/or individual cookies. In this way, demographic data is linked with impression data based on partner DP1cookie ID.

In operation within process block 808, the example AME provides the OCR report 522 of fig. 8A to the media publisher and/or the web server (e.g., arrow (8) to web server 106 of fig. 8B). In the example of fig. 8A, the publisher compares the OCR reports to demographic targets (block 808A). Based on the comparison, the example publisher adjusts the delivery of media (e.g., transfers delivery of media between websites) to achieve the desired goal. Thus, block 808 provides a feedback mechanism to enable advertisers to identify inconsistencies between advertising targets and advertising results and/or to more quickly adjust placement and/or service of advertisements to cover desired demographic make-up.

Although example instructions 500-800 are disclosed above with reference to fig. 5A-8B, any of the instructions 500-800 and/or blocks of fig. 5A-8B may be combined, divided, rearranged, omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in any other way to achieve various advantages, such as those described with respect to fig. 5A-8B.

Although example manners of implementing the systems 100, 300 are illustrated in fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B, one or more of the elements, processes, and/or devices illustrated in fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B may be combined, divided, re-arranged, omitted, eliminated, and/or implemented in any other way. Additionally, the example web server 106, the example AME server 114, 604, the example partner DP server 108, 304, the example browser 110, the example beacon request redirector 120, the example cookie generator 122, the example partner selector 124, the example beacon instruction generator 126, the example communication interface 128, 132, the example cookie mapper 130, and/or (more generally) the example systems 100, 300 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, and/or any component of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of the example web server 106, the example AME servers 114, 604, the example partner DP servers 108, 304, the example browser 110, the example beacon request redirector 120, the example cookie generator 122, the example partner selector 124, the example beacon instruction generator 126, the example communication interfaces 128, 132, the example cookie mapper 130, and/or the example systems 100, 300 (more generally) 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 any device or system claims reading this patent encompass a purely software and/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example web server 106, the example AME server 114, 604, the example partner DP server 108, 304, the example browser 110, the example beacon request redirector 120, the example cookie generator 122, the example partner selector 124, the example beacon instruction generator 126, the example communication interface 128, 132, and/or the example cookie mapper 130 is thereby expressly defined as comprising a tangible computer-readable storage or storage disk, such as a memory, a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a Compact Disk (CD), a blu-ray disk, etc., that stores software and/or firmware. Additionally, the example systems 100, 300 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B may include one or more elements, processes, and/or devices in addition to, or instead of, those shown in fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B, and/or may include more than one of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes, and devices.

A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions to implement the systems 100, 300 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B is shown in fig. 9-13. In this example, the machine readable instructions comprise a program for execution by a processor (e.g., the processor 1412 shown in the example processor platform 1400 discussed below in connection with fig. 14). The program may be embodied in software stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a blu-ray disk, or a memory associated with the processor 1412, but the entire program and/or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than the processor 1412 and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware. Additionally, although the example program is described with reference to the flowcharts shown in fig. 9-13, many other methods of implementing the example systems 100, 300 may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed and/or some of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined.

As described above, the example processes of fig. 9-13 may be implemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machine readable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readable storage medium (e.g., a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a cache, a Random Access Memory (RAM), and/or any other storage device or storage disk that stores information for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, temporarily (briefinstance), for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, the term tangible computer readable storage medium is expressly defined to include any type of computer readable storage 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 fig. 9-13 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 (e.g., a hard disk drive, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a compact disk, a digital versatile disk, a cache, a random-access memory, and/or any other storage device or storage disk that stores information for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, temporarily, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching of the information). As used herein, the term non-transitory computer readable medium is expressly defined to include any type of computer readable device and/or storage disk and to exclude propagating signals. As used herein, the phrase "at least" when used as a transitional word in the preamble of the claims is open-ended as is the term "comprising".

FIG. 9 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions 900 that may be executed to implement the example browser 110 of FIGS. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to implement mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies of the browser.

The example browser 110 of FIG. 1 sends a request for a web page (e.g., to a partner DP and/or to another web page publisher) (block 902). The example browser 110 receives web page code including beacon instructions (e.g., a tag provided by the AME) (block 904). The example browser 110 executes the beacon instructions (block 906) and generates a beacon request from the beacon instructions (block 908).

The example browser 110 determines whether a cookie for the AME domain is stored (block 910). For example, the AME may have previously caused the browser 110 to store a cookie for the AME domain. If a cookie for the AME domain is stored (block 910), the example browser 110 adds the AME cookie to the beacon request (block 912). After adding the AME cookie to the beacon request (block 912), or if there is no stored AME domain cookie (block 910), the example browser 110 sends the beacon request to the AME server 114 (block 914). Example methods and apparatus for performing any of blocks 902 through 914 are described in U.S. patent No.8,370,489, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.

The example browser 110 determines whether a response is received (block 916). If no response is received (block 916), the example browser 110 determines whether a response timeout (e.g., a watchdog timer) has elapsed (block 917). For example, when the browser 110 provides an AME cookie in the beacon request, and the AME server 114 determines that the AME cookie is mapped to a partner DPcookie, the example AME server 114 may record the impression and omit transmitting the response to the browser 110. By not responding, the example AME server 114 and browser 110 may reduce network traffic and/or reduce the amount of data sent to partner DPs. If a response timeout has not occurred (block 917), control loops to block 916 to continue waiting for a response to the beacon request. In some examples, a timer is used at block 916 to prevent aborting in an infinite loop. In such an example, if no response is received within the timeout period, control passes out of block 916 to end the instructions of fig. 9.

Upon receiving the response (block 916), the example browser 110 determines whether the response is a redirect message (e.g., a 302FOUND message) (block 918). If the response is a redirect message (block 918), the example browser 110 generates a partner DP request from the redirect instruction (block 920). For example, the partner DP request may include the URL of the partner DP server specified in the redirect message.

The example browser 110 determines whether a cookie for the partner DP domain specified in the redirect is stored (block 922). For example, the partner DP may have previously caused the browser 110 to store a cookie for the partner DP domain. If a cookie for the partner DP domain is stored (block 922), the example browser adds the partner DP cookie to the partner DP request (block 924). After adding the partner DP cookie (block 924), or if a partner DP cookie is not stored (block 922), the example browser 110 sends a partner DP request to the partner DP server 108 (block 926). After sending the partner DP request to the partner DP server (block 926), the example instructions 900 end if the response from the AME server 114 is not a redirect (e.g., is a placeholder image such as a 1x1 transparent pixel) (block 918), or if a response timeout occurs (block 917).

FIG. 10 is a flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions 1000 that may be executed to implement the example AME server 114 of FIGS. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to begin mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies.

The example AME server 114 of fig. 1 receives a beacon request from a browser (e.g., the browser 110 of fig. 1) (block 1002). The example AME server 114 determines whether the beacon request includes an AME cookie (block 1004). If the beacon request does not include an AME cookie (block 1004), the example AME server 114 generates an AME cookie for the browser (block 1006). For example, the AME cookie enables the AME server to track the online activity of the browser in the AME-tagged web page. If the beacon request includes an AME cookie (block 1004), the example AME server 114 determines whether the AME cookie has been mapped to a partner DP cookie (block 1008). For example, the AME server 114 may determine whether AME cookies are mapped to cookies of one or more partner DPs. If the AME cookie is mapped to a partner DP cookie (block 1008), the example AME server 114 determines if additional mapping is desired (block 1009). For example, although the AME server 114 may have a mapping between AME cookies and first partner DP cookies, it may be desirable to map AME cookies to second (or more) partner DP cookies among other partner DPs to improve the quality of the demographic information applied to the impression data.

If a mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies (e.g., the first partner DP cookie and/or additional partner DP cookies) is desired (blocks 1008, 1009), or after generating AME cookies (block 1006), the example AME server 114 generates a redirect response (block 1010). The example AME server 114 includes an identifier of an AME cookie (e.g., a generated or previously stored cookie) and an address (e.g., a URL) of the partner DP to contact in the redirect response (block 1012). The example AME server 114 sends a redirect response (e.g., including the AME cookie identifier and the partner DP address) to the browser 110 (block 1014). In some examples, blocks 1002 through 1014 represent processes, and blocks 1016 through 1030 represent separate processes performed in parallel. In such an example, the first process ends after block 1014.

Returning to the example of FIG. 10, the example AME server 114 determines whether an AME cookie to partner DPcookie mapping has been received (block 1016). The example AME server 114 may wait a period of time between blocks 1014 and 1016 (e.g., to allow the browser 110 to send a request to the partner DP server 108). If an AME cookie to partner DPcookie mapping is received (block 1016), the example AME server 114 records the AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping (block 1018). For example, the mapping may include an AME cookie identifier and a corresponding partner DP cookie identifier.

In some examples, blocks 1016 and 1018 constitute threads that may be executed as separate processes to receive and/or store a mapping between AMEcookie and partner DP cookies. For example, the AME server 114 may redirect the browser to the partner DP server 108, 304. The partner DP server 108, 304 determines the association between the AME cookie and the partner DP cookie and, instead of immediately sending the mapping to the AME server 114 (e.g., directly or via the browser 110), the example partner DP server 108, 304 processes and/or batches the mapping (e.g., multiple messages, multiple mappings in a file, etc.).

Returning to the example of FIG. 10, after recording the cookie mapping (block 1018), or if no cookie mapping is received (block 1016), the example AME server 114 determines whether to request a mapping from an additional partner DP (block 1020). For example, the browser 110 may select multiple beacon requests based on the tagging instructions to enable the AME server 114 to redirect the requests to multiple partner DPs. If the AME server 114 is to request a mapping from additional partner DPs (block 1020), the example AME server 114 generates a redirect response (block 1022). The example AME server 114 includes an AME cookie (e.g., a generated or received AME cookie) in the redirect response (block 1024). The example AME server 114 sends the redirect request to the browser 110 (block 1026).

In some examples where the AME server 114 is to request a mapping to additional (e.g., multiple) partner DPs (block 1020), the example AME server 114 may issue multiple redirect responses to the browser 110 concurrently in response to the beacon request.

Returning to the example of fig. 10, the example AME server 114 stores the AME cookie for subsequent matching with partner DP data (e.g., via periodic transmission of partner DP OCR and/or demographic information) (block 1028).

After storing the AME cookie (block 1028), if the AME server 114 does not request a mapping from additional partner DPs (block 1020), or if a cookie mapping to additional partner DPs is not desired (block 1009), the example instructions 1000 of fig. 10 end.

Fig. 11 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 1100 that may be executed to implement the example AME server 114 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to associate demographic data obtained from partner DPs with online activity monitoring information (e.g., impression data and/or exposure data).

The example AME server 114 obtains an AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping (block 1102). For example, the AME server 114 may receive periodic or aperiodic reports from the partner DP server 108 of fig. 1 that include a mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies. Additionally or alternatively, the example AME server 114 may receive (e.g., directly or via the browser 110) a message (e.g., an HTTP message) from the partner DP server 108, 304 that includes an AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping. The example AME server 114 obtains demographic information corresponding to the partner DP cookie (block 1104).

The example AME server 114 selects an AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping (block 1106). The example AME server 114 determines whether the partner DP cookies in the selected mapping map to additional AME cookies (e.g., AME cookies other than the AME cookies in the selected mapping) (block 1108). For example, multiple AME cookies may be provided to a browser 110 associated with a user, who in turn is associated with a partner DP cookie. When an AMEcookie expires or is deleted by the browser 110, additional AME cookies are provided to the browser 110 and may be mapped to the same partner DP cookie. The example AME server 114 may then correlate the impressions of the user by merging the impression data of multiple AME cookies mapped to the same partner DPcookie. If a partner DP cookie is mapped to an additional AME cookie (block 1108), the example AME server merges the mappings of AMEcookies corresponding to the partner DP cookie (block 1110). By incorporating the mappings, the example AME server 114 may incorporate the activities (e.g., impressions) of the users associated with the browsers.

After merging the mappings (block 1110) or if the partner DP cookie is not mapped to an additional AMEcookie (block 1108), the example AME server 114 determines whether an AME cookie (e.g., the selected mapped AME cookie and/or the merged AME cookie) is mapped to an additional partner DP cookie (block 1112). For example, the AME server 114 may request and receive mappings from multiple partner DP servers 108, 304 for a single AME cookie as described above. If the AME cookie is mapped to an additional partner DP cookie (block 1112), the example AME server 114 merges the mapping of the additional partner DP cookie to the AME cookie (block 1114).

After merging the mappings (block 1114), or if there are no additional partner dpcookies mapped to the AME cookie (block 1112), the example AME server 114 determines whether there are additional mappings to consider merging (block 1116). If additional mappings exist (block 1116), control returns to block 1106 to select another AME cookie to partner DP cookie mapping.

When there are no additional mappings (block 1116), the example AME server 114 associates the online activity (e.g., impression data) measured using the AME cookie with the received demographic information corresponding to the partner DP cookie (e.g., based on a merged or non-merged mapping of the AME cookie to the partner DP cookie) (block 1118). For example, by determining a mapping of AME cookies to partner DP cookies, the AME server 114 may match impression data measured in association with AME cookies to demographic data received in association with partner DP cookies. The example AME server 114 associates AMEcookie with any additional online activity measured by the partner DP using the partner DP cookie (block 1120). As a result, the example AME server 114 aggregates the online activity measured by the AME (if any) with the online activity measured by the partner DP that was not measured by the AME, which is further associated with demographic information provided by the partner DP that was not previously available to the AME. The example instructions 1100 then end.

Fig. 12 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 1200 that may be executed to implement the example partner DP server 108, 304 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B to map AME cookies to partner DP cookies. For clarity, the example instructions 1200 of FIG. 12 are described below with reference to the example partner DP server 108.

The example partner DP server 108 of fig. 1 receives a request from a browser (e.g., the browser 110 of fig. 1) (block 1202). The example partner DP server 108 determines whether the request includes a partner DP cookie (block 1204). For example, if the user of the browser 110 has previously established an account or provided information to the partner DP, the example partner DP may have stored a cookie on the computer executing the browser 110.

If the request includes a partner DP cookie (block 1204), the example partner DP server 108 reads the partner DP cookie data (block 1206). For example, the partner DP server 108 may determine a user identifier or other identifying information from the partner DP cookie data. The example partner DP server 108 then identifies the user registered with the partner DP based on the cookie (block 1208).

The example partner DP server 108 generates a mapping response (block 1210). The partner DP server 108 includes the AMEcookie to partner DP cookie mapping in the mapping response (block 1212). For example, the partner DP server 108 may include in the mapping response the URL of the domain that includes the AME server 114, an identifier of the AME cookie, and an identifier of the partner DP cookie that maps to the AME cookie. The example partner DP server 108 determines whether to include demographic information corresponding to the partner DPcookie in the map (block 1214). For example, the partner DP server 108 may provide demographic information with the mapping and/or may periodically provide demographic information to the AME 102.

If the partner DP server 108 does not include demographic information in the mapping (block 1214), the example partner DP server 108 sends a mapping response to the AME server 114 or to the browser 110 (block 1216). For example, the partner DP server 108 may send an asynchronous HTTP request to the AME server 114 and/or send a redirect response to the browser 110 to cause the browser to send the request to the AME server 114. The example partner DP server 108 periodically sends data including AME cookies, partner DP cookies, and demographic information to the AME server 114 (block 1218). However, additionally or alternatively, the partner DP server 108 may send the data to the AME server 114 non-periodically or at other intervals. If the partner DP server 108 is to include demographic information (block 1214), the example partner DP server 108 sends a mapping response including the demographic information to the AME server 114 or to the browser 110 (block 1220).

The example instructions of fig. 12 end after sending the mapping response including the demographic information (block 1220) or after sending the mapping response and separately sending the demographic data (blocks 1216 and 1218).

Fig. 13 is a flow diagram representative of example machine readable instructions 1300 that may be executed to implement the example beacon instruction generator 126 of fig. 1 to generate beacon instructions (e.g., tags) to be served by a web server (e.g., the web server 106 of fig. 1) to tag media (e.g., advertisements, web pages, etc.).

The example beacon instruction generator 126 of fig. 1 receives website and/or web server information (e.g., address information, information describing websites served by the web server 106 of fig. 1) (block 1302). The example beacon instruction generator 126 generates beacon instructions for the website and/or web server (block 1304). In some examples, beacon instruction generator 126 generates template instructions for a website and/or website elements (e.g., for the entire website, for advertisements or other media that are part of the website, etc.). Example beacon instructions generated by the beacon instruction generator 126 cause a browser or other client device receiving the beacon instructions to initiate a beacon request to facilitate impression measurement and/or the processing disclosed herein that results in mapping AME cookies to one or more partner DP cookies.

The example beacon instruction generator 126 determines whether the beacon instruction includes modifiable (e.g., customizable) data (block 1306). Example modifiable data may be included in the beacon instructions to customize the beacon instructions for a website, web server, advertising campaign, or other purpose. Example information that may be configured to be non-modifiable includes an address of the AME server 114 to which the beacon instruction is to initiate communications. If modifiable information is present in the beacon instruction (block 1306), the example beacon instruction generator 126 modifies the modifiable beacon instruction data based on the website and/or web server information (block 1308).

In some examples, the beacon instructions include data that is modifiable by the web server 106 based on a web page provided to the browser 110. For example, the beacon instruction may provide different data to the example browser 110 based on the identity of the user of the browser 110 and/or a timestamp of sending the beacon instruction.

After modifying the beacon instruction data (block 1308), or if the beacon instructions are not modifiable (block 1306), the example beacon instruction generator 126 provides the beacon instructions to the web server 106 for inclusion in the media (block 1310). For example, the beacon instruction generator 126 may send the beacon instructions to the web server 106 via the communication interface and/or provide instructions to a developer or manager of the website for inclusion in scripts and/or code of the web server 106. The example instructions 1300 then end and/or repeat to generate additional beacon instructions for the web server 106 or additional web servers.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram of an example processor platform 1400 capable of executing the instructions of fig. 9-13 to implement the example AME server 114, the example partner DP server 108, 304, the example browser 110, and/or the (more generally) example system 100, 300 of fig. 1-4, 5B, 6B, 7B, and/or 8B. Processor platform 1400 may be, for example, a server, a personal computer, or any other type of computing device.

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example includes a processor 1412. The processor 1412 of the illustrated example is hardware. For example, the processor 1412 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuits, logic circuits, microprocessors or controllers from any desired family or manufacturer.

The processor 1412 of the illustrated example includes local memory 1413 (e.g., cache). The processor 1412 of the illustrated example communicates with main memory including a volatile memory 1414 and a non-volatile memory 1416 via a bus 1418. The volatile memory 1414 may 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 1416 may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the main memory 1414, 1416 is controlled by a memory controller.

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example also includes interface circuitry 1420. The interface circuit 1420 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as an ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus (USB), a PCI express interface, and/or any other communication interface.

In the example shown, one or more input devices 1422 are connected to the interface circuit 1420. An input device 1422 allows a user to enter data and commands into the processor 1412. For example, the input device may be implemented by an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a keyboard, a button, a mouse, a touch screen, a touch pad, a track ball, an isopoint, and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 1424 are also connected to the interface circuit 1420 of the illustrated example. For example, the output devices 1424 may be implemented by display devices (e.g., Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), liquid crystal displays, cathode ray tube displays (CRTs), touch screens, tactile output devices, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), printers, and/or speakers). Thus, the interface circuit 1420 of the illustrated example generally includes a graphics driver card, a graphics driver chip, or a graphics driver processor.

The interface circuit 1420 of the illustrated example also includes communication devices such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers, modems, and/or network interface cards to facilitate exchange of data with external machines (e.g., any type of computing device) via a network 1426 (e.g., an ethernet connection, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), a telephone line, coaxial cable, a cellular telephone system, etc.).

The processor platform 1400 of the illustrated example also includes one or more mass storage devices 1428 for storing software and/or data. Examples of such mass storage devices 1428 include floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, compact disk drives, blu-ray disk drives, RAID systems, and Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) drives.

The coded instructions 1432 of fig. 9-13 may be stored in the mass storage device 1428, in the volatile memory 1414, in the non-volatile memory 1416, and/or on a removable tangible computer-readable storage medium (e.g., a CD or DVD).

Example methods and apparatus disclosed herein provide demographic information to an audience measurement entity for a greater number of online users than were previously available to the audience measurement entity. Example methods and apparatus disclosed herein reduce the uncertainty associated with the use of statistical methods by increasing the amount of data collected while maintaining privacy of individual users. Example methods and apparatus disclosed herein reduce the number of redirections required by a database owner during the lifetime or validity of an associated cookie. By reducing the number of redirections, the example methods and apparatus disclosed herein reduce interruptions, distractions, and/or background processes that may negatively impact the performance of the client browser, thus improving the overall user experience of the audience member. Example methods and apparatus improve the overall efficiency of a network environment by reducing network congestion and delays associated with collecting matches of exposure information to demographic information.

It is noted that this patent claims priority to australian patent application serial No. 2013204865 filed on 12.4.2013, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Although certain example methods, apparatus 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, and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

Priority of this patent to us provisional patent application No.61/658,233 filed on day 11, 6,2012, us provisional patent application No.61/810,235 filed on day 9, 4,2013, and australian patent application No.2103204865 filed on day 12, 4,2013, all of which are incorporated by reference.

Claims (79)

1. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for redirecting to send a response to a first request, the first request identifying media provided to a client device, the response including an identification of a first cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity and an indication of a database proprietor, the response causing the client device to send a second request to the database proprietor, the second request including the identification of the first cookie;

means for communicating to receive a network communication from at least one of the client device or the database proprietor, the network communication including a mapping of the first cookie to a second cookie and demographic information, the second cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor and the demographic information associated with the second cookie of the database proprietor; and

means for associating to associate the second cookie and the demographic information with impressions of the media.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for communicating receives the mapping and the demographic information from the database proprietor in an asynchronous communication.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the response comprises a redirect message.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for communicating receives the mapping at a first time and receives the demographic information at a second time after the first time.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for selecting to select the database proprietor from a list of database proprietors based on a website that initiated the first request.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the means for selecting selects the database proprietor by determining a quality of demographic information provided by the database proprietor for an expected demographic group associated with the website.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising means for generating the first cookie, the means for generating the first cookie in response to the means for redirecting determining that the first request does not include the first cookie.

8. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

sending a response to a first request identifying media provided to a client device, the response including an identification of a first cookie set in the client device by the audience measurement entity and an indication of a database proprietor, the response causing the client device to send a second request to the database proprietor, the second request including the identification of the first cookie;

receiving a network communication from at least one of the client device or the database proprietor, the network communication including a mapping of the first cookie to a second cookie and demographic information, the second cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor and the demographic information associated with the second cookie of the database proprietor; and

associating the second cookie and the demographic information with an impression of the media.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to receive the mapping and the demographic information from the database proprietor in an asynchronous communication.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the response comprises a redirect message.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to receive the mapping at a first time and receive the demographic information at a second time after the first time.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to select the database proprietor from a list of database proprietors based on a website that initiated the first request.

13. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 12, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to select the database proprietor by determining a quality of demographic information provided by the database proprietor for an expected demographic group associated with the website.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to determine whether the first request contains the first cookie, generate the first cookie if the first request does not contain the first cookie.

15. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for communicating to receive a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity;

means for mapping cookies to determine a cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor; and

means for communicating to send the cookie mapping to the client device in a redirection message that causes the client device to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the means for communicating sends the cookie mapping in the redirect message by sending the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie in a uniform resource locator parameter of the redirect message.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the redirect message includes the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and demographic information.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the redirection message includes the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the redirect message further comprises a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie for a second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

20. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for communicating, the means for communicating receiving a first request from a client device, the first request including an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity, and the means for communicating sending a network communication to the audience measurement entity associated with the audience measurement entity cookie, a uniform resource locator parameter of the network communication including a cookie mapping between a database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client device, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor; and

means for processing to execute an instruction that causes the means for processing to generate a message.

21. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

receiving a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity;

determining a cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor; and

sending the cookie mapping to the client device in a redirection message that causes the client device to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

22. A computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the computer readable instructions are further to cause the processor to send the cookie mapping in the redirect message by sending the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie in a uniform resource locator parameter of the redirect message.

23. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the redirect message includes the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and demographic information.

24. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the redirect message further comprises the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie.

25. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 21, wherein the redirect message further comprises a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie for a second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

26. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

means for receiving a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity, and sending a network communication to the audience measurement entity associated with the audience measurement entity cookie, a uniform resource locator parameter of the network communication comprising a cookie mapping between a database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client device, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor; and

a message is generated.

27. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface to receive a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity;

a cookie mapper that determines a cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor,

the communication interface sends the cookie mapping to the client device in a hypertext transfer protocol, HTTP, message.

28. An apparatus as defined in claim 27, wherein the message further comprises a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie for a second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

29. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface, the image interface to:

receiving a first network communication from a client device, the first network communication comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity; and

transmitting, from a database proprietor in a uniform resource locator parameter of a second network communication, a cookie mapping to an audience measurement entity associated with the audience measurement entity cookie, the cookie mapping comprising an association between the audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client device and a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

30. An apparatus as defined in claim 29, wherein the second network communication is a redirect message to cause the client device to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

31. An apparatus as defined in claim 30, wherein the redirection message includes the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie.

32. The device of claim 29, wherein the second network communication further comprises demographic information in the uniform resource locator parameter.

33. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for communicating to receive a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity;

means for mapping cookies to determine a cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor,

the means for communicating sends the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message.

34. An apparatus as defined in claim 33, wherein the message further comprises a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie for a second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

35. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for communicating, the means for communicating:

receiving a first network communication from a client device, the first network communication comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity; and

transmitting, from a database proprietor in a uniform resource locator parameter of a second network communication, a cookie mapping to an audience measurement entity associated with the audience measurement entity cookie, the cookie mapping comprising an association between the audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client device and a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

36. An apparatus as defined in claim 35, wherein the second network communication is a redirect message to cause the client device to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

37. An apparatus as defined in claim 36, wherein the redirection message includes the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie.

38. The device of claim 35, wherein the second network communication further comprises demographic information in the uniform resource locator parameter.

39. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

receiving a first request from a client device, the first request comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity;

determining a cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a database proprietor cookie, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by a database proprietor; and

sending the cookie mapping to the client device in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) message.

40. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 39, wherein the message further comprises a second cookie mapping between a second audience measurement entity cookie for a second client device and a second database proprietor cookie associated with the second client device.

41. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

receiving a first network communication from a client device, the first network communication comprising an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by an audience measurement entity; and

transmitting, from a database proprietor in a uniform resource locator parameter of a second network communication, a cookie mapping to an audience measurement entity associated with the audience measurement entity cookie, the cookie mapping comprising an association between a database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie associated with the client device, the database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

42. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 41, wherein the second network communication is a redirect message to cause the client device to send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

43. An apparatus as defined in claim 42, wherein the redirection message comprises the database proprietor cookie, the audience measurement entity cookie, and an indication of an association between the database proprietor cookie and the audience measurement entity cookie.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein the second network communication further comprises demographic information in the uniform resource locator parameter.

45. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for processing to generate instructions to be included in a website; and

means for communicating to provide the instructions to a web server associated with the website, the instructions, when executed, causing a client device to begin a process comprising:

sending a first request to an audience measurement entity; and

sending a second request to a database proprietor to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity in a uniform resource locator parameter of a network communication, the cookie mapping identifying an association of an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by the audience measurement entity with a database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

46. The device of claim 45, wherein the means for communicating receives information associated with the website, the means for processing generating the instructions based on the information.

47. A method as defined in claim 45, wherein the means for communicating receives a redirect message from the audience measurement entity, the redirect message comprising an identifier of the audience measurement entity cookie.

48. An apparatus to share online media impression data, the apparatus comprising:

means for browsing to generate a first request and a second request; and

means for communicating, the means for communicating:

sending the first request to an audience measurement entity; and

sending the second request to a database proprietor to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity in a uniform resource locator parameter of a network communication, the cookie mapping identifying an association of an audience measurement entity cookie set in a client device by the audience measurement entity with a database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

49. An apparatus as defined in claim 48, wherein the means for browsing provides the audience measurement entity cookie in the first request.

50. An apparatus as defined in claim 48, wherein the means for browsing sends the first request to the audience measurement entity in response to executing a beacon instruction in a web page.

51. An apparatus as defined in claim 48, wherein the second request is to further cause the database proprietor to transmit demographic characteristics associated with the client device to the audience measurement entity.

52. The device of claim 48, wherein the means for browsing:

sending a third request to the audience measurement entity; and

sending a fourth request to a second database proprietor to cause the second database proprietor to send the audience measurement entity cookie to a second cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a second database proprietor cookie.

53. An apparatus as defined in claim 48, wherein the second request causes the database proprietor to asynchronously send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

54. An apparatus as defined in claim 48, wherein the means for browsing sends a third request to the audience measurement entity, the third request including the cookie mapping.

55. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

generating instructions to be included in a website; and

providing the instructions to a web server associated with the website, the instructions, when executed, causing a client device to begin a process comprising:

sending a first request to an audience measurement entity; and

sending a second request to a database proprietor to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity in a uniform resource locator parameter of a network communication, the cookie mapping identifying an association of an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by the audience measurement entity with a database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

56. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 55, the instructions further causing the processor to receive information associated with the website, and generate the instructions based on the information.

57. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 55, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to receive a redirect message from the audience measurement entity, the redirect message including an identifier of the audience measurement entity cookie.

58. A computer readable storage medium containing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

sending a first request to an audience measurement entity; and

sending a second request to a database proprietor to cause the database proprietor to send a cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity in a uniform resource locator parameter of a network communication, the cookie mapping identifying an association of an audience measurement entity cookie set in the client device by the audience measurement entity with a database proprietor cookie set in the client device by the database proprietor.

59. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 58, the instructions further causing the processor to transmit the audience measurement entity cookie in the first request.

60. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 58, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to transmit the first request to the audience measurement entity in response to executing beacon instructions in a web page.

61. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 58, wherein the second request further causes the database proprietor to transmit demographic characteristics associated with the client device to the audience measurement entity.

62. The computer readable storage medium of claim 58, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

sending a third request to the audience measurement entity; and

sending a fourth request to a second database proprietor to cause the second database proprietor to send the audience measurement entity cookie to a second cookie mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a second database proprietor cookie.

63. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 58, wherein the second request causes the database proprietor to asynchronously send the cookie mapping to the audience measurement entity.

64. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 58, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to send a third request to the audience measurement entity, the third request comprising the cookie mapping.

65. An apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface to:

receiving a first request from a client device, the first request identifying first media provided to the client device; and

transmitting a first response to the first request, the first response including an audience measurement entity cookie and including a uniform resource locator including an indication of a first database proprietor and an identifier of the audience measurement entity cookie;

a cookie generator that determines whether the first request includes the audience measurement entity cookie and generates the audience measurement entity cookie when the first request does not include the audience measurement entity cookie and associates the audience measurement entity cookie with the client device; and

a storage device that stores a first mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a second cookie used by the first database proprietor in response to receiving the first mapping after the communication interface transmits the first response.

66. An apparatus as defined in claim 65, wherein the communication interface is further to access a second request received from the client device, the second request to include the audience measurement entity cookie and to identify second media to be provided to the client device, the apparatus further comprising a cookie mapper to:

determining whether the second request includes the audience measurement entity cookie;

identifying the first mapping when the second request includes the audience measurement entity cookie, the first mapping including the audience measurement entity cookie; and

associating impressions of the second media with demographic information provided by the first database proprietor associated with the second cookie.

67. The device of claim 66, wherein the cookie mapper further performs the following:

determining whether the audience measurement entity cookie corresponds to a second mapping between the audience measurement entity cookie and a third cookie, the third cookie associated with the first database proprietor or a second database proprietor; and

in response to determining that the audience measurement entity cookie maps to the third cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

68. The device of claim 66, wherein the cookie mapper further performs the following:

determining whether the second cookie corresponds to a second mapping between the second cookie and a third cookie associated with an audience measurement entity corresponding to the audience measurement entity cookie; and

in response to determining that the second cookie maps to the third cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

69. An apparatus as defined in claim 65, wherein the communication interface is further to access an identification of an impression of second media received from the first database proprietor, the apparatus further comprising a second cookie mapper to associate the impression of second media with the audience measurement entity cookie based on the first mapping.

70. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor at an audience measurement entity to at least:

accessing a first request received from a client device, the first request identifying first media provided to the client device;

determining whether the first request includes a first cookie; and

generating a second cookie and associating the second cookie with the client device when the first request does not include the first cookie;

sending a first response to the first request, the first response comprising the first cookie or the second cookie and further comprising a uniform resource locator comprising an indication of a first database proprietor and an identifier of the first cookie or the second cookie; and

in response to receiving a first mapping of the first cookie or the second cookie to a third cookie used by the first database proprietor after sending the first response, storing the first mapping.

71. The computer readable storage medium of claim 70, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

accessing a second request received from the client device, the second request including the first cookie and identifying second media provided to the client device;

in response to determining that the second request includes the first cookie, identifying the first mapping, the first mapping including the first cookie; and

associating impressions of the second media with demographic information provided by the first database proprietor associated with the second cookie.

72. The computer readable storage medium of claim 71, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

determining whether the first cookie or the second cookie corresponds to a second mapping between (a) the first cookie or the second cookie and (b) a fourth cookie associated with the first database proprietor or a second database proprietor; and

in response to determining that the first cookie maps to the fourth cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

73. The computer readable storage medium of claim 71, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

determining whether the third cookie corresponds to a second mapping between the third cookie and a fourth cookie, the fourth cookie associated with the audience measurement entity; and

in response to determining that the third cookie maps to the fourth cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

74. A computer-readable storage medium as defined in claim 70, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to access an identification of an impression of second media received from the first database proprietor, and associate the impression of second media with the first cookie or the second cookie based on the first mapping.

75. A method, comprising the steps of:

accessing a first request received at an audience measurement entity from a client device, the first request identifying first media provided to the client device;

determining, by executing instructions with a processor of the audience measurement entity, whether the first request includes an audience measurement entity cookie;

when the first request does not include the audience measurement entity cookie, generating and associating the audience measurement entity cookie with the client device by executing instructions with a processor of the audience measurement entity;

sending, from a processor of the audience measurement entity, a first response to the first request, the first response comprising the audience measurement entity cookie and comprising a uniform resource locator comprising an indication of a first database proprietor and an identifier of the audience measurement entity; and

in response to receiving a first mapping of the audience measurement entity cookie to a second cookie used by the first database proprietor after sending the first response, storing the first mapping at the audience measurement entity.

76. The method of claim 75, further comprising the steps of:

accessing a second request received at the audience measurement entity from the client device, the second request including the audience measurement entity cookie and identifying second media provided to the client device;

in response to determining that the second request includes the audience measurement entity cookie, identifying the first mapping, the first mapping including the audience measurement entity cookie; and

associating impressions of the second media with demographic information provided by the first database proprietor associated with the second cookie.

77. The method of claim 76, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the audience measurement entity cookie corresponds to a second mapping between the audience measurement entity cookie and a third cookie, the third cookie associated with the first database proprietor or a second database proprietor; and

in response to determining that the audience measurement entity cookie maps to the third cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

78. The method of claim 76, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether the second cookie corresponds to a second mapping between the second cookie and a third cookie, the third cookie associated with the audience measurement entity; and

in response to determining that the second cookie maps to the third cookie, merging the first mapping with the second mapping.

79. The method of claim 75, further comprising the steps of:

access an identification of an impression of second media received from the first database proprietor, and associate the impression of second media with the audience measurement entity cookie based on the first mapping.