Content site visitor processing system

Abstract

A visitor processing system can include features for providing a fully configurable visitor model. The visitor processing system may also provide the ability to see the results of this visitor model in a real time or near real time. This level of configurability can be beneficial when a goal is to reduce a visitor set to a highly targeted visitor segment. This rich configurability can include the ability to set and manipulate a number of attributes and rules for a visitor. By allowing marketing users to configure attributes regarding their content sites' visitors, the visitor processing system can enable marketing users to obtain real-time (or near real-time) reports on these visitors. These reports can provide a highly desirable capability to filter a live and/or historic stream of visitors on the specified attributes, resulting in precisely targeted reporting on a highly segmented and highly targeted segment of visitors.

1 . A system for enabling marketing users to customize visitor profile data processing criteria associated with visits to a content site, the system comprising:
 a visitor profile configuration module comprising computer hardware, the visitor profile configuration module configured to:
 output a visitor profile configuration user interface for presentation to a marketing user associated with a content site, the visitor profile configuration user interface comprising functionality for defining visitor templates for profiling visitors of the content site, other than the marketing user, with custom badges, and 
 receive a custom visitor template defined with the visitor profile configuration user interface, the custom visitor template defining a selected custom badge assignable to those of the visitors who satisfy a plurality of characteristics related to visiting the content site, the plurality of characteristics relating to interactions of the visitors with the content site over a plurality of visits to the content site; 
   a visitor data collector configured to receive visitor data associated with end users who are the visitors of the content site, the visitor data obtained from a data collection tag embedded within code of one or more content pages of the content site, the data collection tag configured to identify the interactions of the visitors with the content site and report the identified interactions as at least part of the visitor data to the visitor data collector;   a visitor data aggregator configured to match the collected visitor data to the visitor template to assign the selected custom badge to a subset of the visitors;   a reporting module configured to electronically generate a user interface configured to provide a visitor segment report to the marketing user instead of to the end users, the visitor segment report comprising badge filters that are user-selectable to filter the visitor segment report based on the custom badges assigned to the visitors, including the subset of visitors assigned the selected custom badge.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the visitor profile configuration user interface is further configured to provide functionality to create custom attributes in addition to the custom badges, the custom attributes to be associated with visitors who satisfy one or more of custom visitor configuration rules. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the visitor data aggregator is further configured to transform the collected visitor data by at least assigning one or more of the custom attributes to a visitor that satisfies one or more of the custom visitor configuration rules. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein each of the custom attributes have a type selected from the following group of attribute types: a metric, a property, a flag, a date, a funnel, and a sequence. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the visitor segment report is further configured to segment the visitors of the content site according to the custom attributes. 
     
     
         6 . (canceled) 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the visitor profile configuration module is further configured to provide functionality for a user to specify data sources associated with the content site for which to gather the visitor data using the data collection tag. 
     
     
         8 . Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, are configured to implement a system for enabling marketing users to customize visitor profile data processing criteria associated with visits to a content site, the system comprising:
 a visitor profile configuration module configured to:
 output a visitor profile configuration user interface for presentation to a marketing user associated with a content site, the visitor profile configuration user interface comprising functionality for defining visitor configuration rules for profiling visitors of the content site with custom badges, the visitors being end users other than the marketing user, and 
 receive custom visitor configuration rules defined with the visitor profile configuration user interface, the custom visitor configuration rules defining a selected custom badge assignable to those of the visitors who satisfy a plurality of characteristics related to visiting the content site over a plurality of visits to the content site; 
   a visitor data collector configured to receive visitor data associated with the visitors of the content site, the visitor data obtained from a data collection tag embedded within code of one or more content pages of the content site, the data collection tag configured to identify the interactions of the visitors with the content site and report the identified interactions as at least part of the visitor data to the visitor data collector;   a visitor data aggregator configured to transform the collected visitor data according to the custom visitor configuration rules to assign the selected custom badge to a subset of the visitors; and   a reporting module configured to electronically generate a user interface configured to provide a visitor segment report to the marketing user instead of to the end users, the visitor segment report comprising badge filters that are user-selectable to filter the visitor segment report based on the custom badges assigned to the visitors, including on the subset of visitors assigned the selected custom badge.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory physical computer storage of  claim 8 , wherein the visitor profile configuration user interface is further configured to provide functionality to create custom attributes in addition to the custom badges, the custom attributes to be associated with visitors who satisfy one or more of the custom visitor configuration rules. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory physical computer storage of  claim 9 , wherein the visitor data aggregator is further configured to transform the collected visitor data by at least assigning one or more of the custom attributes to a visitor that satisfies one or more of the custom visitor configuration rules. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory physical computer storage of  claim 9 , wherein each of the custom attributes have a type selected from the following group of attribute types: a metric, a property, a flag, a date, a funnel, and a sequence. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory physical computer storage of  claim 8 , wherein the visitor segment report is further configured to segment the visitors of the content site according to the custom attributes. 
     
     
         13 . A method of enabling marketing users to customize visitor profile data processing criteria associated with visits to a content site, the method comprising:
 electronically generating a visitor profile configuration user interface for presentation to a marketing user associated with a content site, the visitor profile configuration user interface comprising functionality for defining visitor configuration attributes and rules for profiling visitors of the content site, the visitors being end users of the content site;   receiving one or more custom visitor configuration attributes and one or more associated rules defined with the visitor profile configuration user interface, the one or more custom visitor configuration attributes and the one or more associated rules constituting a badge attribute assignable to those of the visitors who satisfy the one or more custom visitor configuration attributes and the one or more associated rules over a plurality of visits to the content site;   accessing visitor data associated with end users who are visitors of the content site from a data collection tag embedded within code of one or more content pages of the content site;   transforming the collected visitor data according to the one or more custom visitor configuration attributes and the one or more rules to produce transformed visitor data;   storing the transformed visitor data in visitor profiles associated with the end users who are visitors to the content site; and   electronically generating a user interface comprising a visitor segment report in substantially real time based on the transformed visitor data to the marketing user, the visitor segment report comprising badge filters that are user-selectable to filter the visitor segment report based on the custom badges assigned to the visitors, including a subset of the visitors assigned the badge attribute;   wherein at least said transforming is performed in part by a computer system comprising computer hardware.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said transforming comprises assigning the one or more attributes to one of the visitors who satisfies the one or more custom visitor configuration rules. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the visitor profile configuration user interface further comprises functionality to define additional attributes having one or more of the following attribute types: a metric, a property, a flag, a date, a funnel, and a sequence. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the visitor segment report is configured to segment the visitors of the content site according to the badge attribute and the additional attributes. 
     
     
         17 . (canceled) 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising providing functionality for a user to specify data sources associated with the content site for which to gather the visitor data using the data collection tag. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising customizing an aspect of the content site based on the transformed visitor data. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein said customizing comprises personalizing the content site based on one of the attributes associated with a first visitor to the content site.