Website monitoring and cookie setting

1. A method for setting a first domain first party cookie in a first domain on a client device comprising:

receiving at a first server, an http message from an active page within a browser running on the client device, the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain and the page being in the first domain;

checking the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains, then sending a redirect message in accordance with the referrer information to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

receiving at the second server, the http message from the browser and extracting data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

determining data which is to be included in the first domain first party cookie resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message; and

sending a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in the determining step.

2. A method according to claim 1 which comprises the further step, before the checking referrer information step, of checking for an absence of session context between the browser and the first server.

3. A method according to claim 1 in which the step of extracting data from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the http message comprises the step of extracting a session ID from the second domain first party cookie.

4. A method according to claim 3 in which the message sent to the active page includes an instruction to generate the first domain first party cookie including a session ID determined in dependence on the extracted session ID.

5. A method according to claim 1 in which the method comprises the further step of receiving further messages, at the first server, from at least one of the same page and another page, within the browser that include data derived from the first domain first party cookie.

6. A method according to claim 1 in which the method comprises the further step of the first server receiving a plurality of http messages and determining whether the http messages are from the same browser session in dependence on the data, derived from the first domain first party cookie, present in each http message.

7. A method according to claim 1 comprising, after the steps defined in claim 1 , the further steps of:

receiving at a third server, an http message from an active page within a browser running on the client device, the page being in a third domain;

checking the referrer information in the http message and on determining that the referrer is in the first domain, sending a redirect message to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to the first server;

receiving at the first server, the http message from the browser and extracting data from the first domain first party cookie, present in the header of the http message;

determining data which is to be included in a third domain first party cookie, within the third domain, resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the first domain first party cookie, present in the header of the resent http message; and

sending a message to the active page including an instruction to generate the third domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in the determining step.

8. A method according to claim 1 in which there is provided a set of servers comprising at least the first server and the second server with each server in the set being in a different domain within the predetermined set of domains and being arranged to selectively carry out steps corresponding to each of the steps defined in claim 1 .

9. A method according to claim 8 in which the method comprises the step of each server in the set of servers, receiving an http message from a respective active page within a browser running on the client device, each respective page being in the same domain as the respective server.

10. A website monitoring method comprising a method according to claim 1 and the further step of receiving, from the browser running on the client device, monitoring information concerning at least one of webpage interactions and performance.

11. A method according to claim 10 comprising the step of providing at least one collection server for collecting the monitoring information.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable data medium carrying a program comprising code portions which, when loaded and run on at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to carry out the method claimed in claim 1 .

13. Apparatus for causing setting of a first domain first party cookie in a first domain on a client device, the apparatus comprising a first server and a second server, the first server comprising at least one computer and being arranged under the control of software to:

receive an http message from an active page within a browser running on the client device, the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain and the page being in the first domain;

check the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains, then send a redirect message in accordance with the referrer information to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

the second server comprising at least one computer and being arranged under the control of software to:

receive the http message from the browser and extract data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

determine data which is to be included in the first domain first party cookie resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message; and

send a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in the determining step.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13 comprising a set of servers comprising at least the first server and the second server, with each server in the set being in a different domain within the predetermined set of domains and each being arranged under the control of software to selectively carry out the operations defined in claim 13 .

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable data medium carrying a program comprising code portions which, when loaded and run on a computer, cause the computer to comprise the apparatus claimed in claim 13 .

16. Apparatus for causing setting of a first domain first party cookie in a first domain on a client device, the apparatus comprising a first server and a second server, the first server comprising at least one computer and having:

a receive module configured to receive an http message from an active page within a browser running on the client device, the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain and the page being in the first domain;

a check module configured to check the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains then causing sending of a redirect message, by a send module, to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

the second server comprising at least one computer and having:

a receive module configured to receive the http message from the browser;

an extract module configured to extract data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

a determination module configured to determine data which is to be included in the first domain first party cookie resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message; and

a send module configured to send a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined by the determination module.

17. A website monitoring method comprising the steps of:

receiving at a first server, an http message from an active page within a browser running on a client device, the page being in a first domain and the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain;

checking the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains, then sending a redirect message to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

receiving at the second server, the http message from the browser and extracting data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

determining data which is to be included in a first domain first party cookie in the first domain, resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message;

sending a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in the determining step; and

receiving at one of the first server and a separate collection server, from the browser running on the client device, messages including data derived from the first domain first party cookie and information concerning at least one of: interactions with and performance of at least one page browsed within the browser running on the client device.

18. A website monitoring apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a first server, a second server, and a collection server, the first server including at least one computer and being arranged under the control of software to:

receive an http message from an active page within a browser running on a client device, the page being in a first domain and the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain;

check the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains, then send a redirect message to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

the second server including at least one computer and being arranged under the control of software to:

receive the http message from the browser and extract data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

determine data which is to be included in a first domain first party cookie in the first domain, resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message; and

send a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in the determining step; and

the collection server including at least one computer and being in the first domain and arranged under the control of software to:

receive, from the browser running on the client device, messages including data derived from the first domain first party cookie, and information concerning at least one of: interactions with and performance of at least one page browsed within the browser running on the client device; and

determine whether received messages are from the same browser session in dependence on the data derived from the first domain first party cookie present in each message.

19. A website monitoring apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

a first server, a second server, and a collection server, the first server including at least one computer and having:

a receive module for receiving an http message from an active page within a browser running on a client device, the page being in a first domain and the http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain;

a check module for checking the referrer information in the http message to determine (a) if the referrer is within a domain among a predetermined set of domains, and if the referrer is within a domain within the predetermined set of domains then causing sending of a redirect message, by a send module, to the browser instructing the browser to resend the http message to the second server, the second server being in the second domain, or (b) if such is not the case, then sending a response without sending a redirect message;

the second server including at least one computer and having:

a receive module for receiving the http message from the browser;

an extract module for extracting data from a second domain first party cookie in the second domain present in the header of the http message;

a determination module for determining data which is to be included in a first domain first party cookie in the first domain, resident on the client device in dependence on the data extracted from the second domain first party cookie present in the header of the resent http message; and

a send module for sending a message to the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined by the determination module; and

the collection server comprising:

a receive module for receiving, from the browser running on the client device, messages including data derived from the first domain first party cookie and information concerning at least one of: interactions with and performance of at least one page browsed within the browser running on the client device; and

a determination module for determining whether received messages are from the same browser session in dependence on the data derived from the first domain first party cookie present in each message.

20. A website monitoring apparatus according to claim 19 in which the first server comprises the collection server.

21. A method for setting a first domain first party cookie in a first domain on a client device comprising:

sending from an active page, in the first domain, within a browser running on the client device, to a first server, an http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain;

receiving a redirect message in the browser, from the first server, instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain;

resending from the browser, the http message to the second server including a second domain first party cookie in the second domain in the header of the http message;

receiving a message, from the second server, in the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates the first domain first party cookie within the browser, including the data determined in dependence on the content of the second domain first party cookie as received by the second server; and

generating within the browser running on the client device, the first domain first party cookie in response to the received instruction.

22. A client device including at least one computer and arranged under the control of software to:

send from an active page, in a first domain, within a browser running on the client device, to a first server, an http message including referrer information indicating a referrer in a second domain;

receive a redirect message in the browser, from the first server, instructing the browser to resend the http message to a second server, the second server being in the second domain;

resend from the browser, the http message to the second server including a second domain first party cookie in the second domain in the header of the http message;

receive a message, from the second server, in the active page in the first domain including an instruction comprising added computer instruction code executable by the browser which, when executed, generates a first domain first party cookie in the first domain within the browser, including the data determined in dependence on the content of the second domain first party cookie as received by the second server; and

generate within the browser running on the client device, the first domain first party cookie in response to the received instruction.