METHODS AND APPARATUS TO COLLECT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE METADATA TO DETERMINE MEDIA CREATION PRODUCT USAGE

1 . A method comprising:

collecting metadata from a plurality of digital media files;

identifying product types used to generate the digital media files based on the metadata;

determining which of the identified product types is used to generate a largest number of the digital media files; and

generating a report identifying the product types used to generate the largest number of the digital media files.

2 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising generating an advertisement for the product type to be displayed with digital media files generated by the advertised product type.

3 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the digital media files comprise at least one of a digital image file, a digital video file, or a digital audio file.

4 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the product types comprise at least one of a digital camera model, a digital video camera model, a digital audio recorder, a digital video editor, a digital image editor, a digital audio editor, or a Moving Picture Experts Group-1 Audio Layer 3 converter.

5 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising aggregating a usage of the identified product types to determine which of the product types is purchased by the largest number of users.

6 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein collecting metadata from the digital media files comprises crawling a first web site to identify the plurality of digital media files.

7 . A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein generating the report comprises collecting metadata from the first web site and determining the product types used to generate the largest number of digital media files for a plurality of web sites including at least the first web site.

8 . (canceled)

9 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the report further comprises relative usages of the product types.

10 . (canceled)

11 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising determining a common characteristic among a plurality of the identified product types.

12 . A method as defined in claim 11 , wherein determining a common characteristic of the plurality of identified product types comprises querying a database to determine one or more characteristics of the identified product types and comparing the characteristics to determine one or more common characteristics.

13 . An apparatus comprising:

a metadata collector to collect metadata from a plurality of digital media files;

a product identifier to identify product types used to generate the digital media files based on the metadata;

an aggregator to determine a first product type used to generate a largest number of the digital media files; and

a report generator to generate a report identifying the first product type.

14 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , further comprising an advertisement generator to generate an advertisement for a product corresponding to the first product type.

15 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , wherein the digital media files comprise at least one of a digital image file, a digital video file, or a digital audio file.

16 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , wherein the product types comprise at least one of a digital camera model, a digital video camera model, a digital audio recorder, a digital video editor, a digital image editor, a digital audio editor, or a Moving Picture Experts Group-1 Audio Layer 3 converter.

17 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , wherein the aggregator aggregates a usage of the identified product types to determine which of the product types is purchased by the largest number of users.

18 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , further comprising a digital media identifier to crawl a web site to identify the plurality of digital media files.

19 . (canceled)

20 . (canceled)

21 . An apparatus as defined in claim 13 , further comprising a characteristics extractor to determine a common characteristic among a plurality of the identified product types.

22 . An apparatus as defined in claim 21 , wherein determining a common characteristic of the plurality of identified product types comprises querying a database to determine one or more characteristics of the identified product types and comparing the characteristics to determine one or more common characteristics.

23 . An article of manufacture comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

collect metadata from a plurality of digital media files;

identify product types used to generate the digital media files based on the metadata;

determine which of the identified product types is used to generate a largest number of the digital media files; and

generate a report identifying the product type used to generate the largest number of the digital media files.

24 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to generate an advertisement for the product type to be displayed with digital media files generated by the advertised product type.

25 . (canceled)

26 . (canceled)

27 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein the instructions further cause the computer to aggregate a usage of the identified product types to determine which of the product types is purchased by the largest number of users.

28 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein collecting metadata from the media files comprises crawling a first web site to identify a plurality of digital media files.

29 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 28 , wherein generating the report comprises collecting metadata from the first web site and determining the product types used to generate the largest number of digital media files for a plurality of web sites including at least the first web site.

30 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein collecting metadata from the media files comprises crawling a storage device to identify a plurality of digital media files.

31 . (canceled)

32 . An article of manufacture as defined in claim 23 , wherein the report further comprises a rate of introduction of an identified product type.

33 . (canceled)

34 . (canceled)