Methods and apparatus to create a panel of media device users

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

instruct a media provider to instrument an application with monitoring instructions;

receive a unique identifier and an application identifier from a media device executing the instrumented application, the unique identifier and the application identifier received without collecting any personally identifiable information;

create a master frame corresponding to media devices that have executed the instrumented application;

determine a skip rate representing a rate at which media devices in the master frame are to be selected to join a panel;

assign the media device from the master frame into a first test cell based on a random value and the skip rate;

select a first recruitment interface associated with the first test cell, the first recruitment interface different from a second recruitment interface associated with a second test cell; and

instruct the instrumented application to, in response to the instrumented application being executed for a first time after a threshold period of time since an initial execution of the instrumented application has elapsed, display the first recruitment interface to a user associated with the selected media device requesting the user to join the panel.

2. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to receive monitoring data from the instrumented application after the user has agreed to become a panelist.

3. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to generate the unique identifier to be used by the media device.

4. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to transmit the unique identifier to the media device.

5. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the application identifier is assigned to the instrumented application by at least one of the media provider or an application developer.

6. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the random value is less than or equal to the skip rate and greater than or equal to zero.

7. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the skip rate is based on a count of media devices in the master frame divided by a desired number of media devices for the panel.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to sort the master frame prior to selecting the media device from the master frame.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the sorting of the master frame is based on a number of applications associated with respective media devices in the master frame.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the sorting of the master frame is based on application identifiers respectively associated with respective media devices in the master frame.

11. A method to create a panel of media device users, the method comprising:

instructing, from a central facility, a media provider to instrument an application with monitoring instructions;

receiving a unique identifier and an application identifier from a media device executing the instrumented application, the unique identifier and the application identifier received without collecting any personally identifiable information;

creating a master frame corresponding to media devices that have executed the instrumented application;

determining a skip rate representing a rate at which media devices in the master frame are to be selected to join the panel;

assigning, at the central facility, the media device from the master frame into a first test cell based on a random value and the skip rate;

selecting a first recruitment interface associated with the first test cell, the first recruitment interface different from a second recruitment interface associated with a second test cell;

instructing the instrumented application to, in response to the instrumented application being executed for a first time after a threshold period of time since an initial execution of the instrumented application has elapsed, display the first recruitment interface to a user associated with the selected media device requesting the user to join the panel.

12. The method of claim 11 , further including receiving monitoring data from the instrumented application after the user has agreed to become a panelist.

13. The method of claim 11 , further including generating the unique identifier to be used by the media device.

14. The method of claim 13 , further including transmitting the unique identifier to the media device.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the application identifier is assigned to the instrumented application by at least one of the media provider or an application developer.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the random value is less than or equal to the skip rate and greater than or equal to zero.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the skip rate is based on a count of media devices in the master frame divided by a desired number of media devices for the panel.

18. The method of claim 11 , further including sorting the master frame prior to selecting the media device from the master frame.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the sorting of the master frame is based on a number of applications associated with respective media devices in the master frame.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the sorting of the master frame is based on application identifiers respectively associated with respective media devices in the master frame.