Methods and apparatus to associate geographic locations with user devices
Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to associate geographic locations with user devices. An example apparatus includes a beacon handler to: extract source identifying information from a beacon transmitted from a user device to an audience measurement entity in response to the user device accessing a webpage, and extract media identifying information from the beacon; a location identifier to, in response to detecting that the source identifying information indicates that the beacon was received from a mobile network query a location service of a provider of the mobile network to retrieve a location associated with the user device; and a location mapper to store the location in association with the media identifying information to credit an impression of the media identifying information to the location.
1. An apparatus to associate a geographic location with a user device, the apparatus comprising:
a beacon parser to:
extract source identifying information from a beacon transmitted from a user device to an audience measurement entity in response to the user device accessing a webpage; and
extract media identifying information from the beacon;
a network classifier to classify a network that connects the user device to the audience measurement entity based on the source identifying information;
a location retriever to, in response to determining the network is a mobile network, query a location service of a provider of the mobile network to retrieve a location associated with the user device; and
a data store to store the location in association with the media identifying information to credit an impression of the media identifying information to the location.
2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further including a location mapper to access a geographic database including a list of location identifiers to map the location associated with the user device to a corresponding geographic location.
3. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 , further including a tagged impression logger to credit the media with an impression by logging the source identifying information, media identifying information, and the geographic location.
4. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 , further including a location classifier to:
query a database of user profiles based on a user identifier included in the beacon to identify a matching user profile;
determine if the geographic location matches a user location stored in the matching user profile; and
when a number of times that an identified location matches the user location meets a threshold, storing an indication in the user profile that the user location is a home location.
5. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 , further including a location classifier to classify the geographic location of the user device as a home location based on a timestamp associated with the credited impression.
6. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further including a decrypter to decrypt the identifying information from the beacon to identify the location identifier when the beacon parser determines that the identifying information is encrypted.
7. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein location services information is not embedded in the beacon transmitted from the user device to the audience measurement entity.
8. An apparatus for associating a geographic location with a user device, the apparatus comprising:
a beacon parsing means for:
extracting source identifying information from a beacon transmitted from a user device to an audience measurement entity in response to the user device accessing a webpage; and
extracting media identifying information from the beacon;
a network classification means for classifying a network that connects the user device to the audience measurement entity based on the source identifying information;
a location retrieving means for, in response to determining that the network is a mobile network, querying a location service of a provider of the mobile network to retrieve a location associated with the user device; and
a data storage means for storing the location in association with the media identifying information to credit an impression of the media identifying information to the location.
9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 , further including a location mapping means for accessing a geographic database including a list of location identifiers to map the location associated with the user device to a corresponding geographic location.
10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 , further including a tagged impression logging means for crediting the media with an impression by logging the source identifying information, media identifying information, and the geographic location.
11. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 , further including a location classification means for:
querying a database of user profiles based on a user identifier included in the beacon to identify a matching user profile;
determining if the geographic location matches a user location stored in the matching user profile; and
in response to a number of times that an identified location matches the user location meeting a threshold, storing an indication in the user profile that the user location is a home location.
12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9 , further including a location classification means for classifying the geographic location of the user device as a home location based on a timestamp associated with the credited impression.
13. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 , further including a decryption means for decrypting identifying information from the beacon to identify the location identifier when the beacon parsing means determines that the media identifying information is encrypted.
14. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein location services information is not embedded in the beacon transmitted from the user device to the audience measurement entity.
15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
extract at least one of media identifying information and source identifying information from a beacon transmitted from a user device to an audience measurement entity when the user device accesses a webpage;
classify a network that connects the user device to the audience measurement entity based on the source identifying information;
query a location service of a provider of a mobile network to retrieve a location associated with the user device when it is determined that the network is the mobile network; and
store the location in association with the media identifying information to credit an impression of the media identifying information to the location.
16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to access a geographic database including a list of location identifiers to map the location associated with the user device to a corresponding geographic location.
17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to credit the media with an impression by logging the source identifying information, media identifying information, and the geographic location.
18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to:
query a database of user profiles based on a user identifier included in the beacon to identify a matching user profile;
determine if the geographic location matches a user location stored in the matching user profile; and
when a number of times that an identified location matches the user location meets a threshold, storing an indication in the user profile that the user location is a home location.
19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to classify the geographic location of the user device as a home location based on a timestamp associated with the credited impression.
20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 15 , wherein the instructions further cause the machine to decrypt identifying information from the beacon to identify the location identifier when the identifying information is encrypted.