IDENTIFICATION OF SOFTWARE ROBOT ACTIVITY
A system comprising: at least one hardware processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by said at least one hardware processor to, automatically: receive, from each of a plurality of web clients, a request to receive data, wherein said data comprises (i) advertisement copy and (ii) a landing page URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with said advertisement copy; determine, for each of said web clients, a client identifier associated with said web client; automatically select a subset of said web clients; send said data only to said subset of said web clients; and identify a web client not included in said subset of web clients is a software robot, when a received redirection request to said landing page URL is associated with a client identifier associated with said web client.
1 . A system comprising:
at least one hardware processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by said at least one hardware processor to, automatically:
receive, from each of a plurality of web clients, a request to receive data, wherein said data comprises (i) advertisement copy and (ii) a landing page URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with said advertisement copy;
determine, for each of said web clients, a client identifier associated with said web client;
automatically select a subset of said web clients;
send said data only to said subset of said web clients; and
identify a web client not included in said subset of web clients is a software robot, when a received redirection request to said landing page URL is associated with a client identifier associated with said web client.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein at least some of said web client identifiers are cookies.
3 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein at least some of the web client identifiers are values computed from one or more cookie attributes.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to store each of said client identifiers associated with said web clients identified as software robots.
5 . The system according to claim 4 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to generate a report comprising redirection activity associated with said web clients, wherein said report does not include said redirection activity associated with said identified software robots.
6 . The system according to claim 4 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to compare a client identifier of a new web client to said stored client identifiers, to determine whether said new web client is a software robot.
7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein said selecting is based, at least in part, on a modulo operation applied to each respective web client identifier, wherein the modulo operation produces two different results.
8 . A method for identifying software robots, the method comprising using at least one hardware processor for:
receiving, from each of a plurality of web clients, a request to receive data, wherein said data comprises (i) advertisement copy and (ii) a landing page URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with said advertisement copy;
determining, for each of said web clients, a client identifier associated with said web client;
automatically selecting a subset of said web clients;
sending said data only to said subset of said web clients; and
identifying a web client not included in said subset of web clients is a software robot, when a received redirection request to said landing page URL is associated with a client identifier associated with said web client.
9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein at least some of said web client identifiers are cookies.
10 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein at least some of the web client identifiers are values computed from one or more cookie attributes.
11 . The method according to claim 8 , further comprising storing each of said client identifiers associated with said web clients identified as software robots.
12 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising generating a report comprising redirection activity associated with said web clients, wherein said report does not include said redirection activity associated with said identified software robots.
13 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising comparing a client identifier of a new web client to said stored client identifiers, to determine whether said new web client is a software robot.
14 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein said selecting is based, at least in part, on a modulo operation applied to each respective web client identifier, wherein the modulo operation produces two different results.
15 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by at least one hardware processor to, automatically:
receive, from each of a plurality of web clients, a request to receive data, wherein said data comprises (i) advertisement copy and (ii) a landing page URL (Uniform Resource Locator) associated with said advertisement copy;
determine, for each of said web clients, a client identifier associated with said web client;
automatically select a subset of said web clients;
send said data only to said subset of said web clients; and
identify a web client not included in said subset of web clients is a software robot, when a received redirection request to said landing page URL is associated with a client identifier associated with said web client.
16 . The computer program product according to claim 15 , wherein at least some of said web client identifiers are cookies.
17 . The computer program product according to claim 15 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to store each of said client identifiers associated with said web clients identified as software robots.
18 . The computer program product according to claim 17 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to generate a report comprising redirection activity associated with said web clients, wherein said report does not include said redirection activity associated with said identified software robots.
19 . The computer program product according to claim 17 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to compare a client identifier of a new web client to said stored client identifiers, to determine whether said new web client is a software robot.
20 . The computer program product according to claim 15 , wherein said selecting is based, at least in part, on a modulo operation applied to each respective web client identifier, wherein the modulo operation produces two different results.