Information processing system, information processing server, and information processing method

Abstract

To reduce the effort of advertisers when constructing a mechanism for assigning first-party cookies.SOLUTION: An information processing system 1 comprises an information processing server 2 which is different from an advertiser server 6 having an advertiser site 9 and to which a subdomain of a domain related to the advertiser site is assigned. Further, the information processing server 2 is the destination to which advertising information about the advertiser site is linked. The information processing server 2 includes an information processing server control unit 12 that includes a function for acquiring at least the landing page of the advertiser site from the advertiser server 6, and a function for responding with the landing page when accessed from a browser according to the selection of the advertising information, and also assigning to the browser a cookie for holding the domain related to the advertiser site as domain information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing server, and an information processing method, and in particular, is suitable for use in an information processing system capable of executing processing corresponding to the selection of advertising information, an information processing server constituting the information processing system, and an information processing method using the information processing server. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, affiliate services have become widespread. In these affiliate services, tracking is required to link a user who has selected advertising information on a Web medium with a user who has performed an action that is eligible for a performance reward. Although various tracking methods have been proposed, tracking using cookies is widely used. In tracking using cookies, a cookie is assigned to a browser from which the Web medium is accessed. In order to perform tracking accurately, there is a need to assign the cookie to the browser as a first-party cookie, and various methods to meet this need have been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a technology in which an advertiser's site (advertiser's website) issues a first-party cookie and assigns it to a browser, and tracking is performed using this first-party cookie. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2022-025688 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] As mentioned above, there is a need to have the cookies assigned to browsers be first-party cookies. However, in the case of a system in which the advertiser's site issues first-party cookies and assigns them to browsers, as in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to implement a function for assigning first-party cookies on the advertiser's site, which requires a lot of work for the advertiser.

[0005] The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and aims to reduce the effort required by advertisers when building a system for assigning first-party cookies. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, the information processing system includes an information processing server separate from the advertiser server having the advertiser site, and the link destination of the advertisement information for the advertiser site is the information processing server. The information processing server has a function of acquiring at least the landing page of the advertiser site from the advertiser server, and a function of responding with the landing page when the browser accesses the information in response to the selection of the advertisement information, and of providing the browser with a cookie having the domain related to the advertiser site as domain information. Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present invention configured as described above, cookies are assigned by the information processing server, not by the advertiser server, but by the information processing server. The cookies assigned by the information processing server are cookies that have the domain related to the advertiser site as domain information, and correspond to first-party cookies for the advertiser site (advertiser). Since the information processing server is assigned a subdomain of the domain related to the advertiser site, it is possible to assign cookies that have the domain related to the advertiser site as domain information. As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to assign first-party cookies, but it is not necessary to implement a function for issuing first-party cookies in the advertiser site itself. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the advertiser's efforts in building a system for assigning first-party cookies. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of each device in the information processing system according to the embodiment of the present invention; FIG. [Diagram 3] 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of each device in the information processing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of each device in the information processing system according to the first modified example of an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an information processing system according to a second modified example of an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of each device in the information processing system according to a second modified example of an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information processing system 1 according to this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, the information processing system 1 includes an information processing server 2 (corresponding to the "information processing device" in the claims), an affiliate server 3, one or more terminals 4, one or more media servers 5, and one or more advertiser-side servers 6. The information processing server 2, the affiliate server 3, the terminal 4, the media server 5, and the advertiser-side server 6 can each be connected to a network N including the Internet, a telephone network, and other communication networks.

[0010] The terminal 4 is a computer used by a user, and is connected to a display device 7 (FIG. 2) such as a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display, or is configured to include the display device 7. In this embodiment, the user means a person who can use the terminal 4 to access the Web media 8 provided by the media server 5. The media server 5 and the Web media 8 will be described later. The terminal 4 may be of any type as long as it is a computer equipped with a browser, and for example, a desktop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer (including a so-called smartphone) can function as the terminal 4. FIG. 1 shows several terminals 4 out of the countless terminals 4 that exist as examples.

[0011] The media server 5 is a server that provides Web media 8. Web media 8 refers to media (including websites) published on the Web, such as blogs, news sites, EC sites, portal sites, review sites, homepages, reservation sites, and event sites. In this embodiment, the concept of Web media 8 also includes specific screens (Web pages) provided as Web media 8. The Web media 8 according to this embodiment may include advertising information.

[0012] The advertising information is information about advertising banners, listing ads, display ads, and other advertisements, and is information to which link information linking to a specific URL is added. As a typical example, the Web media 8 is a website established by a so-called affiliate, and the advertising information is an advertising banner displayed on a Web page of the website. In FIG. 1, a block showing one Web media 8 is drawn in a block showing one media server 5, but this does not mean that the media server 5 is composed of a single server device, nor does it mean that one Web media 8 exists for one media server 5. In other words, the media server 5 does not need to be a single server device, and may be composed of, for example, multiple server devices, or may be part of a specific system. Also, one media server 5 may be configured to provide multiple Web media 8. In FIG. 1, several media servers 5 out of the countless media servers 5 are illustrated as examples. Hereinafter, a person who provides the Web media 8 (a concept including an organization, an affiliate as an example) is referred to as a "Web media provider."

[0013] The advertiser server 6 is a server that has and provides the advertiser site 9, which is the advertiser's website. An advertiser is an entity that provides advertisements related to advertising information. The advertiser site 9 is a website (web media) provided by the advertiser. For example, if the advertiser is a company that sells some kind of product, the advertiser site 9 is a website that introduces the product and requests the purchase of the product, and if the advertiser is a company that provides some kind of service, it is a website that introduces the service and requests the purchase of the service (however, these are merely examples).

[0014] The advertiser's site 9 is composed of a plurality of Web pages, and includes at least a landing page. The landing page is the first Web page provided when the advertiser's site 9 is accessed. Conversion can be achieved on the advertiser's site 9. Conversion means a state in which a user who visits the advertiser's site 9 performs an action targeted by the advertiser. In this embodiment, an affiliate service is provided by a person who operates the affiliate server 3 (hereinafter referred to as an "affiliate service provider." For example, an affiliate service provider corresponds to an affiliate service provider). In the affiliate service, when a user selects advertisement information of a Web media 8 and visits the advertiser's site 9, and then the user achieves conversion, the Web media provider who provides the Web media 8 becomes the target of payment of a reward.

[0015] In Fig. 1, a block showing one advertiser's site 9 is drawn within a block showing one advertiser's server 6, but this does not mean that the advertiser's server 6 is composed of a single server device, nor does it mean that one advertiser's site 9 exists for one advertiser's server 6. In other words, the advertiser's server 6 does not need to be a single server device, and may be composed of, for example, multiple server devices, or may be part of a predetermined system. Also, one advertiser's server 6 may be configured to provide multiple advertiser's sites 9. In Fig. 1, several advertiser's servers 6 out of the countless advertiser's servers 6 are shown as examples.

[0016] The affiliate server 3 is a server that provides various affiliate-related services, and in particular has the function of determining the reward destination and reward content when a conversion is achieved. In FIG. 1, the affiliate server 3 is shown as one block, but this does not mean that the affiliate server 3 is composed of a single server device. For example, the affiliate server 3 may be composed of multiple server devices, or may be part of a specified system.

[0017] The information processing server 2 is a server that provides various services to each device constituting the information processing system 1, which will be described later. Hereinafter, the service provided by the information processing server 2 will be referred to as the "Service" and the entity that provides and operates the information processing server 2 will be referred to as the "Service Provider." The Service Provider may be the same as the affiliate service provider. The significance and function of the information processing server 2 will be described in detail later. In FIG. 1, the information processing server 2 is represented by one block, but this does not mean that the information processing server 2 is composed of a single server device. For example, the information processing server 2 may be composed of multiple server devices, or may be part of a predetermined system.

[0018] Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of each device constituting the information processing system 1. As shown in Fig. 2, the information processing server 2 has, as its functional configuration, an information processing server control unit 12 and an information processing server communication unit 13. The affiliate server 3 has, as its functional configuration, an affiliate server control unit 14 and an affiliate server communication unit 15. The terminal 4 has, as its functional configuration, a terminal control unit 16 and a terminal communication unit 17. The media server 5 has, as its functional configuration, a media server control unit 18 and a media server communication unit 19. The advertiser server 6 has, as its functional configuration, an advertiser server control unit 20 and an advertiser server communication unit 21.

[0019] The above-mentioned functional blocks 12-21 can be configured by any of hardware, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), and software. For example, when configured by software, the above-mentioned functional blocks 12-21 are actually configured with a computer's CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and are realized by the operation of a program stored in a recording medium such as a RAM, ROM, hard disk, or semiconductor memory. Furthermore, the information processing server 2 is provided with an information processing server storage unit 23 as a storage means. Furthermore, the affiliate server 3 is provided with an affiliate server storage unit 24 as a storage means.

[0020] The information processing server communication unit 13 of the information processing server 2, the affiliate server communication unit 15 of the affiliate server 3, the terminal communication unit 17 of the terminal 4, the media server communication unit 19 of the media server 5, and the advertiser-side server communication unit 21 of the advertiser-side server 6 each communicate with an external device connected to the network N in accordance with a predetermined protocol. In the following, detailed explanations of communication by each device constituting the information processing system 1 via the network N will be omitted, assuming that the communication is appropriately performed by the communication unit provided in each device.

[0021] In the information processing system 1 according to this embodiment, an affiliate service involving tracking using cookies is provided. In this embodiment, the presence of a special server called the information processing server 2 makes it possible to assign first-party cookies to browsers, and in constructing this mechanism, modification of the advertiser's site 9 is restricted, reducing the advertiser's efforts. Below, we will first explain the characteristics of the domain of the information processing server 2 and one of its functions, and then explain the operation of each device using a flowchart.

[0022] When focusing on a certain advertiser's site 9 and the information processing server 2 corresponding to the advertiser's site 9, the information processing server 2 is given a subdomain of the domain (main domain) related to the advertiser's site 9. As an example, if the domain (main domain) related to the advertiser's site 9 is "hogehoge.com", the information processing server 2 is given its subdomain "abc.hogehoge.com". When setting a subdomain to the information processing server 2, the advertiser of the advertiser's site 9 acquires a subdomain and communicates the acquired subdomain to the service provider, and the service provider sets up the information processing server 2 to assign the subdomain. In this way, the advertiser acquires the subdomain, but it is generally easy for an advertiser who owns an original domain related to the advertiser's site 9 to acquire a subdomain. As mentioned above, there are multiple advertiser's sites 9, and the subdomain is assigned to the information processing server 2 for each of the advertiser's sites 9.

[0023] Furthermore, when focusing on a certain advertiser-side site 9 and the information processing server 2 corresponding to the certain advertiser-side site 9, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 has the following functions. That is, the information processing server control unit 12 has a function of periodically accessing the advertiser-side server 6 having the certain advertiser-side site 9, acquiring display data of the landing page of the certain advertiser-side site 9, and storing (overwriting and updating) the acquired display data of the landing page in a predetermined storage area of ​​the information processing server storage unit 23. In this embodiment, the information processing server 2 acquires only the landing page among the Web pages constituting the certain advertiser-side site 9, and does not acquire other Web pages. The display data is data necessary for displaying a Web page in a browser, and is composed of an HTML file and associated data. In the following description, the display data of a Web page (naturally including a landing page) may be simply expressed as a "Web page". For example, the display data of a landing page may be simply referred to as a "landing page".

[0024] The above-mentioned functions of the information processing server 2 create a state in which the landing page of each advertiser site 9 is stored in the information processing server storage unit 23 of the corresponding information processing server 2. Note that, in this embodiment, the information processing server 2 periodically accesses the advertiser server 6 to acquire and store the landing page of the advertiser site 9, but the information processing server 2 may be configured to acquire the landing page by other methods. The other methods will be described later.

[0025] Next, the operation of each device constituting the information processing system 1 will be described using a flowchart. FIG. 3 is a flowchart used to describe the operation of each device in the information processing system 1. In FIG. 3, the flowchart FA shows the operation of the terminal 4, the flowchart FB shows the operation of the media server 5, the flowchart FC shows the operation of the information processing server 2, the flowchart FD shows the operation of the advertiser server 6, and the flowchart FE shows the operation of the affiliate server. In the following description using FIG. 3, the terminal 4 that performs the processing of the flowchart FA is referred to as the "attention terminal 4-1", and the user who uses the attention terminal 4 is referred to as the "attention user". The media server 5 that performs the processing of the flowchart FB is referred to as the "attention media server 5-1". The information processing server 2 that performs the processing of the flowchart FC is referred to as the "first information processing server 2-1". The advertiser server 6 that performs the processing of the flowchart FD is referred to as the "first advertiser server 6-1", and the advertiser site 9 owned by the first advertiser server 6-1 is referred to as the "first advertiser site 9-1". In FIG. 3, the user of interest appropriately performs operations / instructions that are convenient for explanation.

[0026] As shown in the flowchart FA of Fig. 3, the noted user launches the browser of the noted terminal 4-1 used by the noted user and instructs access to the Web media 8 (URL) of the noted media server 5-1 (step SX1). In response to the instruction, the terminal control unit 16 of the noted terminal 4-1 accesses (HTTP request) the Web media 8 of the noted media server 5-1 using the browser's functions (step SA1). When the Web media 8 is accessed, the media server control unit 18 of the noted media server 5-1 responds (HTTP response) to the browser of the noted terminal 4-1 with display data for the Web page (such as an HTML file) (step SB1).

[0027] Here, the display data of the Web page to which the attention media server 5-1 responds is assumed to include a link code (sometimes called an affiliate tag, an advertisement tag, or simply a tag) for displaying advertisement information about the first advertiser's site 9-1. This link code includes a link to the first information processing server 2-1 (more specifically, a link to the "landing page of the first advertiser's site 9-1" stored in the first information processing server 2-1). In other words, the link destination of the advertisement information is not the first advertiser's server 6-1 (the URL of the first advertiser's site 9-1), but the first information processing server 2-1 (the URL of the landing page).

[0028] As shown in the flow chart FA of Fig. 3, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 receives the Web page and displays the Web page on the display device 7 using the browser's functions (step SA2). On the displayed Web page, advertising information (an advertising banner, for example) about the first advertiser's site 9-1 is displayed. In the following, it is assumed that the detection of operations on the Web page displayed on the display device 7 of the terminal 4, the acquisition of information entered into various screens, the dynamic change of various screens, and various other screen-related processes are appropriately executed by various servers using CGI, JavaScript (registered trademark), Ajax, DHTML, and other existing technologies, and detailed explanations will not be given.

[0029] 3, the noted user selects advertising information (advertising information included in Web media 8) displayed on a Web page (step SX2). In response to this, the terminal control unit 16 of the noted terminal 4-1 uses the browser function to access the link destination (the URL of the landing page of the first information processing server 2-1) registered in the advertising information (step SA3).

[0030] As shown in the flowchart FC of FIG. 3, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 acquires progress information in response to an access from the browser (step SC1). The progress information is information including at least the Web media 8 of the noted media server 5-1 (i.e., the Web media 8 including the selected advertisement information) or information identifying the Web media provider, and includes at least a referrer (including at least information regarding the server (in this example, the noted media server 5-1) accessed immediately before accessing the first information processing server 2-1). However, the progress information may include information that can be used for various analyses, such as the date and time when the advertisement information was selected, and predetermined information regarding the noted terminal 4-1 or the noted user. For example, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 extracts at least a part of the progress information from information included in the HTTP request at the time of access, and acquires at least a part of the progress information by, for example, making an inquiry to the browser. Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 transmits the progress information to the affiliate server 3 and requests a response of the click ID (step SC2).

[0031] As shown in the flowchart FE of FIG. 3, the affiliate server control unit 14 of the affiliate server 3 receives a response request for the progress information and the click ID (step SE1). The affiliate server control unit 14 then generates a unique click ID (step SE2). The affiliate server control unit 14 then generates one record in the tracking management database 25 stored in the affiliate server storage unit 24, the record including the click ID generated in step SE2 and the progress information received in step SE1 (step SE3). The affiliate server control unit 14 then responds to the first information processing server 2-1 with the click ID generated in step SE2 (step SE4).

[0032] As shown in the flowchart FC of Fig. 3, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 receives the click ID (step SC3). Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 responds with a landing page to the target terminal 4-1 and assigns a cookie with the following contents to the browser (step SC4). Hereinafter, the cookie that the information processing server control unit 12 assigns to the browser in step SC4 is particularly referred to as the "first cookie." The first cookie is a cookie that holds the click ID received in step SC3 as identification information and holds the domain of the first advertiser side site 9-1 (not the subdomain assigned to the first information processing server 2-1) as domain information.

[0033] As is well known, a server that has been assigned a subdomain can give a cookie that has the main domain as its domain information to a browser. For example, a server that has been assigned "www.hogehoge.com" can give a cookie that has "hogehoge.com" as its domain information to a browser. Furthermore, a cookie that has the main domain as its domain information can be accessed from all subdomains within the main domain (however, if an option to enable access needs to be given to a subdomain, this option must be given). For example, a cookie that has "hogehoge.com" as its domain information can be accessed from "aaa.hogehoge.com", "bbb.hogehoge.com", and "ccc.hogehoge.com".

[0034] The first cookie corresponds to a first-party cookie for the advertiser related to the first advertiser's site 9-1. This is because the first cookie has the domain (main domain) of the first advertiser's site 9-1 as domain information. The situation in which the attention terminal 4-1 requests the "landing page of the first advertiser's site 9-1" from the first information processing server 2-1 to which a subdomain is assigned corresponds to the situation in which the attention terminal 4-1 accesses the first advertiser's site 9-1 from the attention terminal 4-1. In addition, the situation in which the first information processing server 2-1 to which a subdomain is assigned assigns the first cookie together with the response of the "landing page constituting the advertiser's site 9" corresponds to the situation in which the first advertiser's site 9-1 assigns a cookie to the browser from the first advertiser's site 9-1.

[0035] In this embodiment, the first-party cookie can be assigned by the first information processing server 2-1 instead of the first advertiser's server 6-1 because the first information processing server 2-1 is assigned a subdomain of the first advertiser's site 9-1 and the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 has the following two functions: (1) A function of acquiring and storing at least the landing page of the first advertiser's site 9-1 from the first advertiser's server 6-1 (2) A function of responding with a landing page when access is made from a browser in response to the selection of advertising information contained in the Web media 8 of the featured media server 5-1, and of adding a cookie (first cookie) to the browser that has the domain related to the first advertiser's site 9-1 as domain information. With respect to (2), in more detail, when accessed from a browser, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 in this embodiment makes a response request for a click ID to the affiliate server 3 to obtain the click ID, and then stores the obtained click ID as identification information and grants a cookie (first cookie) to the browser that stores the domain related to the advertiser's site 9 as domain information.

[0036] As shown in the flow chart FA of FIG. 3, the terminal control unit 16 of the noted terminal 4-1 displays the landing page on the display device 7 by the function of the browser (step SA4). Furthermore, the terminal control unit 16 stores the first cookie in a predetermined storage area (step SA4). After that, the noted user instructs a transition from the landing page to another page in the first advertiser's site 9-1 (step SX3). In response to this, the terminal control unit 16 of the noted terminal 4-1 and the advertiser's server control unit 20 of the first advertiser's server 6-1 cooperate to execute a site-wide navigation-related process. To explain the site-wide navigation-related process in detail, the access destination of a Web page other than the landing page in the first advertiser's site 9-1 is a predetermined URL (a storage location of the Web page) of the first advertiser's server 6-1. Therefore, for a Web page other than the landing page, the noted terminal 4-1 accesses the first advertiser's server 6-1, and the first advertiser's server 6-1 responds with a Web page to the noted terminal 4-1. Taking this into consideration, in the site navigation related processing, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 accesses (HTTP request) an appropriate URL of the first advertiser's server 6-1 in response to the user's page transition instructions, and the advertiser's server control unit 20 of the first advertiser's server 6-1 responds with an appropriate Web page (HTTP response) in response to the access from the target terminal 4-1.

[0037] During the execution of the site navigation-related process, the advertiser-side server control unit 20 of the first advertiser-side server 6-1 monitors whether or not a conversion has been achieved. When it detects that a conversion has been achieved, the advertiser-side server control unit 20 of the first advertiser-side server 6-1 transmits conversion information to the first information processing server 2-1 (step SD2). The conversion information is information indicating the content of the conversion, and in particular includes information necessary for the affiliate server 3 to determine the content of the remuneration for the Web media provider. For example, if the first advertiser-side site 9-1 is a site that sells products and the content of the remuneration is determined by the type and number of products purchased, the conversion information includes information indicating the type and number of products purchased.

[0038] As shown in the flowchart FC of Fig. 3, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 receives the conversion information (step SC5). In response to receiving the conversion information, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 acquires the first cookie from the browser of the target terminal 4-1 and acquires the click ID in the first cookie (step SC6). Next, the information processing server control unit 12 transmits the conversion information received in step SC5 and the click ID acquired in step SC6 to the affiliate server 3 (step SC7).

[0039] As shown in flow chart FE of FIG. 3, the affiliate server control unit 14 of the affiliate server 3 receives the conversion information and the click ID (step SE5). The affiliate server control unit 14 then executes reward-related processing based on the conversion information and the click ID (step SE6). In the reward-related processing, the affiliate server control unit 14 refers to the tracking management database 25, identifies the record corresponding to the click ID received in step SE5, and acquires progress information from the record. The affiliate server control unit 14 then determines the reward destination and reward content based on the acquired progress information and the conversion information received in step SE5.

[0040] As described above, the information processing system 1 according to this embodiment includes the information processing server 2, which is a server different from the advertiser-side server 6 having the advertiser-side site 9 and is assigned a subdomain of the domain related to the advertiser-side site 9. The link destination of the advertisement information for the advertiser-side site 9 is the information processing server 2. The information processing server 2 includes an information processing server control unit 12 having a function of acquiring at least the landing page of the advertiser-side site 9 from the advertiser-side server 6, and a function of responding with the landing page and assigning a cookie (first cookie) having the domain related to the advertiser-side site as domain information to the browser when the information processing server 2 is accessed from the browser in response to the selection of advertisement information included in the Web media 8.

[0041] According to this configuration, the cookies are assigned mainly by the information processing server 2 using the functions of the information processing server 2, not the functions of the advertiser's server 6. The cookies assigned by the information processing server 2 are cookies that have the domain related to the advertiser's site 9 as domain information, and correspond to first-party cookies for the advertiser's site 9 (advertiser). Since the information processing server 2 is assigned a subdomain of the domain related to the advertiser's site 9, it is possible to assign cookies that have the domain related to the advertiser's site 9 as domain information. As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to assign first-party cookies, but it is not necessary to implement a function for issuing first-party cookies in the advertiser's site 9 itself. Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to reduce the advertiser's efforts in building a system for assigning first-party cookies.

[0042] Furthermore, in this embodiment, when the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 is accessed from the browser in response to the selection of the advertisement information, the information processing server control unit 12 responds with a landing page, requests the affiliate server 3 to respond with a click ID to acquire the click ID, and assigns a cookie to the browser that holds the acquired click ID as identification information and holds the domain related to the advertiser's site as domain information. According to this configuration, the cooperation with the affiliate server 3 for tracking, that is, the acquisition of the click ID from the affiliate server 3 and the assignment of the cookie having the click ID, is executed by the information processing server 2, not the advertiser's server 6. Therefore, it is not necessary to implement the above-mentioned function related to the cooperation with the affiliate server 3 in the advertiser's site 9, and the advertiser's labor can be further reduced.

[0043] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 acquires only the landing page from the advertiser-side server 6 among the Web pages constituting the advertiser-side site 9. Then, when the information processing server control unit 12 receives conversion information from the advertiser-side server 6 after a conversion is achieved in the advertiser-side server 6, the information processing server control unit 12 transmits the click ID held by the cookie assigned to the browser and the received conversion information to the affiliate server 3. According to this configuration, the cooperation with the affiliate server 3 for tracking, that is, the acquisition of the click ID of the cookie assigned to the browser and the transmission of the click ID and the conversion information to the affiliate server 3, is executed by the information processing server 2, not the advertiser-side server 6. Therefore, it is not necessary to implement the above-mentioned function related to the cooperation with the affiliate server 3 in the advertiser-side site 9, and the advertiser's labor can be further reduced.

[0044] <First Modification of the Above Embodiment> Next, a first modified example of the above embodiment will be described. In the above embodiment, the information processing server 2 acquires only the landing page of the advertiser's site 9. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the information processing server 2 acquires all the Web pages included in the advertiser's site 9. That is, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 has a function of periodically accessing the corresponding advertiser's server 6 to acquire all the Web pages included in the advertiser's site 9, and storing them in the information processing server storage unit 23.

[0045] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of each device of the information processing system 1 according to this modification. As shown in FIG. 4, in this modification, the first information processing server 2-1 executes the process shown in the flowchart FF instead of the flowchart FC in FIG. 3. In the flowchart FF, the same process steps as those in the flowchart FC are given the same reference numerals. Also, the first advertiser-side server 6-1 executes the process shown in the flowchart FG instead of the flowchart FD in FIG. 3 (but there is no step). As described above, in this modification, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 has a function of periodically accessing the corresponding advertiser-side server 6 to acquire and store all Web pages included in the advertiser-side site 9. Based on this, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 acquires and stores all Web pages included in the first advertiser-side site 9-1 from the first advertiser-side server 6-1.

[0046] Referring to FIG. 4, after the landing page is displayed in step SA4 of the flow chart FA and the transition of the Web page is instructed by the noted user in step SX3, the noted terminal 4-1 and the first information processing server 2-1 (not the first advertiser side server 6-1) execute the site navigation related process (step SA5, step SF1). As described above, in this modified example, the first information processing server 2-1 acquires and stores all Web pages of the first advertiser side site 9. And, for the first advertiser side site 9-1, the access destination of all Web pages including the landing page is set to a predetermined URL (basically a storage location of the Web page) of the first information processing server 2-1. Therefore, for all Web pages including the landing page, the noted terminal 4-1 makes a response request to the first information processing server 2-1, and the first information processing server 2-1 responds with the Web page to the noted terminal 4-1. Based on this, in the site navigation related processing, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 accesses an appropriate URL of the first information processing server 2-1 in response to the user's instructions (HTTP request), and the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 responds with an appropriate Web page (HTTP response) in response to the access from the target terminal 4-1.

[0047] During the execution of the site navigation-related process, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 monitors whether or not a conversion has been achieved. When it detects that a conversion has been achieved, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 generates conversion information (step SF2). Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 acquires a first cookie from the browser of the target terminal 4-1 and acquires a click ID in the first cookie (step SF3). Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 transmits the conversion information generated in step SF2 and the click ID acquired in step SF3 to the affiliate server 3 (step SF4). The processing of the affiliate server 3 is as described in the above embodiment.

[0048] In the first modified example as well, a first-party cookie is added by the function of the information processing server 2, and cooperation with the affiliate server 3 for tracking using the first-party cookie is executed. Therefore, the same effects as those of the above embodiment are achieved.

[0049] <Second Modification of the Above Embodiment> Next, a second modified example of the above embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the information processing system 1 showing only the processing of the flowchart in FIG. 6 and the device that is the subject of the processing among the devices of the information processing system 1 according to this modified example. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of each device of the information processing system 1 according to this modified example. As shown in FIG. 5, in this modified example, as the subject of executing the flowchart in FIG. 6, there exists a second information processing server 2-2 which is an information processing server 2 different from the first information processing server 2-1, and further there exists a second advertiser side server 6-2 which is an advertiser side server 6 different from the first advertiser side server 6-1. As shown in FIG. 5, the second advertiser side server 6-2 has a second advertiser side site 9-2 as the advertiser side site 9. The second information processing server 2-2 is given a subdomain of the domain of the second advertiser side site 9-2. The domain of the first advertiser side site 9-1 and the domain of the second advertiser side site 9-2 are different. Therefore, the sub-domain assigned to the first information processing server 2-1 and the sub-domain assigned to the second information processing server 2-2 do not belong to a common main domain. In Fig. 5, the first information processing server 2-1 and the second information processing server 2-2 are shown as different blocks, but these servers do not necessarily need to be physically separate devices.

[0050] In this modification, similar to the first modification, the first information processing server 2-1 acquires and stores all the web pages of the first advertiser's site 9-1, and the target terminal 4-1 acquires each web page of the first advertiser's site 9-1 by accessing the first information processing server 2-1. Furthermore, in this modification, the second information processing server 2-2 acquires and stores all the web pages of the second advertiser's site 9-2, and the target terminal 4-1 acquires each web page of the second advertiser's site 9-2 by accessing the second information processing server 2-2.

[0051] In Fig. 6, flowchart FH shows the operation of the target terminal 4-1, flowchart FB shows the operation of the media server 5, flowchart FI shows the operation of the first information processing server 2-1 (however, there are no steps), flowchart FJ shows the operation of the first advertiser's server 6-1, flowchart FK shows the operation of the second information processing server 2-2, flowchart FL shows the operation of the second advertiser's server 6-2 (however, there are no steps), and flowchart FE shows the operation of the affiliate server 3. In flowchart FH, the same process steps as those in flowchart FA of Fig. 4 are assigned the same reference numerals. In flowchart FI, the same process steps as those in flowchart FF of Fig. 4 are assigned the same reference numerals.

[0052] Focusing on the flowchart FH of Figure 6, when the user of interest instructs a transition from the landing page to another page within the first advertiser site 9-1 in step SX3 (step SX3), the terminal control unit 16 of the terminal of interest 4-1 and the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 execute processing related to navigation within the site (step SH1, step SI1).

[0053] During the execution of the intra-site navigation-related process, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 monitors whether or not the noted user has instructed a transition from the first advertiser's site 9-1 to another available advertiser's site 9 (e.g., a site linked to the first advertiser's site 9-1). In the example of FIG. 6, during the execution of the intra-site navigation-related process, the noted user instructs a transition to the second advertiser's site 9-2 (step SX4), and the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 detects this. Upon detecting that a transition to the second advertiser's site 9-2 has been instructed, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 obtains the first cookie from the browser of the noted terminal 4-1 and obtains the click ID in the cookie (step SI2).

[0054] In this modified example, as described above, the second information processing server 2-2 provides "all Web pages constituting the second advertiser's site 9-2." Therefore, the browser's access destination after transitioning to the second advertiser's site 9-2 is the second information processing server 2-2, not the second advertiser's server 6-2. In light of this, the URL of the link for transitioning to the second advertiser's site 9-2 is the URL of the second information processing server 2-2.

[0055] Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 notifies the second information processing server 2-2 of the click ID as a parameter from the browser of the attention terminal 4-1 when the attention terminal 4-1 accesses the second advertiser side site 9-2 of the second information processing server 2-2 (step SI3). As an example, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 redirects the link destination URL (i.e., the URL of the second information processing server 2-2) and assigns the click ID to the URL parameter, thereby notifying the click ID. However, the notification of the click ID to the second information processing server 2-2 may be performed in any manner, and for example, the click ID may be described as a parameter in the body of the HTTP request made from the browser of the attention terminal 4-1 to the second information processing server 2-2. Also, for example, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 may be configured to notify the second information processing server 2-2 of the click ID.

[0056] 6, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 accesses the second information processing server 2-2 by the browser function (step SH2). At that time, the target terminal 4-1 notifies the second information processing server 2-2 of the click ID as a parameter.

[0057] As shown in the flow chart FK of FIG. 6, in response to an access from the browser of the target terminal 4-1, the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 acquires the click ID notified as a parameter (step SK1). That is, in this modified example, when the click ID is notified as a parameter, the information processing server 2 has a function of recognizing that and acquiring the click ID. Next, the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 responds with the landing page of the second advertiser's site 9-2 and assigns a cookie with the following contents to the browser (step SK2). Hereinafter, the cookie assigned by the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 in step SK2 is particularly referred to as the "second cookie." The second cookie is a cookie that has the click ID acquired in step SK1 as identification information and has the domain of the second advertiser's site 9-2 as domain information.

[0058] The second cookie is a first-party cookie for the second advertiser's site 9-2 (the advertiser). This is because the second cookie has the domain of the second advertiser's site 9-2 as domain information. When the attention terminal 4-1 makes a response request (HTTP request) for a Web page of the second advertiser's site 9-2 to the second information processing server 2-2 to which a subdomain of the second advertiser's site 9-2 has been assigned, this situation is seen from the attention terminal 4-1 as a situation in which the attention terminal 4-1 is accessing the second advertiser's site 9-2. When the second information processing server 2-2 to which a subdomain of the second advertiser's site 9-2 has been assigned assigns the second cookie together with the response of the "Web page constituting the second advertiser's site 9-2", this situation is seen from the second advertiser's server 6-2 as a situation in which the second advertiser's server 6-2 itself has assigned the cookie.

[0059] As shown in the flow chart FH of FIG. 6, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 uses the function of the browser to display the landing page on the display device 7 based on the display data of the landing page (step SH3). Furthermore, the terminal control unit 16 stores the second cookie in a predetermined storage area (step SH3). After that, the target user instructs a transition from the landing page to another page in the second advertiser side site 9-2 (step SX5). In response to this, the terminal control unit 16 of the target terminal 4-1 and the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 execute the site navigation related process (SH4, SK3). During the execution of the site navigation related process, the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 monitors whether or not a conversion has been achieved. When it is detected that a conversion has been achieved, the information processing server control unit 12 generates conversion information (step SK4). The information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 then acquires the second cookie from the browser of the target terminal 4-1 and acquires the click ID in the second cookie (step SK5). The information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 then transmits the conversion information generated in step SK4 and the click ID acquired in step SK5 to the affiliate server 3 (step SK6). The processing of the affiliate server 3 is as described in the above embodiment.

[0060] As described above, in this modified example, the information processing system 1 includes a first information processing server 2-1 corresponding to the first advertiser's site 9-1 and assigned with a subdomain of the domain related to the first advertiser's site 9-1, and a second information processing server 2-2 corresponding to the second advertiser's site 9-2 and assigned with a subdomain of the domain related to the second advertiser's site 9-2, as information processing servers 2. The link destination of the advertisement information for the first advertiser's site 9-1 is the first information processing server 2-1. When the advertisement information is selected and accessed from the browser, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 responds with a landing page related to the first advertiser's site 9-1, requests the affiliate server to respond with a click ID to obtain the click ID, and assigns to the browser a first cookie that holds the obtained click ID as identification information and holds the domain related to the first advertiser's site 9-1 as domain information. Furthermore, when a transition from the first advertiser's site 9-1 to the second advertiser's site 9-2 is instructed, the information processing server control unit 12 of the first information processing server 2-1 notifies the second information processing server 2-2 of the click ID held by the first cookie given to the browser. Meanwhile, when an access is made from the browser in response to a transition from the first advertiser's site 9-1 to the second advertiser's site 9-2, the information processing server control unit 12 of the second information processing server 2-2 responds with a landing page related to the second advertiser's site 9-2 and gives the browser a cookie that holds the notified click ID as identification information and holds the domain related to the second advertiser's site 9-2 as domain information.

[0061] According to this configuration, in a situation where one advertiser site 9 is accessed as a result of the selection of advertisement information, even if the site transitions to another advertiser site 9 in a different domain, the click ID is handed over to the information processing server 2 corresponding to the other advertiser site 9, so that accurate tracking can be performed. That is, according to this modified example, the function of the information processing server 2 enables tracking across multiple advertiser sites 9 in different domains. In particular, this is possible without modifying the advertiser site 9.

[0062] In the second modified example, the transition between different advertiser sites 9 is only once, from the first advertiser site 9-1 to the second advertiser site 9-2, but it may be made twice or more. Even if the transition is made twice or more, the click ID is notified to the information processing server 2 corresponding to the advertiser site 9 after the transition in the method described in the second modified example.

[0063] Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the above embodiment is merely one example of a specific embodiment for carrying out the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be interpreted as being limited thereby. In other words, the present invention can be carried out in various forms without departing from the gist or main characteristics thereof.

[0064] For example, in the above embodiment, the information processing server 2 is configured to periodically access the advertiser-side server 6, acquire and store the landing page of the advertiser-side site 9. In this regard, the following configuration may be used. For example, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 may be configured to access the advertiser-side server 6 and acquire the landing page from the advertiser-side server 6 every time a landing page is requested. In addition, for example, the following configuration may be used. That is, when a landing page is requested and the landing page is not stored in the information processing server storage unit 23, the information processing server control unit 12 of the information processing server 2 accesses the advertiser-side server 6 and acquires the landing page from the advertiser-side server 6. The information processing server control unit 12 stores the acquired landing page for a certain period of time. On the other hand, when a landing page is requested and the landing page is stored in the information processing server storage unit 23, the information processing server control unit 12 responds with the landing page stored in the information processing server storage unit 23. The above configuration may be used. The above points are the same for each modified example. In each case, web pages other than the landing page are also included.

[0065] Also, for example, in the above embodiment, the information processing server 2 is configured to include the information processing server storage unit 23. In this regard, the information processing server storage unit 23 may be provided in another device capable of communicating with the information processing server 2, and the information processing server 2 may access the other device as appropriate. This is the same for servers other than the information processing server 2, and also for each of the modified examples.

[0066] It is also possible to use a combination of the above-described embodiment and each of the modified examples. For example, the information processing server 2 may store only a landing page for one advertiser site 9, and store all web pages for another advertiser site 9. [Explanation of symbols]

[0067] 1. Information Processing Systems 2. Information processing server 2-1 First information processing server 2-2 Second information processing server 3 Affiliate Server 6 Advertiser server 9 Advertiser's site 9-1 First advertiser site 9-2 Secondary advertiser site

Claims

1. An information processing server is provided which is a server different from an advertiser server having an advertiser site, and is assigned a sub-domain of a domain related to the advertiser site; The link destination of the advertisement information on the advertiser's site is the information processing server, The information processing server includes: An information processing server control unit has a function of acquiring at least a landing page of the advertiser's site from the advertiser's server, and a function of responding with the landing page and giving a cookie to the browser, the cookie having a domain related to the advertiser's site as domain information, when the browser accesses the landing page in response to the selection of the advertisement information. An information processing system comprising:

2. The information processing server control unit When the advertisement information is selected and accessed from a browser, the landing page is responded to, and a click ID is acquired by making a response request for a click ID to an affiliate server, and a cookie is provided to the browser that holds the acquired click ID as identification information and holds a domain related to the advertiser's site as domain information.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1 .

3. The information processing server control unit Among the web pages constituting the advertiser's site, only the landing page is acquired from the advertiser's server; When a conversion is achieved at the advertiser's site of the advertiser's server and conversion information indicating the content of the conversion is received from the advertiser's server, the click ID held in the cookie added to the browser and the received conversion information are transmitted to the affiliate server.

3. The information processing system according to claim 2.

4. The information processing server control unit Obtaining all of the web pages constituting the advertiser's site from the advertiser's server; When a conversion is achieved at the advertiser's site of the information processing server, the click ID held in the cookie added to the browser and conversion information indicating the content of the conversion are transmitted to the affiliate server.

3. The information processing system according to claim 2.

5. The information processing server includes a first information processing server corresponding to a first advertiser side site and assigned with a sub-domain of a domain related to the first advertiser side site, and a second information processing server corresponding to a second advertiser side site and assigned with a sub-domain of a domain related to the second advertiser side site, The link destination of the advertisement information for the first advertiser site is the first information processing server; The information processing server control unit of the first information processing server, when the browser accesses the site in response to the selection of the advertisement information, a landing page related to the first advertiser's site is responded to, and a click ID is acquired by making a response request for a click ID to an affiliate server, the acquired click ID is held as identification information, and a cookie that holds a domain related to the first advertiser's site as domain information is added to the browser; When a transition from the first advertiser side site to the second advertiser side site is instructed, the click ID held by the cookie assigned to the browser is notified to the second information processing server; The information processing server control unit of the second information processing server, When the browser accesses the site in response to a transition from the first advertiser's site to the second advertiser's site, a landing page related to the second advertiser's site is responded to, and a cookie is provided to the browser, the cookie holding the notified click ID as identification information and holding the domain related to the second advertiser's site as domain information.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1 .

6. An information processing server different from an advertiser side server having an advertiser side site, A sub-domain of the domain related to the advertiser's site is assigned, The information processing server control unit has a function of acquiring at least a landing page of the advertiser side site from the advertiser side server, and a function of responding with the landing page and giving a cookie to the browser, the cookie having a domain related to the advertiser side site as domain information, when the information is accessed from a browser in response to the selection of advertising information about the advertiser side site, the advertising information being a link destination to the information processing server, to the browser. An information processing server comprising:

7. An information processing method by an information processing server which is a server different from an advertiser-side server having an advertiser-side site and is assigned a sub-domain of a domain related to the advertiser-side site, An information processing server control unit of the information processing server acquires at least a landing page of the advertiser side site from the advertiser side server; and when the information processing server control unit of the information processing server receives access from a browser in response to the selection of advertising information, which is information about the advertiser's site and has a link destination set to the information processing server, responds with the landing page and gives the browser a cookie having a domain related to the advertiser's site as domain information.

23. An information processing method comprising:

Images