US Patent 7533179 Method and system for characterization of online behavior

Data about computer network traffic is collected as user website visit recording sessions. The data captured is analyzed and organized with sufficient level of detail or granularity to determine a single request from a server. Each data request is analyzed to determine if it comes from a server with which an ongoing end user interaction or open site visit is occurring. If not, a new site visit is created as a general proposition. If the data request is part of an open site visit, then the time is compared to the time of the last interaction and if the interval is sufficiently small, the data request is treated as a continuation of the visit. If the interval is large, a new site visit is created.