Kimberly J Howell

US Patent:

7937383, May 3, 2011

Filed:

Feb 1, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/024989

Inventors:

Michael D. Hintze - Seattle WA, US
Randall F. Kern - Seattle WA, US
Zijian Zheng - Shoreline WA, US
Kimberly J. Howell - Woodinville WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/30

US Classification:

707706

Abstract:

Assigning session identifications to log entries and generating anonymous log entries are provided. In order to balance users' privacy concerns with the need for analysis of the log entries to provide high quality search results, non-user-specific data fields, such as a user's location (e. g. , city, state, and latitude/longitude) and connection speed, are inserted into the log entries, and user-specific data fields, such as the IP address and cookie identifications, are deleted from the log entries. In addition or alternatively, prior to anonymization of the log entries, session identifications are assigned to identified groups of log entries. The groups are identified based on factors such as the user's identification, the IP address, the time of search, and differences between the search terms used in the search queries.