Respondent Selection Method for Network-Based Survey

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a system for administering a survey or questionnaire to a sample of users of a computer network and, more particularly, a system for administering a survey for Internet Web site visitors.

2. Description of the Related Technology

The popularity of personal computers has exploded in the past decade. Each year more and more people have used more and more personal computers in more and more ways. This rapid expansion in computer use has resulted in the formation of on-line market places with products and services being advertised over networks such as the Internet and on networked computers of the World Wide Web. Such computers are known as Web sites. All types of products and services are marketed, promoted and/or sold, including motion pictures, television shows and automobiles. These Web sites not only have pictures and text, but may also include audio or video information available to the user or "surfer."

World Wide Web sites are built for many different objectives, including advertising products and services to consumers, selling products and services directly to consumers and distributing corporate and government information. In order to maximize the effectiveness of these sites, the producers try to make their sites interactive, interesting, educational, entertaining, etc. One of the methods to gauge the effectiveness of these factors is to survey the visitors to these sites.

Each site on the World Wide Web is a construction of many different "pages," each written in HTML (hypertext markup language). The HTML page contains the text and formatting information for the page. An HTML document will typically have references to the location of graphic images rather than include the images directly in the document itself. The most common image format is known as GIF (graphics image format). When "visiting" a Web page or site, the consumer's or user's Web browser requests and fetches the HTML document from the Web. The browser recognizes the references to images and then retrieves the images. The browser then paints the screen with the images and text according to the formatting information.

Web site producers are very interested in the consumers that visit their Web sites. Some sites already use a survey mechanism, wherein a questionnaire is written into a Web page and some consumers choose to provide the requested information. This is only a "convenience" sample. The responding visitors are not representative of all the visitors to the site. Thus, this method is not practical for serious information gathering. Achieving a statistically significant sample, minimizing the self-selection bias, is a problem in surveying a Web population.

It is an object of this invention to provide a statistically significant sample of a Web visitor population with a survey, minimizing the self-selection bias.

It is another object of this invention to provide the sample by embedding in the Web site a reference to an executable graphic image that initiates a program at a surveyor's computer site.

It is another object of this invention to provide a survey system wherein the information obtained from the survey is processed and analyzed by the surveyor before delivery to the Web site producer.

According to the invention, the method for conducting a survey of users of an information document located on a computer network includes embedding instructions into an information document located at the site, where the instructions invoke a sample selection program, launching the sample selection program when a user accesses the information document, and targeting the user for selection according to offering criteria. Based upon the offering criteria, selected users are given an opportunity to access the survey by presenting a graphic stimulus to the participant. Responding to the graphic stimulus causes the actual survey to be fetched from the surveyor's site.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic of the inventive survey method.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the small graphic image.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the large graphic image.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the survey presented to the selected consumer.

The alternative to convenience sampling is to systematically target a few users and then to persuade them to complete the survey. Targeting is performed by selecting users on the basis of a systematic and random process. A sample selection criteria may be constructed whereby, on average, every Nth visitor would be selected. Given a value of N, as defined by the offering criteria, a random number between 1 and N is generated. If the number generated is equal to N, then the user is selected. The user may be offered some incentive to respond, in the form of a plea for assistance, an outright promotional gift, a chance in a lottery for compensation, or some other enticement. The bias in the systematically chosen sample introduced by frequent site visitors having higher probability of being selected than less frequent visitors can be accounted for by asking frequency of use questions in the survey.

The advertiser's Web (1) may have an HTML document (2), which may be the home page, with a few additional lines of code. The added code should be in the form of a reference to an executable graphic image program (9) located at the surveyor's site (3). The program (9) may monitor how many times it has been referenced. The program will cause one of two possible images to be sent to the user based on predetermined criteria.

When a user (6) references the program by visiting the advertiser's (1) Web site, the program may output a large graphic image (4) shown in FIG. 3, enticing the consumer to click on it. If the selected consumer is persuaded by the enticements (10), and clicks on the image (4), the consumer is then presented with the survey as shown in FIG. 4. After the consumer completes the requested information (11), the consumer returns to the original advertiser's product or service information. The consumer can fully complete the survey or only partially complete the survey. If the selected consumer is not persuaded by the enticements (10) and chooses not to participate by selecting the advertiser's image (8), then the consumer bypasses the survey and proceeds directly to the advertiser's product or service information.

When a non-selected consumer (7) references the program, the program outputs a small graphic image (5) shown in FIG. 2. This image is preferably transparent and thus un-noticeable, but for application disclosure purposes is illustrated as image (5) represented by the small visible box. The non-selected consumer (7) may simply proceed, unaware of the survey system.

After the survey is completed, the information is collected, processed and analyzed by the surveyor (3), and then information may be delivered to the advertiser (1) or otherwise used.

The following is the HTML program for a sample from a systematically chosen group of consumers visiting the advertiser's Web page, this program is titled the Embedded Sampling GIF program; embedded references to the advertiser embedding into their HTML Web page a reference to the surveyor's program, Sampling refers to systematic algorithm of selecting, on average, every Nth consumer, and GIF for the graphic image format.

<html>

<!-- Sample Advertiser Page Implementing Nth Sampling Technique -->

<!-- Author: David Pinsley, The NPD Group -->

<!-- Last Modified: DD/MM/YYYY -->

<head><title>Sample Advertiser Page</title></head>

<body background="images/default.gif>

<!-- Beginning of Modification to Advertiser's page. -->

<!-- Advertiser adds these lines to their page, suggested before the first content. -->

<!-- The link is to the recruit page on surveyor NPD's site. -->

<!-- The image is dynamically created by surveyor NPD's sampling program. -->

<!-- If this visit is the Nth visit, then a large banner graphic will be visible, -->

<!-- otherwise, a very small transparent image that will not be noticed is displayed.-->

<center>

<a href="http://mis.npd.com/web/NthTest/recruit.html">

<IMG SRC="http://mis.npd.com/cgi-bin/execute?Nth/nph-count?JOB=J4J4X01-1 border=0>

</a><br>

</center>

<!-- End of modification to Advertiser's page -->

<img scr="images/vpeint01.jpg"border=0>

<br>

<table>

<tr>

<td><ahref="access.html"><h3 >AccessDatabase</h3></a>

</table>

<img scr="images/bar.jpg"align="center">

<p><em>Copyright © 1996 The NPD Group, Inc.

</center></em>

</body>

</html>

According to an alternative embodiment, the survey system may be implemented in a general purpose computer system which operates as a terminal accessed by one or more individuals. The invention is not limited to implementation in a networked system or using Internet protocols. A user terminal such as a kiosk may be provided. The primary function of the terminal or kiosk need not be limited to advertising. The primary function may be an ordering system for goods such as a catalog ordering terminal or other terminal provided for user transactions. Another example of a user transaction terminal would be a motor vehicle transaction terminal, i.e., for renewal of driver licenses or vehicle registrations. The system according to the invention may be useful where the administrator of the transactional terminal would like to survey terminal or transaction system users. Users of the terminal may be offered the opportunity to complete a survey based on selection criteria. Preferably, the offer to participate is made at the conclusion of the transaction. The selection criteria may be any predetermined criteria or random or statistically driven pseudo-random criteria. If a user is selected to participate, the user may be presented with various information intended to entice his participation. The user may then be presented with a survey questionnaire to be completed interactively. The operating software for the selection and the survey may be located within the user terminal or, if the terminal is part of a network, the survey software may be located remotely from one or more of the terminals.

While the instant invention has been shown and described herein in what is conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention, which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent apparatus, articles, and methods. The claims below are set forth to define the scope of the invention.