User tracking in a Web session spanning multiple Web resources without need to modify user-side hardware or software or to store cookies at user-side hardware

摘要

A tracking system tracks user interaction with Web resources over the Internet and maintains continuity as the user changes hosts during the Web session, without relying on cookies. An entry point activated by the user, such as a loaded link in an email, routs a request for a Web resource to a gateway facility different from the host of the Web resource. The gateway facility processes the request, modifies is as needed, keeps tracking information, and sends the modified request to the server that actually hosts the Web resource the user sought. The response to the modified request goes to the gateway facility, which modifies it as needed, keeps tracking information, and then sends it to the user, with loaded links that point back to the gateway facility to thereby