New Tool Developed to Show ‘if Users Are Browsing or Surfing’

by Lucy Griffiths on 12th July 2010

Two scientists say they have come up with a tool which will be able to show if internet users are shopping online or just browsing.

Eugene Agichtein and Qi Guo of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia stated that their system analyses cursor movement to determine whether or not someone is reading sponsored ads.

The pair said their system is 96 per cent effective in determining whether an internet user is shopping or browsing, reports New Scientist.

"As the session progresses, our system would be able to make increasingly accurate predictions of intent," Mr Agichtein said.

Users of pay per click management services who may be affected by this system will have the opportunity to hear more about it when the duo present their findings in Geneva later this month.

They will be speaking at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval conference, which is being held for the 33rd time this year.