Publication Details
Title: On Browser-Level Event Logging
Author: O. Bell, M. Allman, and B. Kuperman
Group: ICSI Technical Reports
Date: January 2012
PDF: http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/techreports/TR-12-001.pdf
Overview:
In this paper we offer an initial sketch of a new vantage point we are developing to study “the Web” and users' interactions with it: we have instrumented the Web browser itself. The Google Chrome browser provides an API to developers that allows the building of extensions to the base functionality. As part of this system, Chrome allows developers to add listeners to various browser events. Our extension adds listeners that log these events. We discuss the data we obtain from Chrome, our method for addressing privacy issues in the collected data, and initial findings from observing a small set of real users' Web browsing activities. The findings are modest in absolute terms, but serve to show the efficacy of our monitoring approach.
Acknowledgements:
This work was partially supported by funding provided to ICSI through National Science Foundation grant CNS: 0722035 (“Architectural Support for Network Trouble-Shooting”). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors or originators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Bibliographic Information:
ICSI Technical Report TR-12-001
Bibliographic Reference:
O. Bell, M. Allman, and B. Kuperman. On Browser-Level Event Logging. ICSI Technical Report TR-12-001, January 2012
Author: O. Bell, M. Allman, and B. Kuperman
Group: ICSI Technical Reports
Date: January 2012
PDF: http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/techreports/TR-12-001.pdf
Overview:
In this paper we offer an initial sketch of a new vantage point we are developing to study “the Web” and users' interactions with it: we have instrumented the Web browser itself. The Google Chrome browser provides an API to developers that allows the building of extensions to the base functionality. As part of this system, Chrome allows developers to add listeners to various browser events. Our extension adds listeners that log these events. We discuss the data we obtain from Chrome, our method for addressing privacy issues in the collected data, and initial findings from observing a small set of real users' Web browsing activities. The findings are modest in absolute terms, but serve to show the efficacy of our monitoring approach.
Acknowledgements:
This work was partially supported by funding provided to ICSI through National Science Foundation grant CNS: 0722035 (“Architectural Support for Network Trouble-Shooting”). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors or originators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Bibliographic Information:
ICSI Technical Report TR-12-001
Bibliographic Reference:
O. Bell, M. Allman, and B. Kuperman. On Browser-Level Event Logging. ICSI Technical Report TR-12-001, January 2012