Self contained multi-dimensional traffic data reporting and analysis in a large scale search hosting system

A method comprising:

• collecting usage information from a search engine that is used to perform searches against searchable items in a first repository that is organized according to a first hierarchy of categories;
• storing said usage information in a second repository that is organized in a second hierarchy that is based on the first hierarchy;
• wherein the step of collecting includes generating a usage event record in response to a search of said first repository involving a first node of said first hierarchy;
• wherein the step of storing said usage information includes
• selecting a second node, within the second hierarchy, based on the location of the first node in the first hierarchy;
• and
• storing the usage event record in association with said second node.

A computer-implemented method for displaying multidimensional usage information comprising the steps of:

• storing multidimensional usage data in a reporting repository that is organized in a hierarchy of categories, wherein each category of the hierarchy of categories is associated with a set of one or more attributes;
• wherein each category of the hierarchy of categories is associated with a set of usage items;
• wherein each usage item of the set of usage items of a category indicates a detected demonstration of interest in searchable items that belong to the category;
• displaying a view that includes a set of categories and a set of name/value pairs;
• receiving from a user a request for multidimensional usage information;
• wherein the request is in response to the user selecting from the view a category and one or more attribute name/value pairs;
• in response to the request, generating a search query to find usage items within the reporting repository;
• wherein the search query represents said category and said one or more attribute name/value pairs selected by the user;
• retrieving usage items that satisfy said search query;
• and
• displaying multidimensional usage information based on said usage items.