Hot within my communities

#The present invention relates generally to network analytics tools and, more particularly, but not exclusively to determining statistical data on network resource visits, page views, outbound clicks, and other user activity associated with online communities.

#Tremendous changes have been occurring in the Internet that influence our everyday lives. For example, online social networks and other online communities have become the new meeting grounds. They have been called the new power lunch tables and new golf courses for business life in the U.S. Moreover, many people are using such online social networks and other online communities to reconnect themselves to their friends, their neighborhood, their community, and the world.

#The development of such online social networks and other online communities touch countless aspects of our everyday lives, providing instant access to people of similar mindsets, and enabling us to form partnerships with more people in more ways than ever before. For example, an increasing number of people are creating and/or visiting network blogs (or web logs). Briefly, a blog is a website where a user may provide commentaries, news, graphics, videos, or the like, in a journal style. Such entries may be on virtually any subject, including food, politics, movies, movie stars, videos, music, gambling, shopping, politics, or even personal online diaries. Blog readers can usually post messages related to one or more entries by blog author. Other online communities include online game systems, e-commerce systems, wikis, messaging systems, or other systems that enable groups of users to interact with each other about a particular website, blog, article, product, service, widget, topic, image, audio content, or the like.

#Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the following drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified.

#For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will be made to the following Detailed Description, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a system diagram of one embodiment of an environment in which the invention may be practiced;

#The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments by which the invention may be practiced. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Among other things, the present invention may be embodied as methods or devices. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.

#Throughout the specification and claims, the following terms take the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The phrase “in one embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, though it may. Furthermore, the phrase “in another embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment, although it may. Thus, as described below, various embodiments of the invention may be readily combined, without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.

#In addition, as used herein, the term “or” is an inclusive “or” operator, and is equivalent to the term “and/or,” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The term “based on” is not exclusive and allows for being based on additional factors not described, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In addition, throughout the specification, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references. The meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.”