Methods and automated systems for testing, optimization, and analysis that preserve continuity in identities and status of users who access remote information from different contexts

A method carried out in a testing-service, analysis-service, or other service system having one or more processors, one or more data-storage devices, and a data-collection subsystem that receives and processes messages sent from instrumentation contained in remote web-page encodings, remote applications, and other remote instrumented entities, the method comprising:

• for each next processed message received from the data-collection subsystem,
• extracting user-related information from the processed message;
• attempting to identify a user associated with the processed message so that the user can be identified even when computational-context-associated user-related information is not available either in the user-related information extracted from the processed message or in user-related information associated with already identified users by
• for each user in a list of current users,
• comparing user-related information associated with the user to the user-related information extracted from the processed message to generate a score reflective of the probability that the user is the user associated with the processed message, and
• when the score indicates a higher probability than previously considered users in the list of current users, selecting the user as the user associated with the processed message;
• when the score generated with respect to the selected user is greater than a threshold score,
• identifying the selected user as the user associated with the processed message;
• and
• when the user associated with the processed message is identified, associating a user identifier for the identified user with the processed message.