Towards the characterization of individual users through Web analytics

TL;DR

This paper analyzes individual user navigation patterns on the Web, focusing on temporal return behaviors, revealing diverse behaviors and challenging the idea of a characteristic visit frequency per user.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of temporal navigation patterns, highlighting the variability and independence of user return times on web pages.

Findings

Return probability is independent of user activity level.

Distribution of time intervals between visits varies widely.

No characteristic frequency can define individual user behavior.

Abstract

We perform an analysis of the way individual users navigate in the Web. We focus primarily in the temporal patterns of they return to a given page. The return probability as a function of time as well as the distribution of time intervals between consecutive visits are measured and found to be independent of the level of activity of single users. The results indicate a rich variety of individual behaviors and seem to preclude the possibility of defining a characteristic frequency for each user in his/her visits to a single site.