Profiles

Any log format that contains a URL will produce a range of Summaries including the 'Profile' Summary (see Summaries created from URLs). Vantage Ultimate creates the Profile summary by 'Profiling' the URL. Profiling is the process of categorizing the URL based on keywords it contains.

Image
Note: the Name of the Profile summary is preceded by the name of the URL field, such as 'Site Profile' or 'Referrer Profile'.

A profile is a collection of keywords that are matched against the names of the sites and downloaded resources. There are two lists of keywords defined on the Profiles dock; 'includes' and 'excludes'.

Vantage Ultimate searches through each URL for 'includes' keywords. As soon as it finds a keyword, it will check for any 'excludes' keywords for that profile. If there are no 'excludes' keywords, then the URL is assigned to that profile. If there is an 'excludes' keyword, the hit is checked for 'includes' keywords in the next profile.

Profile matching example: If a site name contains 'computershop', it will be assigned to the computer profile not the shop profile, since the keyword 'computer' comes before the keyword 'shop', assuming that the URL has no excluded words from the computer profile.

Vantage Ultimate comes with its own list of default profiles, and you can add, edit or delete profiles and keywords to suit your organization's Internet usage patterns. For example, you may want hits to your organization's intranet to be profiled under the 'My Organization' profile.

A URL that does not contain any keywords will be assigned to the Miscellaneous profile. Approximately 20-35% of URLs will be assigned to this profile when using the default profiles that come with Vantage Ultimate . The percentage of URLs assigned to the Miscellaneous profile declines as you develop and refine your own profiles.

To add a profile:

  • Click the Profiles tab at the top of the screen. This takes you to the Profiles dock.

  • Click the New Profiles link in the Profiles task pad to launch the New Profile dialog.

  • Enter a name and description for the Profile and click OK .

  • The profile you created appears in Profiles list. The Includes and Excludes keyword list appear next to it. Ensure the profile you created is selected and use the buttons on the toolbars on the Includes and Excludes lists to add, edit and delete keywords.

Run an analysis to re-categorize your URLs with the changes you made. The results of the profile matching can be seen in Summaries or Reports by looking at the appropriate 'Profiles' Summary.

Tip: Profiling URLs can slow down an analysis. If you do not want to analyze profiles, turn off all the Profile Summaries by un-checking the Summaries on the Create Analysis dialog (see Summary Selection)