JP2000057090A - Method and device for presenting information by utilizing other group taste information and recording medium recording information presenting program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a device for presenting information with which information profitable for a user is selected out of huge information by utilizing the taste of another group and presented for the user. SOLUTION: Concerning the information presenting method for the information presenting device provided with a user profile managing mechanism capable of holding user taste information and a presentation information managing mechanism capable of holding information to be presented to the user, at least one group including a user having a prescribed feature amongs users is prepared and a group having a lot of users belonging to the group is extracted from these groups. Then, the information to be presented to the user is selected utilizing the user taste information concerning users belonging to the extracted group and one part of the selected information is sent to the user after the lapse of suitable time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing method and an information providing apparatus for allowing a user to select desired information and for receiving the selected information. In the present invention, in particular, the user makes a selection from the items presented from the service providing side, or the user presents information indicating preferences explicitly or implicitly to the service providing side, and uses the information. The present invention relates to an information providing method and an information providing apparatus for providing a user with information determined to be appropriate by a service providing side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in the above information providing method and information providing apparatus, if a user who enjoys a certain kind of information service claims that he / she is interested in information in a specific field, the user belongs to the specific field. An information providing method and an information providing apparatus for notifying a user of information on the item when the item occurs are included.

[0003] In the case of a type of service in which a user specifies a specific field and information in the specified specific field is provided to the user, the information is classified by the service provider or the service operator, and is classified. Information is distributed to users. If the user specifies a keyword instead of specifying a specific field, the service provider searches for information based on the specified keyword, or specifies the keyword by referring to the related information database related to the keyword. A category corresponding to the keyword is determined, and information belonging to the category is provided to the user.

[0004] In the case of a type of service in which the user does not explicitly specify a specific field, the usage status of the user is analyzed from data acquired for each user, such as a user handling log. Then, a method of estimating a specific field is known. Further, when a certain user (for example, user A) is interested in some information, the interest information of user A is compared with the interest information of other users, and interest similar to user A is compared. There is known a method of searching for another user B having the following, generating a difference between the interest information of the user A and the interest information of the user B, and providing the information to the user using the generated difference information.

More specifically, conventionally, in a service for providing information to a user through WWW or an electronic mail service, information useful to the user is selected from a huge amount of main information (contents, Web pages, etc.). Technology is desired. One of the technologies is to select main information based on the user's preference. For example, Takashi Tachibana et al., “Proposal and evaluation of personalized service method for news articles”
IPSJ 86th Multimedia Communication and Distributed Processing Study Group, 1998.

[0006]

The conventional information providing method as described above is based on preference information presented by an individual.
However, in most cases, the user is not presenting all the matters of interest to the service provider, and is also interested in matters of potential interest or, although not so strong, It is difficult to present information about the items having the information to the service provider.

[0007] As an example, a user may obtain soccer information that he or she is not usually interested in if it is big news such as the World Cup or news that many people are interested in. You may watch with interest, and you may be interested in information that a close acquaintance is interested in. In such a situation, the conventional method of providing information based on the preference information presented by the individual user cannot provide useful information to the user.

[0008] In the conventional method of providing information based on the similarity of interest between users, since the preference information between users having clearly similar interests is used, the service providing side needs to provide information. , It cannot provide users with information that is of potential interest. In view of the above-mentioned problems of the related art, the present invention provides an enormous amount of information (hereinafter referred to as main information).
The present invention proposes an information providing method and apparatus for selecting information useful to a user from the group using the preference of another group and providing the information to the user, and a recording medium on which an information providing program is recorded.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided an information providing method and apparatus for providing a user with main information selected according to a preference of a member of a specific group. You. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the present invention provides at least one user group including users having user profile information that meets a specific condition from among users whose user profile information is stored in a storage device. (Step 10), and among the created user groups, a user group having a large number of users belonging to the user group is selected as an upper group (step 1).
2), from the provided information to be provided to the user held in the storage device, create information related to the user belonging to the selected higher-level group (step 14), and in the created information, Is selected, and the selected information is sent to the user (step 16).

As described above, according to the present invention, information related to the users belonging to the upper group is sent to the selected users who do not belong to the upper group. Since information that has been determined to be unrelated to the user is sent, useful information that could not be enjoyed when only the information related to the user is provided can be enjoyed. Further, since the information sent to the user is narrowed down to information related to the user belonging to the selected higher-level group, an undesirable situation in which a large amount of unnecessary information is sent is avoided. .

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the information providing method of the present invention. According to the information providing method of the present invention, when the selected information is sent to the user, it is determined whether or not a predetermined timing has been reached (step 20). Select (Step 2
2) Sending information to the user (step 24), and repeating steps 20 to 24 until all the information related to the users belonging to the selected upper group is transmitted (step 26), thereby obtaining different information. Sent to users sequentially.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the information providing apparatus of the present invention. The information providing apparatus includes a first storage device 100 that holds user profile information, a second storage device 200 that holds user provided information, and loads the user profile information into the first storage device 100. A user profile information management unit 110 and a user provision information management unit 2 for loading the user provision information into the second storage device 200
10, a processing device 300 for selecting information to be sent to the user, and an information sending device 80 for sending the selected information to the user.

The processing device 300 includes a group group creating means 10 for creating at least one user group including users whose user profile information held in the first storage device 100 meets specific conditions. A group group selecting means 20 for selecting a user group having a large number of users belonging to the user group among the created user groups as an upper-level group, and a provision held in the second storage device 200 Upper group information creating means 30 for creating information related to the user belonging to the selected upper group from the information, and selecting at least a part of the created information as information to be transmitted to the user Then, the information sending device 80 according to a predetermined timing
And transmission group selecting means 40 for transmitting the information to the transmission group.

The first storage device 100 and the second storage device 200 may be a memory, an external storage device, or
It should be noted that it can be configured in various forms, such as an information server connected via a network.
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an information providing method using the preference of another group. When realizing an information providing method using the preference of another group, it is important to extract a group for selecting useful main information. Therefore, the information providing method using the preference of another group according to the present invention includes the following steps.

In the group group creation stage, a large number of groups, that is, groups, are created by repeatedly creating groups of users who meet certain conditions based on the profile information of all users while changing the conditions. Create a group. In the group group selection stage, groups are taken out of the created group group in descending order of the number of members until a certain condition is reached, and an upper group group is selected.

At the stage of creating the main information of the upper group group, the preference information of the members is extracted from each group in the upper group group, and the main information is extracted according to a certain algorithm using the extracted preference information group of each group. Select Finally, in the sending group selection stage, the group A is selected one by one from the upper group according to a certain condition, and the main information of the selected group A is sent to all users.

The transmission of the main information of the group A to all users may be repeated at a certain time interval or at a certain timing. The present invention is also an information providing method in an information providing apparatus including a user profile management mechanism capable of holding user preference information and a provided information management mechanism capable of holding information to be provided to a user, At least one group including users having predetermined characteristics is created from the users, a group having a large number of users belonging to the group is extracted from the group, and the group relating to the user belonging to the extracted group is extracted. Using the user preference information, information to be provided to the user is selected, and a part of the selected information is sent to the user after an appropriate time has elapsed.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a group group creating method for creating a group group including at least one group by creating a group including users meeting predetermined conditions based on profile information of the user. Step, a group group selection step of extracting a group from the created group group in descending order of the number of members until a predetermined condition is reached, and selecting an upper group group, and for each group in the upper group group, Using the extracted preference information of each group to select the main information to be provided to the user, a main information creation step of an upper group, and a group from the upper group according to predetermined conditions. And selecting a group one by one and sending the main information of the selected group to the user. Is an information providing method using the others group preference information.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an information providing system in which the present invention is realized. In the information providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user terminal 600 is connected to the information providing server 400 via a network 500 such as the Internet, for example. Information is provided.

The information providing server 400 is, for example, a bus 4
And a memory 440 connected via the CPU 70.
, An input / output device 450, and a communication interface 420. The communication interface 420 is the network 50
0 to communicate with the user terminal 600. Further, the information providing server 400 is a module that implements an information providing method using the preference of another group according to the present invention, for example,
An information providing program storage unit 410 for storing programs, a user profile information storage device 100 for storing user profile information, and a user providing information storage device 200 for storing information to be provided to users. It further has. The information providing program storage unit 410 includes: a group group creating unit for realizing an information providing service;
A program including a group group selecting unit, a main information creating unit for the upper group group, and a transmission group selecting unit is deployed.

Further, a timer device 460 used for time measurement for transmitting main information to the user at a predetermined timing or at predetermined time intervals is included. The service according to the first embodiment of the information providing method using the preference of another group according to the present invention is a service for performing a search using a registered keyword and delivering the search result to the user by e-mail.

The user, for example, sends, from the user terminal 600, basic information including the address, such as age, gender, and the name of the prefecture, and preference information including the keyword of interest to the user on the information providing server 400 side. Register in profile information.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of user profile information regarding 10,000 users, for example. The user can receive the main information searched by the individually registered keywords from the information providing server. In the first embodiment of the present invention, for example, it is assumed that television program information is provided.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, a case is considered in which age and gender are used as conditions for creating a group in the group group creation stage. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing twelve groups created by age and gender, that is, group groups. Next, in the group group selection stage, only the groups satisfying the selection conditions are selected with the minimum number of members belonging to the group as the selection conditions, and the remaining groups are deleted. FIG. 8 shows seven groups selected from the first embodiment of the present invention.

Next, in the main information creation stage of the upper group group, for each group, the main information is searched for from the members belonging to each group, ie, the keywords registered in the user profile information by the user. The main information is collected, and, for example, the top five main information is set as the other group preference main information regarding the group in descending order of the collected frequency.

More specifically, for each of the seven groups selected in the group group selection stage, with reference to the user profile information of the members belonging to each group, the number of members for each keyword of interest is determined. Create a list with points indicating whether it is specified as a keyword. Subsequently, TV programs that match each keyword are picked up from the TV program information that is the provided information, and the number of times that each TV program is picked up is given as a registration number point. One keyword may be associated with a plurality of television programs, and a plurality of keywords may be associated with the same television program. Then, for each selected group, upper group information in which television program information is arranged in descending order of the number of registered points is created. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing information to be provided according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 10A and 10B show a list in which points indicating the number of members are attached to each keyword of each group. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a list in which television programs are arranged in the order of the number of registered points for each selected group. For example, five pieces of television program information in descending order of the number of registered points for each group are other group preference main information regarding the group.

Finally, in the transmission group selection stage,
For example, every day, for example, five groups are selected from the upper group group, and a link to other group preference main information regarding the selected group is distributed to the user by e-mail. The user to whom the e-mail has been distributed can easily obtain the main information itself from the link to the main information.

Alternatively, instead of simultaneously distributing the links to the other group preference main information regarding the five groups, for example, in the transmission group selection stage, one group is selected one by one from the upper group group and the electronic group is selected. After distributing to the user by e-mail, after a certain period of time using the timer device, select another group from the upper group group and e-mail the link to other group preference main information about the other group May be sequentially repeated, for example, five times.

Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of the present invention which utilizes a keyword registered as a condition for forming a group in the group group forming stage. It is assumed that the user profile information in this example is the same as the user profile information shown in FIG. 5 used in the description of the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a group group created by a keyword.

Next, in the group group selection stage, only the groups satisfying the selection conditions are selected using the minimum number of members belonging to the group as the selection conditions, and the remaining groups are deleted. FIG. 13 shows four groups selected from the second embodiment of the present invention. Next, at the main information creation stage of the upper group group, for each group, the main information is searched from the members belonging to each group, that is, the keyword registered by the user in the user profile information, and the searched main information is entered. Collected, in order of the frequency of collection, for example, the top 5
One main information is set as other group preference main information regarding the group.

More specifically, for each of the seven groups selected in the group group selection stage, with reference to the user profile information of the members belonging to each group, how many members are included for each keyword of interest Create a list with points indicating whether it is specified as a keyword. Subsequently, TV programs that match each keyword are picked up from the TV program information that is the provided information, and the number of times that each TV program is picked up is given as a registration point. One keyword may be associated with a plurality of television programs, and a plurality of keywords may be associated with the same television program. Then, for each selected group, upper group information in which television program information is arranged in descending order of the number of registered points is created. It is assumed that the provided information according to the second embodiment of the present invention is the same as the provided information according to the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.

FIGS. 13 (a) and 13 (b) are diagrams showing lists in which points indicating the number of members are attached to each keyword of each group according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a list in which television programs are arranged in the order of registered points for each group. For example, five pieces of television program information in descending order of the number of registered points for each group are other group preference main information regarding the group.

In the transmission group selection stage, for example,
Every day, for example, two groups are selected from the upper group group, and a link to other group preference main information regarding the selected group is distributed to the user by e-mail. The user to whom the e-mail has been distributed can easily obtain the main information itself from the link to the main information. In addition, after a certain period of time, two groups are similarly selected, and a link to other group preference main information regarding the selected group is distributed to the user by e-mail.

The user to whom the e-mail is distributed may be all users of the information providing system, or may be a user selected from all users according to certain conditions. For example, by referring to the user information registered in the user profile information, it is also possible to selectively restrict users to whom e-mail is distributed by imposing restrictions by age and conditions by residence. .

Further, the configuration of the information providing system using the other person group preference information is not limited to the example described in the above embodiment, and each component of the information providing system may be defined by software (program). It is also possible to construct and store it in a disk device or the like, and install it in the computer of the information providing system as needed to search and tabulate tabular data. Further, the constructed program can be stored in a portable recording medium such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM, and can be used for general purposes in a case where such a system is used.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be variously modified and applied within the scope of the claims.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the present invention, a user receives useful information separate from his / her own preference, and useful information on items that he or she does not normally pay attention to from the information providing service. It becomes possible to do. Also, the information providing service side can attract new users' interest in the information by providing useful information to users who have not been interested in the information so far.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an information providing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an information providing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an information providing method using the preference of another group according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of user profile information.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a group created according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a group selected according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of provided information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a pointed list for each keyword of each group according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing upper group information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of a group selected according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of provided information according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a pointed list for each keyword of each group according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing upper group information according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 User profile information 200 User provided information

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An information providing method for storing user profile information relating to a user and provided information to be provided to the user in a storage device, wherein the provided information is provided to the user. Create at least one user group including users having user profile information that meets specific conditions, and select a user group having a large number of users belonging to the user group from the created user groups. Sorting as a higher-level group, creating information related to the users belonging to the selected higher-level group from the provided information, selecting at least a part of the created information, and extracting the selected information. An information providing method, which is sent to a user. 2. A step of selecting at least a part of the created information and determining whether or not a predetermined timing has been reached when sending the selected information to a user; Selecting the information when the timing is reached; sending the information to the users; and determining the above until the information related to the users belonging to the selected upper group is completely transmitted. 2. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the step of repeating the step of sending and the step of sending are performed. 3. An information providing method in an information providing apparatus comprising: a user profile management mechanism capable of holding user preference information; and a provided information management mechanism capable of holding information to be provided to a user. At least one group including users having predetermined characteristics is created from among the users, a group having a large number of users belonging to the group is extracted from the groups, and the use related to the user belonging to the extracted group is extracted. An information providing method comprising: selecting information to be provided to the user using user preference information; and transmitting a part of the selected information to the user after an appropriate time has elapsed. 4. A group group creating step of creating a group including at least one group by creating a group including users who meet predetermined conditions based on profile information of the user; From the created group group, groups are taken out in descending order of the number of members until a predetermined condition is reached, and a group group selection stage of selecting the upper group group, and, for each group in the upper group group, member preference information is obtained. Using the extracted preference information group of each group, selecting the main information to be provided to the user, the main information creation step of the upper group group, and selecting one group from the upper group group one by one according to predetermined conditions And a sending group selecting step of sending the main information of the selected group to the user. Information providing method using other party preference information. 5. An information providing apparatus comprising: a user profile management mechanism capable of holding user preference information; and a provided information management mechanism capable of holding information to be provided to a user. Means for creating at least one group including users having characteristics; means for extracting a group having a large number of users belonging to the group from the groups; and user preference for the users belonging to the extracted group Information, comprising: means for selecting information to be provided to the user using the information; and means for sending a part of the selected information to the user after an appropriate time has elapsed. Providing device. 6. A first device for storing user profile information.
A second storage device that stores user-provided information; a user profile information management unit that loads the user profile information into the first storage device; and a second storage device that stores the user-provided information in the second storage device An information providing device including: a user providing information management unit to be loaded into the storage device; a processing device for selecting information to be sent to the user; and an information sending device for sending the selected information to the user. The processing device includes: a group group creating unit that creates at least one user group including a user whose user profile information stored in the first storage device matches a specific condition; Group group selecting means for selecting a user group having a large number of users belonging to the user group among the user groups as an upper group, and the second storage device Upper group information creating means for creating information related to the user belonging to the selected higher group from the provided information, and at least a part of the created information should be sent to the user. Transmission group selecting means for selecting the information as information and transmitting the information to the information transmitting apparatus according to a predetermined timing. 7. An information providing program for storing user profile information on a user and provided information to be provided to the user in a storage device, wherein the provided information is provided to the user. A process of creating at least one user group including users having user profile information meeting specific conditions, and a user having a large number of users belonging to the created user group among the created user groups A process of selecting a group as a higher-level group, a process of generating information related to a user belonging to the selected higher-level group from the provided information, and selecting at least a part of the generated information. Recording the information providing program, including a process of sending the selected information to the user. Recording medium. 8. A process of selecting at least a part of the created information and causing the user to send the selected information includes a process of determining whether a predetermined timing has been reached, and a process of determining whether a predetermined timing has been reached. A process of selecting information when the timing is reached, a process of sending information to the user, a process of determining the above until information related to users belonging to the selected higher-level group is completely transmitted, and a process of selecting. The recording medium according to claim 7, further comprising: a process of causing the information providing program to repeat a process of sending the information providing program.