JP2002157498A - Banner system, banner management method therefor and recording medium having banner management program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a banner system for automatically switching the setting of a banner to be displayed corresponding to the contents of a linking destination Web page or a Web page to display the banner and the number of times of display. SOLUTION: This banner system is provided with a means for receiving a banner selection request from a Web server, a means for selecting the banner to be displayed corresponding to the received banner selection request, a page attribute extraction part for accessing the Web page of a linking destination of the banner to be displayed and extracting the features of the linking destination Web page, a means for generating a sentence for expressing the features corresponding to the features extracted by the page attribute extraction part, a means for automatically generating the image data of the banner to be displayed as the image data including the display of the sentence expressing the features of the linking destination Web page and a means for transmitting the generated image data of the banner to the user terminal of a user and displaying them at a Web browser as the banner inside the Web page and the display of the banner in the Web page is managed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to distribution of electronic contents on an information network such as a public line network or the Internet, and more particularly to a banner system for distributing an electronic banner, an advertisement method thereof, and a banner advertisement program. The recording medium on which it was recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the use of information communication such as the Internet has become widespread.
He started setting up his own website on a web server. In addition, companies and individual users who establish websites have come to widely use web pages as advertising media by attaching advertisement banners to the web pages.

[0003] This is generally called a banner and includes an image displayed in a web page and a web page setting of a link to be displayed when the image is clicked. What they do is also called advertising banners.

[0004] Specifically, in a web page for displaying a banner, an HTML code describing the web page is added to an HT for an advertisement banner provided by an advertising company or the like.
By including the ML code, an advertisement banner can be displayed on the web page. When this web page is displayed on a web browser, an advertisement banner is displayed at a location where the HTML code for the advertisement banner is added in addition to the content of the original web page.

[0005] The image of the advertisement displayed on the web page is
For example, a method of displaying a preset advertisement or displaying a randomly selected advertisement from a plurality of image data (image files) for advertisements recorded in a server of an advertisement company. There is.

[0006] When the displayed advertisement banner is clicked with a pointing device such as a mouse cursor, the display jumps to a preset link destination (usually an advertiser site).

[0007] If the advertisement is not an advertising banner, such as a link to a general personal website instead of a company or store, it is sometimes called a link banner. In this case, as in the case of the advertising banner, the banner prepared by the operator of the linked website is displayed in the web page,
When the banner is clicked, the link destination is displayed on the web browser.

[0008] Displaying a banner on a web page contributes to an increase in the number of visitors to the web page to which the banner is provided. A method of paying a corresponding amount of monetary reward or performing a mutual link is employed.

[0009]

However, the conventional banner system has the following problems.

First, in the case of a conventional banner such as a link banner as well as an advertisement banner, a banner prepared in advance by an operator of a linked website such as an advertiser is displayed, and the same banner image is always displayed. It was displayed without change and lacked interest.

Conventionally, there is a system for displaying a banner randomly selected from a plurality of advertiser banners. However, this system randomly selects and displays banners having different contents. It does not change the content of

Second, in the related art, the operation of selecting an advertisement banner suitable for being displayed on its own website and setting a link destination such as a reciprocal link has to be manually performed and is cumbersome. This operation was troublesome and could not be automatically processed.

Third, since advertisement banners are flooding, the degree of interest in banners by users is low, and the click rate of banners tends to decrease year by year. By changing the display of the banner dynamically according to the number of times it is displayed and the number of clicks, and the content of the article on the link destination or link source web page, etc., the interest of many users to the banner is I want to attract.

[0014] A first object of the present invention is to automatically select and display an appropriate link banner according to the contents of a web page, a banner system, a banner management method thereof, and a recording recording a banner management program. Is to provide a medium.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a banner system, a banner management method, and a banner management program for dynamically generating and displaying a link banner according to the update status of a web page and the content of the web page. It is to provide a recorded recording medium.

A third object of the present invention is to display a banner of a character such as an animal in a linked web page on a banner, and to update the image of the character to sequentially display a growing state based on the number of links and the like. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a banner system, a banner management method, and a recording medium on which a banner management program is recorded, in which a user can see how a character moves between web pages and the character grows. .

[0017]

In order to achieve the above object, a banner system according to the present invention comprises a web page for displaying a banner, and banner selection means for managing a banner displayed by the web page, wherein the web page is When displaying the web page on a web browser of a user terminal of the user, the web site that publishes the web page includes means for transmitting a banner selection request to the banner selection means, wherein the banner selection means includes Means for receiving a banner selection request from the web server, means for selecting a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request, and means for generating banner data for displaying the selected banner And transmitting the generated banner data to the user terminal of the user, and displaying the banner data in the web page. Comprising a means for displaying on the web browser as chromatography, characterized by managing the display of banner in the web page.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the banner selection request includes data for identifying the web page, and the banner selection unit identifies the web page from the received banner selection request. With
A banner having a link destination other than the web page is selected as the banner to be displayed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the banner selection request includes data designating another web page related to the content of the web page, and the banner selection unit receives the banner selection request. Means for identifying the specification of the related web page from the request, wherein a banner having the specified related web page as a link destination is preferentially selected as the banner to be displayed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the banner selecting means includes means for automatically generating image data of a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request. Is included in the banner data and transmitted to the user terminal of the user, and displayed on the web browser as a banner in the web page.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the banner selecting means includes a page attribute extracting means for accessing a linked web page of the banner to be displayed and extracting characteristics of the linked web page. The image data of the banner to be displayed is automatically generated in association with the feature extracted from the linked web page of the banner.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the page attribute extracting means includes a means for accessing the web page for which a banner is to be displayed, and extracting a feature of the web page. The means automatically generates image data of the banner to be displayed in association with the feature extracted from the web page to which the banner is linked and the feature extracted from the web page on which the banner is to be displayed. It is characterized by the following.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the banner system, the banner selecting means includes means for generating a sentence expressing the characteristic in association with the characteristic extracted by the page attribute extracting means, The image data of the banner to be made is automatically generated including the display of the sentence expressing the feature of the linked web page.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the banner selecting means records, for each of the web pages for which a banner is to be managed, the number of times the banner selection request has been received from the web page. Means for selecting the banner to be displayed in accordance with the number of times the banner selection request from the web page has been received.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, as the banner image to be displayed, a plurality of image files for displaying a predetermined character are prepared corresponding to the degree of growth of the character. The selection of an image file of the character, which is the banner to be displayed, is sequentially updated to an image file showing a more mature state in accordance with the number of times the banner selection request has been received.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner system comprising:
It is characterized by comprising charging management means for registering a participating user who is to provide a banner management service and managing charging based on the provided service.

[0027] The banner management method of the present invention according to claim 11 is as follows.
Receiving a banner selection request transmitted from a website that publishes a web page for which a banner is to be displayed, in response to access to the web page by a web browser of a user terminal of the user; In response to the selection request, selecting a banner to be displayed, and generating banner data for displaying the selected banner, and transmitting the generated banner data to the user terminal of the user,
Displaying a banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page; and managing a display of the banner on the web page.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner management method comprising:
The step of identifying the web page from the received banner selection request includes the step of identifying the web page from the received banner selection request, and the step of selecting a banner having a link other than the web page as the banner to be displayed. It is characterized by comprising the step of performing.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner management method comprising:
The banner selection request includes data specifying another web page related to the web page and the content, and identifying the specification of the relevant web page from the received banner selection request; A web page to be linked to is selected as a banner to be displayed with priority.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner management method comprising:
Automatically generating image data of a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request; transmitting the generated image data to the user terminal of the user by including the image data in the banner data; And displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner management method comprising:
A page attribute extracting step of accessing a linked web page of the banner to be displayed and extracting characteristics of the linked web page, and extracting image data of the banner to be displayed from the linked web page of the banner. The method is characterized by comprising a step of automatically generating the feature corresponding to the feature.

[0032] The banner management method of the present invention according to claim 16 is as follows.
The page attribute extraction step includes a step of accessing the web page for which a banner is to be displayed and extracting a feature of the web page, and converting the image data of the banner to be displayed from the link destination web page of the banner. It is characterized in that it is automatically generated in correspondence with the extracted features and the features extracted from the web page for displaying the banner.

[0033] The banner management method of the present invention according to claim 17 is as follows.
Generating a sentence expressing the feature corresponding to the feature extracted in the page attribute extracting step; and displaying the sentence expressing the feature of the linked web page on the banner image data to be displayed. Automatically generating a step including

[0034] The banner management method of the present invention according to claim 18 is as follows.
For each web page for which a banner is to be managed, for each of the web pages, recording the number of times the banner selection request has been received from the web page, and displaying the banner, the banner selection request from the web page. The method is characterized by comprising a step of selecting according to the number of receptions.

According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner management method comprising:
As the image of the banner to be displayed, a plurality of image files for displaying a preset character are prepared corresponding to each of the degrees of growth of the character, and the image file of the character for the banner to be displayed is selected. In accordance with the number of times the banner selection request has been received, sequentially updating the image file to an image file showing a more mature state.

According to a twentieth aspect of the banner management method of the present invention,
It is characterized by comprising a charging management step of registering a participating user who is to provide a banner management service and managing charging based on the provided service.

According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing a computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention. Receiving a banner selection request sent in response to access by a web browser;
In response to the received banner selection request, selecting a banner to be displayed, generating banner data for displaying the selected banner, and transmitting the generated banner data to the user terminal of the user. And displaying the banner on the web page as a banner in the web page, and controlling the display of the banner on the web page by controlling a computer.

The recording medium storing the computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention according to claim 22, wherein the banner selection request includes data for identifying the web page, and the banner selection request receives the web page from the received banner selection request. The method includes a step of identifying a page and a step of selecting a banner having a link other than the web page as a banner to be displayed.

[0039] According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, in the recording medium storing the computer-readable banner management program of the present invention, the banner selection request includes data designating another web page related to the web page and the content.
Identifying the designation of the related web page from the received banner selection request, and preferentially selecting a banner linked to the designated related web page as the banner to be displayed. It is characterized by.

The recording medium in which the computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention is recorded, wherein the image data of the banner to be displayed is automatically generated in response to the received banner selection request; Transmitting the image data included in the banner data to the user terminal of the user and displaying the image data as a banner in the web page on the web browser.

According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, a recording medium storing a computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention accesses a web page to which a banner to be displayed is linked and extracts a feature of the linked web page. An attribute extracting step and a step of automatically generating image data of the banner to be displayed corresponding to the feature extracted from the linked web page of the banner are provided.

[0042] According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, in the recording medium in which the computer readable banner management program of the present invention is recorded, the page attribute extracting step accesses the web page for which a banner is to be displayed, and Extracting a feature, wherein the image data of the banner to be displayed corresponds to the feature extracted from the linked web page of the banner and the feature extracted from the web page to which the banner is displayed. Automatically generated.

In a recording medium according to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, a banner management program readable by a computer is recorded in accordance with the feature extracted in the page attribute extracting step, and a sentence expressing the feature is generated. And automatically generating the image data of the banner to be displayed including the display of the text expressing the feature of the linked web page.

A recording medium in which a computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention of claim 28 is recorded, for each of said web pages for which a banner is to be managed, sends said banner selection request from said web page. It is characterized by comprising a step of recording the number of times of reception, and a step of selecting the banner to be displayed in accordance with the number of times of receiving the banner selection request from the web page.

A recording medium storing a computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention, wherein a plurality of image files displaying characters set in advance are stored as the banner images to be displayed. The selection of the image file of the character, which is the banner to be displayed, is prepared in correspondence with each of the degrees of growth, and the selection of the image file of the character, which is the banner to be displayed, is sequentially performed on the image file indicating the more grown state in accordance with the number of times the banner selection request is received. It is characterized by comprising a step of updating.

A recording medium storing a computer-readable banner management program according to the present invention of claim 30 registers a participating user to whom a banner management service is provided, and manages charging based on the provided service. It is characterized by comprising a charge management step.

A banner service method according to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention is a banner service method for selecting and managing a banner to be displayed in a web page, wherein a plurality of characters for displaying a predetermined character are displayed as images of the banner to be displayed. An image file is prepared corresponding to each degree of growth of the character, the number of times a banner is displayed on the web page is recorded, and the image file of the character, which is the banner to be displayed, is selected by the banner. Is sequentially updated to an image file showing a more mature state in accordance with the number of times that is displayed.

A banner service method according to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a participating user to whom a service is provided is registered, and charging for each participating user is managed based on the provided service.

A banner service method according to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention is to provide a participating user who is to provide a service by establishing a participating user website for applying for participation and confirming the state of the character. Operating, placing an advertisement on a web page in the participating user website, and collecting an advertisement fee from an advertiser of the advertisement.

[0050]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a banner system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the banner system according to the present embodiment includes a banner server 10 that selects and controls a banner to be displayed on a web page in response to an access from a user terminal 20 of a user.

The user terminal 20 includes a web browser 21 (service request unit) for accessing a web site via a communication network and displaying the web page. The web browser 21 (service request unit) transmits a request for data such as a web page to a web server on a communication network based on a user operation, and displays a web page returned from the server. The user terminal 20 is a personal computer, a notebook computer, a PDA (Personal
Digital Assistant) and mobile phones and PHS with i-mode and other Internet connection functions
(Personal Handy-phone System) and the like.

The banner server 10 receives a request from the web browser 21 in the user terminal 20 and returns a web page, its image, a banner, and the like in response to the request. A banner database 13 for recording image data and a banner selection unit 12 for selecting a banner stored in the banner database 13 in response to a banner selection request from the web server 11 and displaying the selected banner on a web browser.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a connection configuration of the banner system according to the present embodiment via a network.

The banner server 10 and the web browser 21
Are connected by a network 30 such as the Internet,
Several web servers 40 are connected to the network 30. The banner server 10 selects and manages a banner to be displayed on these web servers 40.

In FIG. 2, one user terminal 20 is displayed, but access can be received from any of a plurality of user terminals 20. Similarly, the web server 40 that manages a banner by the banner server 10 may also manage a plurality of web servers 40 at the same time.

Hereinafter, in the present specification, an example will be described in which the server name of the banner server 10 is “foo” and the banner of the web server 40 having the server names “woo” and “bar” is managed.

Next, processing of the banner system according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing of the banner system according to the present embodiment.

First, the web browser 21 of the user terminal 20
Then, the web server 40 is accessed to display a web page (step 301). At this time, if there is HTML code for displaying the content (that is, banner) existing in the banner server “foo” on the web page, a service request including a banner display request is created and issued to the banner server 10. (Step 30
2). This is performed by the basic functions of the web client.

The web server 11 has a web browser 21
When the service request is received and the content is a request to display a banner, a banner selection request is generated based on the service request and passed to the banner selection unit 12 (step 303).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data used for a service request according to the present embodiment. In the service request of FIG. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes that the data is a service request, an address of a service request receiving destination is indicated, 402 denotes URL information of banner selection, 403
Is ID information for banner selection. FIG. 4 shows that the URL is “http: //bar/index.html” and the ID is “U1234”.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of data used for a banner selection request according to the present embodiment. The banner selection request shown in FIG. 5 is composed of the URL and ID of the service request, and FIG. 5 uses the contents of the URL and ID shown in FIG. 4 as they are.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the recorded contents of the banner database 13 according to the present embodiment.

In the banner database 13 in the example of FIG. 6, the banner name, banner owner ID, banner image data file name, banner owner home page U
RL, age, activity, and cleverness when the banner is a character are quantified according to certain criteria, information on the owner ID related to the home URL of the banner owner, and the degree of association (friend ID) ) Is recorded.

For example, the line indicated by 601 is information relating to the banner name “Puchi”, and its owner ID is “U123
4, the banner file name is “POCHI.gif”, the banner owner's home URL is “http: //bar/index.html”, the banner character age is “5”, and the activity is “7” indicates that the smartness is “3”, the friend ID is “U3333”, and the degree of association with the friend ID “U3333” is “2”.

The number of image data files for each banner need not be one, and a plurality of image data files may be set for one banner.

Upon receiving the banner selection request, the banner selection unit 12 refers to the banner database 13 and selects a banner other than the banner specified by the URL and ID described in the banner selection request as a display banner (step S1). 3
04), generates an HTML code for display and returns it to the web server 11 (step 305).

In the selection of a banner, a banner linking to another web page is displayed, and it is not necessary to use a banner for advertising the web page itself displaying the banner. The web page is recognized with reference to the URL and ID described in the request, and a banner for a web page other than the web page is selected as a display banner.

FIG. 7 shows the banner selection unit 12 according to this embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an HTML code generated by the above. The HTML code in FIG. 7 is an example of an HTML code generated when the banner indicated by 602 in the banner database 13 in FIG. 6 is selected.

The line 702 is an HTML code for displaying the image file name “HACHI.gif” existing in the server “foo”, and refers to the item of the image file name recorded in the banner database 13. Generate.

A line 701 designates a link destination web page to be displayed on the web browser 21 when the displayed banner is selected, and is generated by referring to the home URL item of the banner database 13.

As described above, in the example of FIG. 7, “the address of the banner to be displayed is“ http: //foo/HACHI.gif ”, and when the image is selected, the banner is selected by the server“ foo ”. "Http: //woo/index.h
tml "is displayed."

The web server 11 receiving the HTML code returns the HTML code to the web browser 21 (Step 306).

The web browser 21 receiving the HTML code analyzes the HTML code and displays the designated banner (step 307).

When the HTML code shown in FIG. 7 is obtained, the “HACH” in the server “foo” is read from the line 702.
I.gif "is acquired, and the banner file of the banner database 13 is acquired and displayed via the web server 11. This is executed by a general web client function. If you click the link "http: //woo/index.htm
Display the web page of the URL indicated by "l".

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which a banner is displayed by the web browser 21 of the user terminal 20 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 801 shows a banner selected by the banner server 10.

As described above, in the banner system of the present embodiment, an appropriate link banner can be automatically selected and displayed on a web page published on a website on a communication network. .

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a banner system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The banner server 10a includes, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment,
The apparatus includes a banner reference history 14 and a banner updating unit 15, and updates a displayed banner according to the number of times the banner is displayed.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the processing of the banner system according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 10, in the banner system of the present embodiment, when a banner displayed on web browser 21 of the user terminal is clicked by the user (step 1001), the banner is set as the clicked banner. A banner reference notification is created based on the HTML code thus generated and issued to the banner server 10a (step 1
002). This is performed by the basic functions of the web client.

When the web server 11 receives the banner reference notification, it records the content in the banner reference history 14 (step 1003). Further, the server of the reference destination URL described in the banner reference notification is requested to display the reference URL on the web browser 21 that has issued the banner reference notification (step 1004). This can be performed by a function called Forwarding provided in the web server as a standard.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the recorded contents of the banner reference history 14 according to the present embodiment. In the banner reference history 14 of FIG. 12, an original URL indicating the URL where the banner is displayed, a reference URL which is a URL to be selected and referred to, and the date and time when the banner is referred to are recorded.

In the row indicated by reference numeral 1201 in FIG.
At 12:34:56 on 0/5/25 “http: // boo / inde
x.html ”, select the banner displayed, and click“ http: /
/bar/index.html ”.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of data used for a banner reference notification according to the present embodiment. In the banner reference notification of FIG. 13, the URL of the web page displaying the banner is displayed.
And the URL of the web page linked by the banner.

In the example shown in FIG. 13, the URL “http: // bar” of the web page displaying the banner in line 1301 is displayed.
/index.html ”, and the URL“ http: // woo / i ”of the web page linked by the banner in line 1302
ndex.html ”is shown.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the recorded contents of the updated banner reference history according to the present embodiment. The contents shown in FIG. 13 are added to the row 1401 in FIG.

FIG. 11 shows a banner updating unit 1 according to this embodiment.
9 is a flowchart for describing an update process by the F.5.

The banner updating unit 15 starts up at a predetermined timing (step 1101), reads the contents of the banner reference history 14 (step 1102), and updates the contents of the banner database 13 (step 110).
3, 1104).

Examples of the timing at which the banner updating unit 15 is activated include when the banner reference history 14 is updated,
It is possible to start at a predetermined time or the like, and start the operation according to the preset timing.

Further, as an example of a method of updating the banner database 13, various parameters (age, activity, cleverness, etc.) of animals and other characters to be displayed on the banner are updated, and items of the friend ID are updated. Updating may be considered, and the updating is performed according to the preset method.

Also, the image data file name with a number added is prepared in advance, and the number displayed by the banner updating unit 15 is changed (for example, one by one each time it is displayed) to obtain the same image data file name. It's a banner that can make a difference.

For example, when displaying an animal or other character on a banner, the age of the character is displayed by the above number, and as the number increases, the image of the banner changes to an old one. It is possible.

As an example, there is a method which is started every time the banner reference history 14 shown in FIG. 14 is updated, and updates the item of the friend ID based on the updated contents of the banner reference history 14. In this case, a new item is added to the row 1401 of the banner reference history 14, and “http: //bar/index.html”
"Http: // woo / ind" from the web page
ex.html ”has been referenced.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a result of updating the friend ID in the banner database 13 shown in FIG. 6 according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 15, “http: //bar/index.htm
l ”in the home URL“ Pachi ”
Add “U7777”, which is the user ID that owns “http: //woo/index.html” as the home URL, to the friend ID,
The degree of association is set to "1" (1501). Conversely, the same process is performed for the banner "Hachi" that owns "http: //woo/index.html" as the home URL,
The relevance of the item of the friend ID “U1234” is increased by one to “2” (1502).

[0097] Banner selection section 12 in the present embodiment
Is a URL selection method described in the banner selection request described in the first embodiment.
Other than the method of selecting a banner other than the banner specified by D as the display banner, for example, a friend ID of the banner specified by the URL and ID described in the banner selection request
To select a banner specified by an ID not described in the URL, URL and ID described in the banner selection request
A method of selecting a banner specified by an ID having a high degree of association among the IDs described in the friend IDs of the banners specified by the above, or a method in which these methods are mixed and implemented, The selection method is not limited to this.

In the method of selecting a banner having a high degree of association of the ID, that is, for example, when the banner database 13 has the contents shown in FIG.
If L is “http: //bar/index.html”, friend ID
, The banner of the line 603 whose owner is the user specified by the user ID “U3333” is selected. In the random selection method, either 602 or 603 is selected.

Furthermore, using various preset parameters such as the activity and cleverness of the banner database 13, a banner with a similar cleverness value is selected. It is also possible to select a banner with a low value. In this case, the banner updating unit 15
The values of activity and cleverness are appropriately changed according to the contents of the banner reference history 14.

As an example, a method of increasing the activity value if there is a history referred to in the morning and decreasing the activity value if there is a history referred to in the afternoon, or a method of referring to a weekday. If there is a history, increase the value of wisdom,
If there is a history referred to on a holiday, a method of reducing the value of wisdom can be considered. Further, by applying the contents of the banner reference history 14 to an appropriate formula, a method of calculating these values of activity and cleverness at any time is also possible.

As described above, in the banner system according to the present embodiment, the banner to be displayed can be automatically updated according to the number of times the banner is displayed.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a banner system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the banner system according to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the second embodiment, the banner server 10b newly includes a page attribute extracting unit 16 and a page attribute database 17, thereby displaying a link destination and a banner by a banner. A feature is extracted from a web page to be displayed, and a banner to be displayed is selected according to the feature.

Further, the banner server 10b is newly provided with a banner synthesizing unit 18 and a banner synthesizing rule 18-1, so that a banner image indicating the contents of a web page such as a link destination is displayed based on a preset rule. Is automatically generated and displayed.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart for explaining page attribute extraction processing by the page attribute extraction unit 16 according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

The page attribute extracting unit 16 reads the home URL item from the banner database 13, accesses the home URL via the network 30 (step 1702), and extracts features from the acquired page contents (step 1702). Step 1703), page attribute database 1
7 is updated (step 1704).

The timing at which the page attribute extraction unit 16 is activated may be, for example, when a new banner is added to the banner database 13, at regular intervals, or the like, but is not limited to this.

The attributes are extracted by a preset extraction method. For example, words are extracted by morphologically analyzing the contents of a web page, and the appearance frequency of the words is calculated. For example, a method of extracting a word having a high frequency and selecting it as a word representing the page can be used.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of the recorded contents of the page attribute database 17 according to the present embodiment. FIG.
ID and home UR in the page attribute database 17
L and various page attributes such as word, image amount, hierarchy, and update interval are recorded. Further, the items of the page attributes are not limited to these, and are freely set by the operator of the banner server 10b. It may be settable.

In the "word" item in FIG. 19, a word having a high appearance frequency and a meaning among words included in the page of the home URL is selected.
The item “image amount” is the amount of images included in the page, and describes the number of images, the total capacity of all images, and the like. The item of “hierarchy” describes the number of stages of the hierarchical structure of the page. In the item of "update interval", the number of days on which the page is updated on average is described.

For example, in the row 1901 in FIG. 19, “the user ID is“ U1234 ”and the home URL is“ http: // bar / in ”.
In the page attribute of “dex.html”, the word “car” appears frequently, there are three images on the page, and the hierarchy is 1
In the column, the update interval is three days. "

Upon receiving the banner selection request from the web server 11, the banner selection unit 12
Is read, and an appropriate banner having a link destination other than the website displaying the banner described in the banner selection request is selected.

As a selection method, in addition to the selection method of the first or second embodiment, a home URL having an attribute close to (or the same as) the page attribute of the reference source URL described in the page attribute database 17 is provided. There is a method of selecting a banner. For example, when "automobile" is described in the word field of the URL of the reference source, a banner in the row of 1901 which is a web page having many words of the same "automobile" can be selected as the selected banner.

The banner selecting section 12 that has selected the banner stores the image file name of the selected banner in the banner database 1.
3 and its image file. Further, the HTM passed to the web server 11 as in the first embodiment.
Generate L code.

The acquired image file, the generated HTML code, the home URL of the request source, and the home URL of the determined banner (= reference URL) are collectively transferred to the banner synthesizing unit 18 as selected banner data.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of selected banner data according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 20, 2001
Is the generated HTML code and has the same content as the code shown in FIG. The line 2002 is the home URL of the banner request source and has the same content as the home URL described in the banner selection request shown in FIG. 2
The line 003 is the home URL of the selected banner and is obtained from the banner database 13. The line 2004 is the image data of the banner.

FIG. 18 shows a banner synthesizing unit 1 according to the present embodiment.
8 is a flowchart for explaining the processing of FIG.

In the present embodiment, upon receiving the selected banner data, the banner synthesizing section 18 (step 180).
1), reference source URL and reference destination UR in the selected banner data
The page attribute of L is acquired from the page attribute database 17 (step 1802), and a rule in the banner composition rule 18-1 that satisfies the acquired attribute is selected (step 1).
803), a sentence is created in accordance with the output sentence creation format described in the banner composition rule 18-1, and the banner composition section 18 further generates image data in the selected banner data,
The image data of the banner is generated by combining the created text into image data and a single image (step 1804).

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of data of the banner composition rule 18-1 according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 21, the banner composition rule 18-1 is defined as data of items such as a word, an image amount, a hierarchy, an update interval and the like in the page attribute database 17. URL item that is a distinction between
The output text creation format is set in accordance with each of the above conditions.

For example, the rule shown in the row 2101 is such that when the URL is the home URL of the selected banner and the page attribute item of the image amount is “5 or more”, “ There is a lot. "

In the row 2102, the URL is the home URL of the selected banner, and the home URL of the banner selected in the page attribute database 17.
This means that if something is described in the word column of the page attribute related to L, a sentence "Uchiha is a site of <contents of word column>" is created using the contents of the word column.

When the selected banner data shown in FIG. 20 is received, first, the page attribute 1902 of the reference destination URL 2003 is obtained from the page attribute database 17, and the rule matching the obtained attribute is set to the banner composition rule 1.
When selecting from 8-1, the rows 2101 and 2102 correspond, and the sentences "Uchiha is a fruit site ~" and "Uchiha many images ~" are created from the respective rows.

Next, the page attribute 1901 of the reference source URL 2002 is obtained from the page attribute database 17, and a rule matching the obtained attribute is set to the banner composition rule 18-1.
, The line 2103 is applicable, and a sentence "This is an automobile site ~" is created.

FIG. 22 shows a banner synthesizing unit 1 according to this embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a banner image created by a reference numeral 8.

Reference numeral 2201 denotes the image data 2004 included in the selected banner data.
Then, the generated sentences are combined into a balloon format and combined to generate one image (2202).

When a plurality of texts are generated in the process of text generation, an image is synthesized for each text (2).
203, 2204).

Further, the generated image data (2201 to 2204) is generated as one image file using an automatically switching image format such as an animation GIF format.

FIG. 22 shows that the banner is an animation GIF image format in which the image is sequentially switched from 2201 to 2204 and returns to 2201 again.

[0129] The banner synthesizing unit 18 saves the generated image file with a new file name. Further, the image file name item 2005 of the HTML code 2001 of the selected banner data is rewritten with the newly added image file name. Saved image file and rewritten HT
The ML codes are put together and passed as combined banner data to the web server 11 (step 1805).

The web server 11 that has received the combined banner data holds the image file of the combined banner data, and returns the HTML code to the web browser 21. The stored image file is passed to the web browser 21 when requested by the web browser 21. By saving the saved image file for a predetermined period of time and deleting it after the end of the period, it is possible to prevent an enormous amount of images from being stored in the banner server 10b.

As described above, in the banner system according to the present embodiment, it is possible to automatically select an appropriate banner corresponding to the web page linked by the banner or the content of the web page displaying the banner. it can. Furthermore,
It is possible to automatically generate and display a banner image in a form such as displaying the content of a linked web page in characters.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a banner system according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The present embodiment is characterized in that the banner server 10c is further provided with a billing authentication unit 19 to operate a business such as an advertisement using a banner system.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart for explaining the processing of the banner system according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 24, first, the user accesses the web page of the pay service using web browser 21 of user terminal 20 (step 240).
1).

The web server 11 is a web browser 21
(Step 24)
02), the web browser 21 is used for the charging authentication unit 19;
The user ID sent from the user is sent to the charging authentication unit 19 (step
2403).

Upon receiving the user ID from the web server 11, the billing authentication unit 19, if the user ID is already registered in the billing authentication unit 19 (step 2404),
A paid service permission for the ID is issued (step 2405). If the user ID has not been registered in the charging authentication unit 19, a pay service non-permission is issued.

When the registration of a new user is sent together with the user ID from the web server 11, the charging authentication unit 19 holds the user ID and registers as a new user. As a result, a paid service can be provided to the user.

Here, the banner format character cultivation service will be described. This is a service in which characters such as animals are arranged on a banner, and it is possible to see how the character grows each time the banner is referred to. In addition, since the link destination of the banner is fixed to some extent, a virtual group can be formed.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between the parties related to the service provided to the user by the banner system according to the present embodiment. The banner server operator 60, the advertiser 50, and the free service are provided. The relationship between the participating user 72, the paid service participating user 71, and the page referring user 73 is shown.

The banner server operator 60 recruits users to participate in the character breeding service on the network 30. The services to be provided include free services and paid services. In both services, users first apply for participation.

[0142] The banner server operator 60 sets the advertisement to be displayed on the web page of the participation application and the advertisement fee as advertiser 50.
And post an ad on the participation application web page. The provided advertisement is a paid service participating user 71,
It is presented to the free service participating user 72.

When the application for participation is made, the HTML code of the banner to be attached to the web page of the participating user is provided from the banner server operator 60 to the paid service participating user 71 and the free service participating user 72. The paid service participating user 71 and the free service participating user 72 incorporate the provided HTML code into the HTML code of their own page.

The page referencing user 73 determines whether the page of the paid service participating user 71 or the free service participating user 7
Referring to page 2, a character banner owned by the participating user other than the participating user is displayed in the incorporated banner.

The banner server operator 60 prepares an image file so that the banner character grows as the web page is referenced. Furthermore, when the banner displayed on the participating user page is clicked, the relevance between the banner display page and the banner linked page is calculated from the history of jumping to the linked participating user page, and the banner is selected. Display a banner that is highly relevant to the page to be displayed. As a result, a virtual group that can be cross-referenced can be formed between pages having a high degree of association.

Since the character of the participating user is not displayed in the banner of the page of the participating user, the banner server operator 60 displays the character growth confirmation page so that the participating user can confirm the growth of the character. Provide to participating users.

Each participating user can check the growth of his or her own character via this page. This page may also display an advertisement acquired from the advertiser 50.

Furthermore, as a paid service, the banner server operator 60 allows the paid service participating user 71 to select an image of the character pet arbitrarily, and qualifies the character banner owner to participate in the community. To provide paid content that differentiates it from users who participate in free services.

[0149] From the advertiser 50, the banner server operator 60
Is provided with advertising data and advertising fees.

The banner server operator 60 provides the page reference user 73 with the character banners and links of the pay participation user and the free participation user.

[0151] The banner server operator 60 sends the paid service participating user 71 an HTML code of the banner, an advertisement,
Character banner when referring to the page of the participating users,
Paid service content is provided.

The banner server operator 60 sends a free service participation user 72 a banner HTML code, an advertisement,
A character banner when referring to the participating user's page is provided.

A paid content usage fee is passed from the paid service participating user 71 to the banner server operator 60.

The transmission and reception of data, advertisement fees, and the like between each participant, the operator, and the like are realized by using the charging authentication unit 19.

Reference traffic is generated from the page reference user 73 to the paid service participation user 71, and reference traffic is generated from the page reference user 73 to the free service participation user 72. A virtual group is generated between the paid service participating users 71, between the free service participating users 72, and between the service participating users.

It should be noted that the banner system according to each of the above-described embodiments includes a banner selecting unit 12, a banner updating unit 15, a page attribute extracting unit 16, a banner synthesizing unit 18, a billing authenticating unit 19 in the server devices 10, 10a, 10b, and 10c. As well as realizing such functions and other functions as hardware, a computer program having each function is
It can be realized by being loaded into the memory of the computer processing device. This computer program
Magnetic disk, semiconductor memory and other recording media 90, 9
0a, 90b, and 90c. Then, the functions described above are realized by being loaded from the recording medium into the computer processing device and controlling the operation of the computer processing device.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments and examples, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiments and examples, and various modifications may be made within the scope of the technical concept. Modifications can be made.

[0158]

As described above, according to the banner system of the present invention, the following effects are achieved.

First, the banner system of the present invention can display a banner that matches the contents of a web page. This means that users who are interested in the web page will display the banner that they are most interested in by selecting a banner that displays a high click-through rate in the history of clicks by users who visited the web page You can do it.

Second, in the banner system of the present invention, the number of visitors to the web page via the link banner can be effectively increased. This is because the link banner is dynamically generated based on the update status and content of the web page, so that the content of the visited web page can be understood in more detail by looking at the link banner.

Third, in the banner system of the present invention, the link banner can attract the user's attention more than ever. This is because a character owned by another person is displayed on the link banner, and words are drawn on the banner, and the character and the banner change each time the user accesses the banner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a banner system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a connection configuration via a network of the banner system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing of the banner system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data used for a service request according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of data used for a banner selection request according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of recorded contents of a banner database according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an HTML code generated by a banner selection unit according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the user terminal according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a banner system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining processing of a banner system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an update process performed by a banner update unit according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of recorded contents of a banner reference history according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of data used for a banner reference notification according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of recorded contents of an updated banner reference history according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of recorded contents of an updated banner database according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a banner system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by a page attribute extracting unit according to the third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by a banner combining unit according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of recorded contents of a page attribute database according to the third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of selected banner data according to the third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of data of a banner combination rule according to the third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of banner image data created by a banner combining unit according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a banner system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a banner system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining a relationship between persons related to a service provided to a user by the banner system according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 10a, 10b, 10c Banner server 11 Service providing unit 11 Web server 12 Banner selecting unit 13 Banner database 14 Banner reference history 15 Banner updating unit 16 Page attribute extracting unit 17 Page attribute database 18 Banner combining unit 18-1 Banner combining rule 19 Billing Authentication Unit 20 User Terminal 21 Service Request Unit 21 Web Browser 30 Network 40 Web Server 50 Advertiser 60 Banner Server Operator 70 User 71 Paid Service Participating User 72 Free Service Participating User 73 Page Reference Users 90, 90a, 90b, 90c recording medium

Claims (33)

[Claims] 1. A web page for displaying a banner, and banner selection means for managing a banner displayed by the web page, wherein the web page is displayed on a web browser of a user terminal of a user. A means for transmitting a banner selection request from the website that publishes the web page to the banner selection means, wherein the banner selection means receives a banner selection request from the web server; Means for selecting a banner to be displayed in response to the banner selection request; means for generating banner data for displaying the selected banner; and transmitting the generated banner data to the user terminal of the user. Means for displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page; A banner system for managing the display of a banner on a web page. 2. The banner selection request includes data for identifying the web page. The banner selection means includes means for identifying the web page from the received banner selection request, and links other than the web page. The banner system according to claim 1, wherein a banner to be displayed is selected as the banner to be displayed. 3. The banner selection request includes data specifying another web page related to the web page and the content, and the banner selection unit specifies the relevant web page from the received banner selection request. 3. The banner system according to claim 2, further comprising: a unit that identifies the related web page, and preferentially selects, as the banner to be displayed, a banner having the specified related web page as a link destination. 4. 4. The banner selecting means includes means for automatically generating image data of a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request, and including the generated image data in the banner data. The banner system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the banner is transmitted to a user terminal of the user and displayed on the web browser as a banner in the web page. 5. The banner selecting means includes a page attribute extracting means for accessing a linked web page of a banner to be displayed and extracting characteristics of the linked web page, and converting the image data of the banner to be displayed. 5. The banner system according to claim 4, wherein the banner is automatically generated in accordance with the feature extracted from the link destination web page of the banner. 6. The page attribute extracting unit includes a unit that accesses the web page for which a banner is to be displayed, and extracts a feature of the web page. The banner selecting unit includes an image of the banner to be displayed. The method according to claim 5, wherein data is automatically generated in correspondence with the feature extracted from the web page to which the banner is linked and the feature extracted from the web page for which the banner is to be displayed. The banner system described. 7. The banner selecting unit includes: a unit that generates a sentence expressing the feature in association with the feature extracted by the page attribute extracting unit. The banner system according to claim 5, wherein the banner system is automatically generated including display of the sentence expressing the feature of the destination web page. 8. The banner selecting means, comprising: for each web page for which a banner is to be managed, means for recording the number of times the banner selection request has been received from the web page; 8. The banner system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the user selects the number corresponding to the number of times the banner selection request from the web page has been received. 9. As the banner image to be displayed, a plurality of image files for displaying a predetermined character are prepared corresponding to each of the growth levels of the character, and the character which is the banner to be displayed is prepared. 9. The banner system according to claim 8, wherein the selection of the image file is sequentially updated to an image file indicating a more mature state in accordance with the number of times the banner selection request has been received. 10. 10. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a charging management unit that registers a participating user who is to provide a banner management service and manages charging based on the service to be provided. Banner system described in one. 11. Receiving a banner selection request transmitted from a website that publishes a web page for which a banner is to be displayed, in response to access to the web page by a web browser of a user terminal of the user; Selecting a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request; generating banner data for displaying the selected banner; and transmitting the generated banner data to the user of the user. A method for transmitting a banner to a terminal and displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page, wherein the display of the banner on the web page is managed. 12. The banner selection request includes data for identifying the web page. The step of identifying the web page from the received banner selection request includes the steps of: The banner management method according to claim 11, further comprising a step of selecting a banner to be displayed. 13. The banner selection request includes data specifying another web page related to the content of the web page, and identifying the specification of the relevant web page from the received banner selection request. 13. The banner management method according to claim 12, comprising a step of preferentially selecting a banner having the specified related web page as a link destination as the banner to be displayed. 14. Automatically generating image data of a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request, and transmitting the generated image data to the user terminal of the user by including the image data in the banner data. 14. The banner management method according to claim 12, further comprising a step of displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page. 15. A page attribute extracting step of accessing a linked web page of a banner to be displayed and extracting characteristics of the linked web page; and converting the image data of the displayed banner to the linked web page of the banner. 15. The banner management method according to claim 14, further comprising a step of automatically generating the banner corresponding to the feature extracted from the page. 16. The page attribute extracting step includes a step of accessing the web page for which a banner is to be displayed, and extracting a feature of the web page. The image data of the banner to be displayed is 16. The banner management method according to claim 15, wherein the banner management method is automatically generated in accordance with the feature extracted from the link destination web page and the feature extracted from the web page for which the banner is to be displayed. 17. A step of generating a sentence expressing the feature corresponding to the feature extracted in the page attribute extracting step; and expressing the feature of the linked web page in the banner image data to be displayed. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of automatically generating the sentence including a display of the sentence.
The banner management method according to claim 5 or 16. 18. A method for recording, for each web page for which a banner is to be managed, the number of times the banner selection request has been received from the web page, the step of: displaying the banner to be displayed from the web page. The banner management method according to any one of claims 11 to 17, further comprising a step of selecting according to the number of times the banner selection request has been received. 19. As the image of the banner to be displayed,
A plurality of image files for displaying a predetermined character are prepared in accordance with each of the degrees of growth of the character, and the image file of the character as the banner to be displayed is selected, and the banner selection request is accepted. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of sequentially updating the image file indicating a more mature state in accordance with the number of times the image file has grown.
8. The banner management method according to 8. 20. The method according to claim 11, further comprising a charging management step of registering a participating user who is to provide a banner management service and managing charging based on the service to be provided. Banner management method described in one. 21. Receiving a banner selection request transmitted from a website that publishes a web page for which a banner is to be displayed, in response to access to the web page by a web browser of a user terminal of a user. Selecting a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request; generating banner data for displaying the selected banner; and transmitting the generated banner data to the user of the user. Transmitting the banner to the terminal and displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page; and controlling a display of the banner on the web page by controlling a computer. A recording medium that records a management program. 22. The banner selection request includes data for identifying the web page, a step of identifying the web page from the received banner selection request, and a step of linking a banner having a link other than the web page to the banner. 22. The recording medium according to claim 21, further comprising a step of selecting a banner to be displayed. 23. The banner selection request includes data designating another web page related to the content of the web page, and identifying the specification of the related web page from the received banner selection request; 23. The computer-readable banner management program according to claim 22, further comprising a step of preferentially selecting, as the banner to be displayed, a banner having the specified related web page as a link destination. Recording medium. 24. Automatically generating image data of a banner to be displayed in response to the received banner selection request, and transmitting the generated image data to the user terminal of the user by including the image data in the banner data. 24. The recording medium recording a computer-readable banner management program according to claim 22, further comprising a step of displaying the banner on the web browser as a banner in the web page. 25. A page attribute extracting step of accessing a linked web page of a banner to be displayed and extracting characteristics of the linked web page; and converting the image data of the displayed banner to the linked web page of the banner. 25. The recording medium according to claim 24, further comprising a step of automatically generating the program according to the feature extracted from the page. 26. The page attribute extracting step includes a step of accessing the web page on which a banner is to be displayed, and extracting a characteristic of the web page, and converting the image data of the banner to be displayed into a banner image. Said features extracted from the linked web page, and
26. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the banner management program is automatically generated in accordance with the feature extracted from the web page for displaying the banner. 27. A step of generating a sentence expressing the feature corresponding to the feature extracted in the page attribute extracting step, and expressing the feature of the linked web page in the image data of the banner to be displayed. 27. The recording medium having recorded thereon a computer-readable banner management program according to claim 25, further comprising a step of automatically generating the sentence including a display of the sentence. 28. For each web page for which a banner is to be managed, the step of recording the number of times the banner selection request has been received from the web page, and the step of recording the banner to be displayed from the web page. 23. The method according to claim 21, further comprising the step of selecting the banner selection request in accordance with the number of times the request has been received.
7. A recording medium recording the computer-readable banner management program according to any one of 7. 29. As the image of the banner to be displayed,
A plurality of image files for displaying a predetermined character are prepared in accordance with the degree of growth of the character, and the image file of the character to be displayed is selected, and the banner selection request is accepted. 29. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 28, further comprising a step of sequentially updating an image file indicating a more mature state in accordance with the number of times the image has been grown. 30. The method according to claim 21, further comprising a charging management step of registering a participating user who is to provide a banner management service and managing charging based on the provided service. A recording medium recording a computer-readable banner management program according to one of the above aspects. 31. A banner service method for selecting and managing a banner to be displayed in a web page, wherein a plurality of image files displaying a predetermined character are displayed as images of the banner to be displayed, the degree of growth of the character. Prepared in correspondence with each of the above, record the number of times the banner is displayed on the web page, and select the image file of the character that is the banner to be displayed, corresponding to the number of times the banner is displayed, A banner service method characterized by sequentially updating to an image file showing a more mature state. 32. The banner service method according to claim 31, wherein a participating user to whom a service is provided is registered, and charging for each of the participating users is managed based on the provided service. 33. A participating user to whom a service is to be provided establishes and operates a participating user website for applying for participation and confirming the state of the character. 33. The banner service method according to claim 31, wherein an advertisement is posted on a web page of (i), and an advertisement fee is collected from an advertiser of the advertisement.