JP2009251641A - Retrieval system, retrieval method and its program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem wherein information useful to a user cannot be obtained by only a retrieval condition. <P>SOLUTION: This retrieval system having a retrieval processing execution part 13 retrieving a content stored in a storage part 15 based on the inputted retrieval condition includes: a database 30 associating the content retrieved by the retrieval condition, wherein contents are referred to with the retrieval condition as tag information, and registering it; and a tag information management part 16 retrieving the content associated to tag information except the retrieval condition from the database about the contents included in a retrieval result list by the retrieval processing execution part 15, and presenting it as related information of the content included in the retrieval result list. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a search system, a search method, and a program for searching content stored in a storage unit based on an input keyword, and in particular, a search system capable of presenting related information that cannot be directly obtained from a search condition as a search result, The present invention relates to a search method and a program.

  Search results for content such as electronic documents in the search system are displayed for individual items such as the character strings contained in the content and the appearance status of the content such as the frequency of occurrence, and attribute information related to the content registered in the system that manages the content. Relied solely on information belonging to the content.

  Searching for useful content in such a search system requires the skill that the search user knows the content in the content to some extent and specifies appropriate search conditions that can be obtained as a search result. is necessary.

  As a document retrieval related technique, Patent Document 1 discloses a document information retrieval method in a document information retrieval apparatus that retains document information and link destination document information that is a link destination of the document information and performs document retrieval. .

Patent Document 2 discloses a document management system that enables a re-search using a search history of another user similar to a search condition input by a user.
JP 2005-242454 A JP 2005-78334 A

  In the above-described search system, there is a problem in that it is difficult to obtain information that is really useful for the user when the user does not know the content of the content and performs a search by vaguely inputting a search condition.

  As a related technology of the search system, there is a method of storing the past search history and presenting it to the user. However, in this case as well, since it is based on the output of the search engine after all, As in the case, only a search history with information depending on one content is presented, and information useful for the user is not presented.

  In the document information search device described in Patent Document 1, a document search is performed by holding document information and link destination document information of a link destination of the document information. However, it can be applied to content having no link. Has the problem of not being able to.

  Moreover, the method of performing a re-search using the search history of another user similar to the search condition input by the user, which is a search method described in Patent Document 2, is based on a result obtained from a certain search condition. This is a method of generating a search condition for further narrowing down, and as described above, more useful information for the user is not obtained.

(Object of invention)
An object of the present invention is to provide a search system, a search method, and a program for solving the problem that information useful for a user cannot be obtained only by the search conditions described above.

  A search system according to the present invention is a search system having a search processing execution unit that searches content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition. For the content registered in the search result list by the search processing execution unit, the content associated with the tag information other than the search condition is searched from the database, and included in the search result list. And a tag information management unit presented as related information of the content.

  A search method according to the present invention is a search method by a search system having a search processing execution unit that searches content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition, and is searched according to the search condition and the content is referred to The content is registered in the database in association with the search condition as tag information, and the content associated with the tag information other than the search condition is searched from the database for the content included in the search result list by the search processing execution unit. A step of presenting as related information of contents included in the search result list.

  The program according to the present invention is a program of a search system that operates on a computer and searches for content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition. The content associated with the tag information other than the search condition for the content included in the search result list by the search processing execution unit is registered in the database. And a process of presenting it as related information of content included in the search result list.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information of the content useful for the search user which cannot be obtained only by the search condition input by the search user can be shown as a search result.

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

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a search system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  The search system 10 according to the first embodiment includes a search condition input unit 11, a search condition reception unit 12, a search processing execution unit 13, a search index unit 14, a storage unit 15, a tag information management unit 16, and a search result display processing unit. 17 and the display part 18 are included.

  The search condition input unit 11 is an input means for a search user to input search conditions, and is realized by an input device such as a keyboard.

  The search condition receiving unit 12 receives the search condition input from the search condition input unit 11 and converts the search condition into a format (search keyword) that can be processed by the search processing execution unit 13 by performing processing such as morphological analysis. It has the function to do. The search keyword processed here and passed to the search processing execution unit 13 is tagged to the content.

  The search processing execution unit 13 functions as a search engine that searches the search index unit 14 according to the search keyword from the search condition reception unit 12.

  The search index unit 14 holds data related to text information of content stored in the storage medium 15 in an index format that the search processing execution unit 13 can search.

  The storage unit 15 is a storage unit for storing the content 20 to be searched, and is realized by a storage device such as a hard disk device.

  The tag information management unit 16 has a network-structured database 30 in which content is a node, tag information that is a keyword related to the content is linked, and a relation strength defined by the number of times of reference to the content is a linked state.

  The tag information management unit 16 has a function of searching the content included in the search result by the search processing execution unit 13 with reference to the database 30 and searching for related content that has not been searched with the input keyword. The registered keyword is tagged to the content included in the search result and referred to by the search user, thereby registering the keyword in the database 30. Detailed functions of the tag information management unit 16 will be described in the operation described later.

  The search result display processing unit 17 displays the reference link information of the content included in the search result by the search processing execution unit 13 on the display unit 18, and in addition to the search result, the related content searched by the tag information management unit 16. It has a function of displaying the reference link information on the display unit 18.

  Further, the search result display processing unit 17 includes a content calling unit 41 that calls the content requested by the search user from the storage unit 15 among the content or the related content included in the search result displayed on the display unit 18; A content display executing unit 42 for displaying the content of the content called by the content calling unit 41 on the display unit 18 is provided.

  The search result display processing unit 17 also has a function of transmitting information for specifying content requested for reference and a search keyword to the tag information management unit 16.

  Here, the database 30 provided in the tag information management unit 16 will be described.

  In the present embodiment, a user searches for content such as an electronic document using the search system 10, and the content that refers to the content is registered in the database 30 by tagging it with a search keyword.

  That is, a network structure in which content is a node and tag information (search keyword) is a link by providing a link relationship between search contents (tag information) between contents such as HTML and other electronic documents that do not have a link function. Is provided as a database 30. In addition, as information indicating the link state between the content and the search keyword, the reference count of the content is defined as the strength of the relationship between the content and the search keyword (relation strength).

  In the present embodiment, by using the database 30 having such a network structure as a part of the search process, it is possible to provide the user with new information that could not be found by the previous search. To.

  An example of the database 30 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 2, content (1), content (2), and content (3) are associated with keyword (1), content (3) and content (4) are associated with keyword (2), In addition, the link between the content and the keyword is given a relation strength based on the number of times the content is referred to, thereby forming a network structure data structure.

  In a general search system, the keyword (1) is used as a search condition, and the range represented by the oblique lines in FIG. 4 is searched. For example, the contents (1) to the contents (3) are in the score order as shown in FIG. Presented in FIG. 5 shows that the content (3) is the most useful information for the keyword (1) that is the input search condition.

  At this time, a user who has input the keyword (1) and referred to the content (3) that has been searched so far similarly searches the keyword (2) as a search condition, and useful content related to the content (3). Assume that content (4) is also referred to.

  However, in a general search system, although the content (4) is useful information for a user who searches with the search condition of the keyword (1), the user who has input only the search keyword (1) I couldn't find it.

  In the present embodiment, for the keywords (1) and (2) and the contents (1) to (4), the data of the network structure as shown in FIG. 2 is provided as the database 30 as shown in FIG. By using this database 30, it is possible to provide the content (4) as one of useful information even when only the keyword (1) is input as a search condition.

  Next, a hardware configuration example of the search system 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 11, the search system 10 can be realized by a hardware configuration similar to a general computer device, and is a main memory such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 401, a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like. Main storage unit 402 used for data work area and data temporary save area, communication unit 403 for transmitting / receiving data via network 600, input / output interface unit 404 for transmitting / receiving data by connecting to external device, ROM (Read Only Memory), an auxiliary storage unit 405 (for example, the storage unit 15 includes the auxiliary storage unit 405), which is a hard disk device including a nonvolatile memory such as a magnetic disk and a semiconductor memory, and the information processing apparatus Each of the above System bus 406 connects the formed elements to each other, and an output device 407 such as a display device or the like (corresponding to the display section 18) and (corresponding to the search condition input unit 11) input device 408 such as a keyboard.

  The search system 10 according to the present embodiment implements its operation in hardware by mounting a circuit component, which is a hardware component such as LSI (Large Scale Integration), in which a program for executing content search is incorporated. Of course, a program that provides each function of the search condition receiving unit 12, the search processing execution unit 13, the tag information management unit 16, and the search result display processing unit 17 is stored in the auxiliary storage unit 405, and the program is stored. It can also be realized by software by being loaded into the main storage unit 402 and executed by the CPU 401.

(Operation according to the first embodiment)
First, search processing and search result display processing of the search system according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  A search user operates the input device 100 to input a search condition to the search condition input unit 11 (step S101).

  Next, the character string of the search condition input to the search condition input unit 11 is transmitted to the search condition reception unit 12, where the search condition is extracted as a keyword by analysis processing using morphological technology (step S102).

  Next, a search keyword is transmitted from the search condition accepting unit 12 to the search processing execution unit 13, and the search processing execution unit 13 executes search processing using the search keyword (step S103).

  In the search process, the search process execution unit 13 searches the search index unit 14 based on the search keyword, and acquires a list of contents including the search keyword from the search index unit 14 as a search result list (step S104).

  For example, as a result of searching using the keyword (1) as a search keyword, a content search result list as shown in FIG. 5 is acquired.

  Next, the search processing execution unit 13 transmits the search keyword and the search result list to the tag information management unit 16 (step S105).

  The tag information management unit 16 searches the database 30 as shown in FIG. 3 for tag information other than the search keyword for the content included in the received search result list (step S106).

  For example, if the search result list having the keyword (1) as a search keyword has the contents as shown in FIG. 5 above, keywords (tag information) other than the keyword (1) that is the search keyword are used for the contents in the list. When searching from the database 30 shown in FIG. 3, the keyword (2) tagged with the content (3) is searched.

  As a result, the tag information management unit 16 creates a list of contents (related list) having a related strength equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold for tag information other than the searched search keyword (step S107).

  As a threshold value in this case, any value including threshold value = 0 can be set. If a large value is set for the threshold value, only strongly related (highly related strength) content is listed, and if a small value is set for the threshold value, a large number of contents including weakly related content (low related strength) are displayed. Will be listed. Therefore, by setting various values of the threshold value, it is possible for the search user to list useful content that meets the request as related information.

  For example, when the threshold is set to “3”, the content (3) and the content (4) tagged with the keyword (2) searched in the above example are related strength “5”. A relation list of contents (3) and contents (4) is created as contents having a relation strength greater than or equal to the threshold.

  Next, the tag information management unit 16 compares the search result list from the search processing execution unit 13 with the related list created by the tag information management unit 16, and content other than the content included in the search result list is related list. (Step S108).

  If it is included, the tag information management unit 16 sends the reference link information to the content included in the search result list to the search result display processing unit 17 and searches for the reference link information to the corresponding content in the related list. The information is sent to the search result display processing unit 17 as the related information of the content included in the search result list tagged with a keyword other than the keyword (step S109).

  In the above example, since the content (4) is included in the content list created by the tag information management unit 16 as content other than the content included in the search result list, the content (1) and content included in the search result list (2) In addition to the reference link information to the content (3), the reference link of the content (4) is the search result display processing unit 17 as the related information of the content (3) tagged with the keyword (2). Sent to.

  The search result display processing unit 17 displays the reference link information to the content of the search result list received from the tag information management unit 16 and the link information of the content as related information on the display device 200 (step S110). At that time, the link information of the content as the related information is displayed in association with the corresponding content among the contents of the search result list.

  A display example on the display device 200 in this case is shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, the reference link information of the contents included in the search result list shown in FIG. 5 is displayed in order of score on the left side of the display screen, and the content (4) is displayed on the right side of the display screen as related information for the content (3). ) Reference link information is displayed.

  When content other than the content included in the search result list is not included in the related list, the tag information management unit 16 sends only reference link information to the content included in the search result list to the search result display processing unit 17. Send (step S111).

  The search result display processing unit 17 displays only the reference link information to the contents of the search result list received from the tag information management unit 16 on the display device 200 (step S112).

  In this case, in the display format as shown in FIG. 6, the reference link information of the contents included in the search result list shown in FIG. 5 is displayed in order of score on the left side of the display screen, and the related information is displayed on the right side of the display screen. Not.

  In the above description of the operation, the case where the contents of the search result list are displayed in the order of the score has been described. However, the contents of the search result list may be sorted and displayed using the relation strength as a sort key.

  Next, content reference processing and tagging of search keywords for the database 30 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When a content reference instruction is received from the search user for the content displayed on the display unit 18 by the search result display process (step S201), the content calling unit 41 of the search result display processing unit 17 is designated. The content is called from the storage unit 15 (step S202).

  Next, the content calling unit 41 transmits information (content name etc.) specifying the called content and the search keyword to the tag information management unit 16 (step S203).

  The tag information management unit 16 refers to the database 30 to determine whether the received content information and the search keyword exist (step S204). If not, the content information and tag information in the database 30 are included. The received content information and search keyword are registered, and the reference count “1” is registered in the relation strength (step S205).

  For example, in the above example, when the content (4) displayed as the related information on the display unit 18 is referred to, the information specifying the content (4) and the keyword (1) as the search keyword are the tag information. It is transmitted to the management unit 16.

  The tag information management unit 16 refers to the database 30 shown in FIG. 2. Since there is no combination of the content (4) and the keyword (1), the content information is content (4) and the tag information is the keyword ( The new record of 1) is registered, and “1” is registered as the related strength.

  If the received content information and search keyword exist, the value of the relation strength of the corresponding record is increased by “1” (step S206).

  In the above example, when the content (3) displayed as the related information on the display unit 18 is referred to, the information specifying the content (3) and the keyword (1) as the search keyword are the tag information management unit. 16 is transmitted.

  The tag information management unit 16 refers to the database 30 shown in FIG. 2, and since the combination of the content (3) and the keyword (1) already exists, the relation strength (= 5) of the corresponding record is increased by “1”. , “6”.

  As described above, each time the content displayed on the display unit 18 is referred to once by the search user, the related strength of the corresponding content increases by “1”.

  Thereafter, the content display execution unit 42 displays the content of the content that the content calling unit 41 has called from the storage unit 15 on the display unit 100 (step S207).

(Effects of the first embodiment)
According to the present embodiment, it is possible to present, as a search result, content information useful for a search user that cannot be obtained only by the search conditions input by the search user.

  This is because, even if there are excesses or deficiencies in the search conditions input by the search user, information on the content that is considered useful from the content usage status so far is presented as related information on the content included in the search result.

(Second Embodiment)
A search system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The search system according to the second embodiment includes a plurality of search processing execution units 13a that individually search for contents of a plurality of different storage units 15a, and a plurality of search indexes corresponding to the plurality of different storage units 15a. A portion 14a is provided.

  The tag information management unit 16 includes a plurality of databases 30a corresponding to the plurality of storage units 16a. Components having the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment in FIG. 1 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  In the present embodiment, the contents of the corresponding storage unit 15a are individually searched by the individual search processing execution units 13a, and the tag information management unit 16 refers to the corresponding database 30a for the search results. Although the content is searched, the operation of the search process and the operation of the search keyword tagging process for the database 30 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  In the second embodiment, search results from a plurality of search processing execution units 13a each searching for different storage units 15a are merged, sorted, and presented as a single search result. Is possible.

  Usually, in a search system including a plurality of search engines, each search processing execution unit 13a, which is a search engine, independently calculates a search score and outputs a search result. It cannot be presented as a search result.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10, when the tag information management unit 16 acquires a plurality of search results from each search processing execution unit 13a (step S301), the contents of each search result list are The contents of the plurality of search result lists are merged and sorted using the search score as the first sort key and the relation strength of the database 30a corresponding to each search result list as the second sort key (steps S302 to S304).

  Then, the single search result list obtained by the merge / sort process is sent to the search result display processing unit 17 and displayed on the display unit 18 (step S305).

(Effects of the second embodiment)
According to the second embodiment, as described above, the search score is the first sort key, and the relation strength of the database 30a corresponding to each search result list is the second sort key. Are merged and sorted, the content of the search result lists is also sorted in the order of related strength, so that the content between the search result lists acquired from the plurality of search processing execution units 13a can be effectively used. Can be output as a single search result list.

  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 can be made within the scope of the technical idea. Can be implemented.

  The present invention can be used for an electronic document search system in a shared server in a company, an electronic document search system in an individual personal computer, and the like.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the search system by the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the network structure between the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention, a keyword, and related intensity | strength. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the database in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the search result of the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the search result list | wrist of the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display on the display part of the search result of the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the search process of the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the reference process and tagging process of the content in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the search system by the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the merge / sort process of the search result in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example of the failure detection notification apparatus by embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10: Search system 11: Search condition input part 12: Search condition reception part 13, 13a: Search process execution part 14, 14a: Search index part 15, 15a: Storage part 16: Tag information management part 17: Search result display process part 18: Display unit 20: Content 30, 30a: Database 41: Content calling unit 42: Content display execution unit

Claims (24)

In a search system having a search processing execution unit that searches content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition,
A database in which contents searched for by the search condition and whose contents are referred to are registered in association with the search condition as tag information;
A tag that searches the database for content associated with tag information other than the search condition for content included in the search result list by the search processing execution unit and presents it as related information of the content included in the search result list A search system comprising: an information management unit.   The search system according to claim 1, wherein the reference count of the content whose content is referred to is associated and registered in the database as a related strength. The tag information management unit
3. The content associated with the tag information other than the search condition is presented as content related information of the content included in the search result, with the content having the related strength equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold. The described search system. The tag information management unit
Create a related list of contents associated with tag information other than the search conditions searched from the database,
Comparing the search list with the related list to determine whether content other than the content included in the search result list is included in the related list;
The search system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein contents other than the contents of the search result list included in the related list are presented as the related information.   The search result display processing part which displays the content of the said search result list | wrist acquired from the said tag information management part and the link information to the content as the said relevant information on a display part, The Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned. 5. The search system according to any one of 4. The search result display processing unit
6. The search system according to claim 5, wherein link information to the contents of the search result list and link information to the contents as the related information are displayed separately on the left and right on the display screen of the display unit. . The tag information management unit
When the content is referred to for the content of the search result list or the content as related information, it is determined whether the referenced content and the search condition exist in the database,
If it does not exist, associate the referenced content with the search condition, register it in the database with the association strength indicating the number of references,
7. If present, the value of the relation strength associated with the referenced content of the database and the search condition is increased by “1”. Search system. A plurality of search processing execution units for performing a search for a plurality of the storage units;
The tag information management unit
For contents included in a plurality of search result lists by a plurality of search processing execution units, the contents of the plurality of search result lists are merged using a search score as a first sort key and a relation strength of the database as a second sort key. 8. The search system according to claim 2, wherein the search system outputs a single search result list by sorting. A search method by a search system having a search processing execution unit for searching content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition,
The content that is searched according to the search condition and whose content is referenced is registered in the database in association with the search condition as tag information,
For the content included in the search result list by the search processing execution unit, the content associated with the tag information other than the search condition is searched from the database and presented as related information of the content included in the search result list. A search method comprising steps.   The search method according to claim 9, wherein the reference count of the content whose content is referred to is associated and registered in the database as a related strength. In the step of presenting the related information,
The content of which the relation strength is not less than a predetermined threshold among the contents associated with the tag information other than the search condition is presented as the related information of the content included in the search result. Search method described. Presenting the related information comprises:
Creating a related list of contents associated with tag information other than the search conditions searched from the database;
Comparing the search list with the related list to determine whether content other than the content included in the search result list is included in the related list;
The search system according to any one of claims 9 to 11, further comprising a step of presenting content other than the content of the search result list included in the related list as the related information.   13. A search result display step of displaying, on a display unit, content of the search result list acquired from the tag information management unit and link information to the content as the related information. The search method in any one of. The search result display step includes:
14. The search method according to claim 13, wherein link information to the content of the search result list and link information to the content as the related information are displayed separately on the left and right on the display screen of the display unit. . Presenting the related information comprises:
Determining whether or not the referenced content and the search condition exist in the database when the content is referred to for the content of the search result list or the content as related information;
If not, associating the referenced content with the search condition and registering it in the database with the association strength indicating the number of references;
15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, further comprising a step of incrementing the value of the relation strength associated with the referenced content of the database and the search condition by "1" if it exists. The search method described in Crab. A plurality of search processing execution units for performing a search for a plurality of the storage units;
For contents included in a plurality of search result lists by a plurality of search processing execution units, the contents of the plurality of search result lists are merged using a search score as a first sort key and a relation strength of the database as a second sort key. The search method according to any one of claims 10 to 15, further comprising a step of outputting as a single search result list by sorting. A program for a search system that operates on a computer and searches for content stored in a storage unit based on an input search condition,
In the computer,
Processing for registering the content that is searched by the search condition and whose content is referenced in the database in association with the search condition as tag information;
For the content included in the search result list by the search processing execution unit, the content associated with the tag information other than the search condition is searched from the database and presented as related information of the content included in the search result list. A program characterized by causing processing to be executed.   18. The program according to claim 17, wherein the reference count of the content whose content is referred to is associated and registered in the database as a related strength. In the process of presenting the related information,
19. The content associated with the tag information other than the search condition, the content having the related strength equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold is presented as related information of the content included in the search result. The listed program. The process of presenting the related information includes
A process for creating a related list of contents associated with tag information other than the search conditions searched from the database;
A process of comparing the search list with the related list to determine whether content other than the content included in the search result list is included in the related list;
20. The computer according to claim 17, wherein the computer executes a process of presenting content other than the content of the search result list included in the related list as the related information. program.   18. The search result display process for displaying on the display unit the content of the search result list acquired from the tag information management unit and the link information to the content as the related information is executed. 20. The program according to any one of 20. The search result display process
The program according to claim 21, wherein link information to the content of the search result list and link information to the content as the related information are displayed separately on the left and right on the display screen of the display unit. The process of presenting the related information includes
A process of determining whether or not the referenced content and the search condition exist in the database when the content is referred to for the content of the search result list or the content as related information;
If not present, associating the referenced content with the search condition and registering it in the database together with the association strength indicating the number of references;
The method according to any one of claims 18 to 22, further comprising a process of increasing the value of the relation strength associated with the referenced content of the database and the search condition by "1" when it exists. The program described in A plurality of search processing execution units for performing a search for a plurality of the storage units;
For contents included in a plurality of search result lists by a plurality of search processing execution units, the contents of the plurality of search result lists are merged using a search score as a first sort key and a relation strength of the database as a second sort key. The program according to any one of claims 18 to 23, which causes the computer to execute processing of sorting and outputting as a single search result list.

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