JP2010067023A - Method for providing user information, program for providing user information, client device, server device, and system for providing user information - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for adequately selecting and transmitting information which conforms to a user's taste, interest and concern. <P>SOLUTION: This is provided a method for providing information for analyzing a user's taste, interest and concern, the method being executed by a client device which stores a plurality of applications and communicates with a prescribed server device, at prescribed timing, to execute updating processing to the plurality of applications. The method includes the following steps: a use state information-managing step which manages use state information relating to the use states of the plurality of applications; a use state information-collecting step which collects the use state information on the plurality of applications thus managed when at least one of the plurality of applications is updated; and a use state information-uploading step which uploads, to the server device, the use state information thus collected, together with data necessary for the updating, as the information for analyzing the user's taste, interest and concern. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a user information providing method for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests and providing information in accordance with the preferences, and more specifically, to information on the usage status of a widget that is a type of application. The present invention relates to a user information providing method for analyzing and providing user preferences, interests and interests based on the user information. The present invention also relates to a user information providing program for causing a computer to execute the user information providing method, a client device having the user information providing program, and a server device connected to the client device via a predetermined network. . Furthermore, the present invention relates to a user information providing system including the client device, the server device, and the like.

  With the improvement of Web technology, Web services that display advertisements published by advertisers other than Web site managers on Web pages have become widespread. Such advertisements are distributed for the purpose of promoting the use, purchase, etc. of the products by appealing and recognizing the contents of the products to site visitors.

  In order to obtain a high advertising effect using advertisements on a web page, the web page on which the advertisement is displayed among the myriad web pages on the web, A mechanism that allows efficient access by buyers is desired. In recent years, in order to meet such demands, Web services for selecting and displaying on a Web page an advertisement that is likely to be relevant to the interests of a site visitor from advertisements put out by a large number of advertisers have been proposed and spread. . An example of such a Web service is disclosed in Patent Document 1. According to Patent Document 1, when a user browses a web page (when accessing a web page using a client device), the advertisement system automatically analyzes the content of the web page. The advertisement system is configured to select an advertisement related to the Web page based on the analysis result as an advertisement conforming to the user's interest, and distribute the advertisement to the client device. On the client device, the advertisement distributed by the advertisement system is displayed on the web page.

International Publication WO 2004/029758

  In the system described in Patent Literature 1, an advertisement that is interesting from time to time when a user accesses a Web page is distributed to a client device. However, such an advertisement may be content that deviates from the user's essential taste, interest, and interest, which is only a temporary interest of the user. Therefore, the system may not be able to obtain a high advertising effect as desired. In order to surely obtain a high advertising effect, it is desired to provide a system that can appropriately select and deliver advertisements according to the user's essential preferences, interests, and interests.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a user information providing system capable of appropriately selecting and distributing information according to user's preference, interest, and interest, and the system. To provide a suitable client device and a server device connected to the client device via a predetermined network. It is another object of the present invention to provide a user information providing program corresponding to the client device, the server device, and a user information providing method corresponding to the user information providing program.

  A user information providing method according to an aspect of the present invention that solves the above-described problem is a client device that stores a plurality of applications, communicates with a predetermined server device at a predetermined timing, and updates the plurality of applications. This is a method for providing information for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests, and includes the following steps. That is, the user information providing method includes a usage status information management step for managing usage status information regarding usage status of a plurality of applications, and a plurality of managed applications when performing at least one update process among the plurality of applications. Usage status information collection step for collecting usage status information of the user, and usage status information that is collected and uploaded to the server device together with data necessary for update processing as information for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests Each step of the information upload step is included. The usage status information does not represent the temporary interest of the user, but is information reflecting the daily interest of the user. Therefore, when usage status information is provided to the server device as information for analyzing the user's preferences, interests, and interests, the server device can obtain an analysis result of contents representing the user's essential preferences, interests, and interests. It becomes like this. By matching the timing of uploading the usage status information with the timing of the application update process, a merit that does not make the user aware of the execution processing of the usage status information is enjoyed.

  The usage status information preferably includes setting information related to display of each of the plurality of applications. For example, the screen displayed at the time of standby is the screen that the user sees most, and the user's hobbies and preferences etc. appear most prominently, and such setting information reflects the contents reflecting the user's essential preferences, interests, and interests. It is because it represents.

  The application update process is executed, for example, periodically or at a timing according to a user operation.

  Such an application may be, for example, a widget that is a kind of application. Many widgets are updated regularly, such as a weather forecast widget. The usage status information is uploaded to the server device in accordance with the timing of such widget update processing. That is, the latest usage status information is automatically uploaded to the server device periodically (for example, multiple times a day) without any user operation on the client device side.

  A user information providing program according to an aspect of the present invention that solves the above problems is a program for causing a computer (for example, a client device) to execute the user information providing method described above.

  A client device according to an aspect of the present invention that solves the above-described problem is a device that stores a plurality of applications, communicates with a predetermined server device at a predetermined timing, and performs update processing of the plurality of applications. It is characterized by having the following components. That is, such a client device has a program storage unit that stores the user information providing program described above and a program execution unit that executes the user information providing program stored in the program storage unit.

  A user information providing method according to an aspect of the present invention that solves the above-described problem is a usage status of a plurality of applications in a client device connected to the client device via a predetermined network and uploaded from the client device. This is a method for providing information in accordance with the user's preference, interest and interest, which is executed by the server device based on the usage status information regarding, and includes the following steps. That is, such a user information providing method is based on a user analysis step for analyzing user preferences, interests and interests based on uploaded usage information, and on a predetermined database based on analysis results obtained by executing the user analysis step. A database search step for searching for information according to the user's preference, interest and interest, and a user information distribution step for distributing information to the client device according to the searched user's preference, interest and interest. Including. The usage status information does not represent the temporary interest of the user, but is information reflecting the daily interest of the user. Therefore, the server device obtains an analysis result of content representing the user's essential preferences, interests and interests based on the usage status information, and further conforms to the user's essential preferences, interests and interests based on the analysis results. The selected information can be selected and distributed to the client device.

  A method for providing user information according to another aspect of the present invention that solves the above-described problem is the use of a plurality of applications in a client device that is connected to the client device via a predetermined network and uploaded from the client device. This is a method for providing information in accordance with the user's preference, interest and interest, which is executed by the server device based on the usage status information relating to the situation, and includes the following steps. That is, the user information providing method is based on the uploaded usage status information, the user analysis step for analyzing the user's preference, interest and interest, and the analysis result obtained by the execution of the user analysis step. A user information requesting step for requesting the information according to the analysis result by sending it to another server device having a predetermined database storing a plurality of information in accordance with interests and interests, and others returned in response to the request A user information receiving step for receiving information according to the user's preferences, interests and interests from the server device, and a user information distribution step for distributing the information according to the received user preferences, interests and interests to the client device. . The usage status information does not represent the temporary interest of the user, but is information reflecting the daily interest of the user. Therefore, the server device obtains an analysis result of content representing the user's essential preferences, interests and interests based on the usage status information, and further conforms to the user's essential preferences, interests and interests based on the analysis results. The requested information can be obtained by requesting it from another server and distributed to the client device.

  The information according to the user's preference, interest, and interest may be a widget that displays an advertisement, or advertisement data that is inserted into an advertisement tag that designates the display position and size of the advertisement in the application. It may be. Such information in accordance with the user's preference, interest, and interest may be information with a predetermined expiration date set, for example. In addition, the widget that displays the advertisement may have a function of controlling the display of the advertisement based on predetermined data included in the server device or the client device, for example.

  A user information providing program according to an embodiment of the present invention that solves the above problems is a program for causing a computer (for example, a server device) to execute the user information providing method described above.

  A server device according to an embodiment of the present invention that solves the above problem is a device that communicates with a client device having a plurality of applications and distributes update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device. It has the following constituent elements. That is, the server device stores a predetermined database that stores a plurality of pieces of information according to user preferences, interests, and interests, a program storage unit that stores the user information providing program described above, and a program storage unit that stores the information. It has a program execution means for executing a user information providing program.

  A server device according to another aspect of the present invention that solves the above problem is a device that communicates with a client device having a plurality of applications and distributes update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device. And having the following components. That is, such a server apparatus is characterized by having a program storage unit that stores the user information providing program described above and a program execution unit that executes the user information providing program stored in the program storage unit.

  In addition, a user information providing system according to an aspect of the present invention that solves the above problem includes a client device having a plurality of applications, and update data for distributing update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device A system in which a distribution server and at least one information providing server that provides information in accordance with the user's preference, interest, and interest are connected via a predetermined network, and has the following characteristics. That is, the client device included in the user information providing system is managed when performing usage status information management means for managing usage status information related to the usage status of a plurality of applications and at least one update process among the plurality of applications. And usage status information collecting means for collecting usage status information of a plurality of applications, and usage status information uploading means for uploading the collected usage status information to the update data distribution server together with data necessary for update processing. The update data distribution server transmits user analysis means for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests based on the uploaded usage status information, and an analysis result by the user analysis means to the information providing server, and according to the analysis result User information request means for requesting information according to the user's preference, interest and interest, and user information receiving means for receiving information according to the user's preference, interest and interest from the information providing server returned in response to the request And user information distribution means for distributing information to the client device according to the received user's preferences, interests, and interests.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the user information provision system which can select and deliver the information according to a user's preference, interest, and interest appropriately, a client apparatus suitable for this system, and a predetermined network for this client apparatus A server device connected via the server is provided. In addition, a user information providing program for executing processing in which the client device and the server device appropriately select and distribute information according to the user's preference, interest, and interest, and user information provision corresponding to the user information providing program A method is provided.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, terms used in this specification will be defined.
・ Videos, images, sounds, and documents viewed by users that are transmitted via various communication networks and content networks including mobile communication networks, intranets, and the Internet of network mobile communication carriers, or stored locally Is a form of a set of information / Web content content composed of information such as a worksheet, or a combination thereof, and is a form of a set of information / Web page Web content transmitted via a network, The entire content to be displayed when the user specifies a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). That is, the entire content that can be displayed by scrolling through the images on the display. Web pages are not limited to being browsed online, but include those browsed offline. Web pages browsed offline include, for example, pages transmitted via the Internet and cached by a Web browser, pages saved in a local folder of a terminal device, etc. in mht format. The Web page is composed of various data (Web page data) such as an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) document, an XHTML (Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language) document, an image file, and audio data.

  According to the above definition, content includes Web content, and Web content includes Web pages.

  FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, an information providing system 1 according to this embodiment includes a community server 3, an advertisement distribution server 4, and client terminals (mobile phone terminal 10, notebook PC) via a network 2 including the Internet and a carrier communication network. (Personal Computer) 11 and desktop PC 12) are connected so as to be capable of bidirectional communication. The community server 3, the advertisement distribution server 4, and each client terminal are connected via innumerable network devices and base stations scattered on the network 2. The client terminal can be replaced with another type of terminal equipped with a Web browser, such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), PHS (Personal Handy phone System), a portable game machine, and home appliances. A plurality of advertisement distribution servers 4 may be provided on the information providing system 1.

  Each client terminal exchanges necessary data with the community server 3, the advertisement distribution server 4, and other web servers not shown via the network 2, and provides various web services to the user. Hereinafter, the mobile phone terminal 10 is taken as an example of a client terminal that communicates with various servers, and this embodiment will be described in detail.

  FIG. 2 is an external view of the mobile phone terminal 10 of the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the mobile phone terminal 10. As shown in FIG. 3, the mobile phone terminal 10 has a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 103 that performs overall control of the entire apparatus. Each element constituting the mobile phone terminal 10 is connected to the CPU 103 via the system bus 119. Each element constituting the mobile phone terminal 10 includes a flash memory 105, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 107, a network interface 109, a display 111, a user input device 113, and a VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) 115. The system bus 119 includes a power supply line in addition to the data line. Each element of the cellular phone terminal 10 including the CPU 103 is supplied with power from a battery (not shown) via a power line.

  The CPU 103 accesses necessary hardware via the system bus 119 after the mobile phone terminal 10 is powered on. For example, immediately after the mobile phone terminal 10 is turned on, the CPU 103 accesses the flash memory 105 to read the firmware 200, loads it into the RAM 107, and activates the firmware 200. As a result, each element performs various processes in cooperation with each other as necessary under the management of resources and processes by the firmware 200.

  For example, when an operation to activate the browser 202 is performed by the user input device 113, the firmware 200 loads the browser 202 into the RAM 107 and activates it in order to operate the browser 202 on the firmware 200. The browser 202 activated by the firmware 200 performs processing in cooperation with hardware such as the CPU 103 in accordance with a user access operation to the Web content. As a result of such processing, the user can browse the web through the display 111, that is, browse web content.

  The mobile phone terminal 10 is provided with a 5-way key 113a, a numeric keypad 113b, and the like as user input devices 113. The 5-way key 113a is a composite key composed of four directional keys (up / down / left / right) and an enter key. When the user performs a key operation on the user input device 113, an input signal corresponding to the key operation is input to the CPU 103. Various functions such as Web browsing are realized in the mobile phone terminal 10 by the CPU 103 executing processing according to the input signal. During web browsing, the user can scroll the web content being browsed by operating either the 5-way key 113a or the numeric keypad 113b. In addition, by operating the 5-way key 113a or the numeric keypad 113b, it is possible to select a form, a link or the like on the content.

  Note that the user input device 113 does not have to be mechanical keys such as the 5-way key 113a and the numeric keypad 113b, and may be configured with another form of key such as a membrane key or a touch panel.

  When the user input device 113 is configured by a touch panel, for example, an operation screen corresponding to the operation key is configured as a screen integral with or separate from the display 111. In the former case, the display 111 itself is composed of a touch panel. In the latter case, the mobile phone terminal 10 has a two-screen configuration including a display 111 and an operation touch panel. In the latter case, whether or not the display 111 is also configured by a touch panel is appropriately selected according to the design specifications.

  When the user input device 113 is configured with a touch panel in this manner, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment is provided in which operations such as screen scrolling and link selection are performed by pen touch or finger touch on operation keys arranged on the screen. The It is also possible to provide a GUI environment in which various operations are performed, for example, by directly touching a screen on which Web content is displayed. Under such a GUI environment, for example, when the touch panel surface is traced up, down, left, or right while finger-touching an arbitrary position on the screen display of Web content, the screen display is scrolled accordingly (for example, the touch panel surface is moved upward). If you trace your finger in the direction, the web content scrolls down). That is, in this case, the screen is scrolled according to the movement of the stylus, the finger, etc., so that more intuitive operability is provided to the user.

  Further, the mobile phone terminal 10 may be configured to have another type of operation key such as a jog dial. In this case, the user can operate the jog dial or the like to perform screen scrolling or link selection operation.

  Further, the user input device 113 may be configured by appropriately combining various types of keys such as mechanical keys, membrane keys, and touch panels. Further, the user input device 113 may be configured by a controller independent of the mobile phone terminal 10 main body.

  Furthermore, components other than mechanical keys, membrane keys, touch panels, and the like can be provided as part of the user input device 113. Examples of such components include a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor, and a jerk sensor. In this case, for example, the CPU 103 monitors the output of various sensors to measure the tilt angle, angular velocity, acceleration, jerk (time change rate of acceleration), etc. of the mobile phone terminal 10 main body, and screen scrolling according to the measured value is performed. This is realized by a cooperative operation between the CPU 103 and the browser 202. For example, when the user moves or tilts the mobile phone terminal 10 main body up, down, left, or right, screen scrolling is performed according to the moving direction, speed, tilt angle, and the like. Therefore, the user can scroll the display area of the Web content more intuitively.

  Further, the mobile phone terminal 10 has a screen aspect ratio of, for example, 3: 4 (in other words, when the mobile phone terminal 10 is directed so that the vertical direction in FIG. (Vertical orientation). When the orientation of the mobile phone terminal 10 is changed from this state, the CPU 103 detects a change in the orientation of the mobile phone terminal 10 based on the output of the gyro sensor or the like. Based on the detection result by the CPU 103, the browser 202 performs rendering according to the attitude of the mobile phone terminal 10 with respect to the Web content being displayed on the display 111. For example, when the mobile phone terminal 10 is rotated 90 degrees in the paper from the posture shown in FIG. 2, the aspect ratio of the screen is 4: 3 (the screen is landscape when expressed in another way). At this time, the browser 202 re-renders the Web content being displayed on the display 111 in accordance with the landscape screen. When the orientation of the screen is changed in this way, for example, the appearance of the Web content changes due to a difference in the text folding position at the time of rendering.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the mobile phone terminal 10 is a so-called straight type mobile phone terminal that holds the display 111 and the user input device 113 with an integrally formed body. It may be a mobile phone terminal having another structure such as a type, a cycloid type, and a swing type. For example, a cycloid-type or swing-type mobile phone terminal is configured such that the display-side body holding the display 111 can be rotated in a plane parallel to the display 111 with respect to the body-side body holding the user input device 113. ing. In such a mobile phone terminal, the orientation of the screen changes according to the rotation angle of the display-side body. In this case, the browser 202 re-renders the Web content being displayed on the display 111 according to the direction so as to be linked to the change in the screen direction.

  Next, the functions of the browser 202, particularly the browser engine 210, which is a basic component of the browser 202, will be described in detail. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the browser engine 210. As shown in FIG. 4, the browser engine 210 includes functional blocks of a parser 31, a page maker 32, and a page editor 33.

  An operation for accessing the Web content, for example, when a URI is input by the user input device 113 (or when a URI is specified by selecting an anchor on the Web content, or in the mobile phone terminal 10, a bookmark or history The browser 202 generates a request message for requesting resources such as Web contents in conformity with HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and transmits the request message to a specified URI on the network.

  Next, the server corresponding to the designated URI creates a response message corresponding to the received request message and sends it back. The returned response message reaches the browser 202 via the network and is passed to the parser 31. In the message body of the response message, a markup document 21 specified by URI and described in HTML, XHTML, or the like is embedded.

  The parser 31 analyzes the markup document 21, generates a document tree 23 (for example, a DOM (Document Object model) tree) expressing the logical structure of the markup document 21 in a tree structure from the analysis result, and expands it in the RAM 107. To do. The document tree 23 is data representing an outline of the markup document 21 having each element of the markup document 21 as a node. The document tree 23 only represents the logical structure of the markup document 21 and does not include information related to the expression of the document.

  The page maker 32 generates an element tree 25 including information on display styles (block, inline, table, list, item, etc.) determined by each tag on the basis of the document tree 23, and creates a markup document 21. A request for a designated image, registration of event processing, and the like are performed and stored in the RAM 107. The element tree 25 represents the order in which block, inline, table, list, item, etc. exist, but these elements are displayed in what width and height on the screen. It does not include information about the layout, such as where text is wrapped.

  The page editor 33 displays the layout of each node (element) of the element tree 25 (that is, the text wrapping of each element, the position on the screen, the width, the height, etc.) according to the set display magnification and display mode. A color or the like is determined one by one, and a layout tree 27 representing the layout of each element is generated.

  The elements whose layout has been determined are sequentially rendered by the page editor 33 in the image buffer 1071 created in a predetermined area of the RAM 107. Of the results rendered in such an area, a rendering result scheduled to be displayed on the display 111 is written into the VRAM 115.

  The VRAM 115 is a memory that holds contents directly displayed on the display 111, and has an image area corresponding to the screen size of the display 111. In the VRAM 115, the rendered contents are written in the predetermined area together with an image such as a toolbar. Through the above processing by the browser 202, the Web content is displayed on the display 111.

  By the way, when browsing the Web content, the user usually uses the browser 202 corresponding to various Web services. On the other hand, when it is desired to browse only specific content such as weather forecast, map information, route search, etc., individual widgets equipped with a browsing function for the specific content are used. Here, the widget is a standard Web technology such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), XHTML (Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript (registered trademark), Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML), or the like. This is an application that supports a specific web service that can be used in a desktop environment. The widget may be a mini-app with a light processing load. In such a case, once activated, the widget may reside on the desktop (standby screen or the like) of the terminal device. Therefore, such a widget has an advantage that specific content can be quickly provided to the user with a small amount of resource consumption. In the present embodiment, the widget resides on the desktop of the mobile phone terminal 10 after the firmware 200 is activated. However, the widget can be set to be activated as needed.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram conceptually showing a widget execution environment 300 for operating various widgets mounted on the mobile phone terminal 10. In the upper layer of the browser engine 210, a widget manager 220 and a widget player 240 that operate based on the browser engine 210 are mounted. The widget manager 220 and the widget player 240 can be obtained from, for example, the community server 3 in which a community site that distributes widgets is constructed.

  The community server 3 has a storage 3A that stores a large number of widget packages in which files constituting the widget are stored. Specifically, the widget package is data obtained by packaging an XML (Extensible Markup Language) manifest and a Web content (for example, HTML + CSS) in a ZIP format. The standards for widget packages are defined in W3C's Widgets 1.0 Requirements (http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/WD-widgets-reqs-20070209/) and the like. The XML manifest is a file for defining necessary information of the widget, and has information such as the name of the widget and the creator of the widget. The community server 3 is provided with widgets not only from vendors operating the community site but also from users registered in the community site.

  The community server 3 has a widget management database 3B for managing various widget packages (that is, various widgets). The widget management database 3B manages information related to widgets (hereinafter referred to as “widget information”) in association with various widget packages. The widget information includes, for example, a widget name, widget ID, widget version, package URL, package size, and the like. The widget ID is a unique ID assigned to identify the widget on the computer. The old and new widgets having different versions are assigned the same widget ID and different widget versions.

  The community server 3 analyzes widgets included in the widget package and evaluates various feature points. Here, the characteristic points are, for example, “politics”, “economy”, “IT”, “entertainment”, “anime character”, “baseball”, “golf”, “soccer”, “digital home appliance”, “fashion”. , “Food”, “book”, “travel”, “blog”, “game”, “movie”, “music”, “weather”, and other elements for characterizing and expressing the contents of widgets. In the feature point analysis processing, various feature points of the image and text in the widget are extracted by a known recognition / analysis algorithm such as image recognition or text analysis and digitized (for example, digitized to 0 to 9). The Information regarding various feature points of the widget thus digitized is referred to as “feature point numerical data (or feature vector)”. For example, in the case of a weather forecast widget, the community server 3 calculates “9” as the feature point numerical data of “weather” and “travel”, and “0” as the feature point numerical data of all other feature points. To do. The calculated feature point numerical data is stored in the widget management database 3B in association with the corresponding widget package. The feature point numerical data is not limited to data automatically calculated by the above processing, and may be data set by the widget creator himself, for example.

  In order to download a desired widget package to the mobile phone terminal 10, the user must first perform user registration on the community site of the community server 3. The user performs user registration by inputting necessary information on the online form of the community site. Information required for user registration includes, for example, a user name, password, address, age, gender, e-mail address, and the like. The input information is registered in the user database 3C that the community server 3 has. The user database 3C manages input information by each user in units of records.

  A user who has completed user registration operates the widget manager 220 to access the community site. The user logs in to the community site by entering a user name and password. After logging in to the community site, the user can select a desired widget package in the community site and download it to the mobile phone terminal 10.

  For example, when a widget package is selected by a user operation, the widget manager 220 downloads widget information of the widget package prior to downloading the selected widget package. The widget manager 220 compares the widget information (widget ID) downloaded from the community server 3 with the widget information (widget ID) of each widget installed in the widget storage 230, and selects the widget selected in the community site. Determine whether the package is already installed. If the widget ID that matches the widget ID downloaded from the community server 3 is not detected, the widget manager 220 downloads the widget package and installs it in the widget storage 230. In such an installation process, the widget manager 220 stores the widget in the widget storage 230 in association with the widget information, XML manifest, etc. so that the installed widget can be managed.

  On the other hand, when a widget ID that matches the widget ID downloaded from the community server 3 is detected in the widget storage 230, the widget manager 220 compares the widget versions with each other, and compares the widget contents on the community server 3 ( That is, it is determined whether or not the Web content packaged in the widget package is a new version. The widget manager 220 downloads and installs the widget package and updates the widget content only when the widget package on the community server 3 is a new version. When the widget versions are the same or the widget package on the community server 3 is an old version, the widget manager 220 displays a predetermined message on the display 111 notifying that the latest version of the widget content has been installed. And do not execute the download process.

  When the widget package is downloaded, the community server 3 stores the download history in the user database 3C. That is, the community server 3 knows which widget package has been downloaded by each user who uses the community site.

  The user can specify the display of the installed widget. Specifically, it is possible to designate whether the widget is displayed in a minimized manner, in a standby display, or in which no display is performed. Such designation information is managed by the widget manager 220. That is, the widget manager 220 not only manages each widget in association with the widget information using the widget management database 3B, but also manages the display state of each widget.

  Under the management of the widget manager 220, the widget player 240 loads a widget designated to be minimized or stand-by from the widget storage 230 immediately after the firmware 200 is activated.

  FIG. 6 is a display example of widgets displayed on the display 111. The widget player 240 generates minimized display icons for all the widgets designated to be minimized or stand-by, and displays them in the DOCK area DA along the lower side of the screen. According to the example of FIG. 6, a total of six icons W ′ 1 to W ′ 6 corresponding to widgets designated to be minimized or displayed in standby are displayed in the DOCK area DA. Note that the number of widgets installed in the widget storage 230 exceeds six. That is, among the installed widgets, there is a widget that is not designated as a minimized display or a standby display because the usage frequency is low.

  The widget player 240 further displays a widget designated for standby display on the desktop of the display 111 (an area other than the DOCK area DA in FIG. 6). Specifically, the widget player 240 performs analysis processing, rendering processing, JavaScript (registered trademark) execution, and the like by the browser engine 210 on the widget content designated to be displayed in a standby manner by the progress processing, and the display 111. Create a window smaller than the screen size for each widget content. Next, the content drawn by the browser engine 210 is displayed in a window created for each widget content. Thereby, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, each widget (here, weather forecast widget W1, restaurant search widget W2, map search widget W3) is activated and displayed on the desktop of the display 111.

  For example, when the icon W′1 (or icon W′2 or icon W′3) is touched when the screen of FIG. 6 is displayed, the widget player 240 displays the weather forecast widget W1 (or restaurant search widget W2 or The map search widget W3) is iconified and stored in the DOCK area DA (that is, the display state is changed from the standby display to the minimized display). On the other hand, when any of the icons W′4 to W′6 is touched when the screen of FIG. 6 is displayed, the corresponding widget content is displayed on the desktop (that is, in the standby display state). When displaying the widget content that is not designated as either the minimized display or the standby display, the user activates a predetermined pop-up menu and selects the widget content to be displayed.

  Further, the widget player 240 not only performs the widget content minimization display process and standby display process, but also maximizes the widget content display process, the process of changing the display position of the widget content according to the operation, and the overlaying of the widget contents. Performs general control related to window display of widget contents, such as display processing at the time.

  Here, the weather forecast is information that should be updated multiple times a day. For this reason, the widget manager 220 accesses the community server 3 regularly (multiple times a day), and updates the weather forecast widget W1. At this time, the widget manager 220 updates all the widget contents installed in the widget storage 230 at once or only the widget contents designated by the user operation. Further, the widget content update process may be arbitrarily performed at a timing according to the user operation, as described above.

  By the way, in the above, it was described as a problem that the conventional system does not deliver advertisements according to the user's essential tastes, interests, and interests, and may not obtain a high advertising effect. The information providing system 1 according to the present embodiment is configured to appropriately select and distribute an advertisement in accordance with the user's essential preference, interest, and interest in order to reliably obtain a high advertising effect. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a flow of processing executed by each component included in the information providing system 1, that is, the mobile phone terminal 10 (widget manager 220), the community server 3, and the advertisement distribution server 4. In the following description and drawings in the text, the processing step is abbreviated as “S”.

  The widget manager 220 accesses the community server 3 using the update timing of the widget content (S1, S2). Prior to accessing the community server 3, the widget manager 220 generates a predetermined request message (S1). Specifically, the widget manager 220 accesses the widget storage 230 and is specified by information of widget contents to be updated, that is, widget information of all widget contents installed in the widget storage 230, or specified by a user operation. Widget information of collected widget contents. Next, a request message (hereinafter referred to as “update request message”) for requesting an update of each widget content is generated by embedding the collected widget information in a message body. The widget manager 220 generates such an update request message, and at the same time, makes settings related to the standby display of all the widget contents installed in the widget storage 230 (minimized display, standby display, or neither of them) Status information indicating the usage status of each widget content, such as the total display time of each widget content, and settings related to updating (whether or not update settings exist, etc.). Then, a request message for requesting an advertisement (hereinafter referred to as “advertisement request message”) is generated by embedding the collected status information in a message body. The widget manager 220 transmits each generated request message to the community server 3 (S2). As described above, the advertisement request message is transmitted at the same timing as the update request message that has been indispensable for updating the widget content. That is, the widget manager 220 is configured not to make the user aware of the execution of the transmission process even when the advertisement request message is frequently transmitted. According to another aspect, the widget manager 220 is responsible for starting up software and hardware startup processing required for starting communication with the community server 3 (for example, for communication-related software and hardware startup processing). Necessary time and power consumption).

  When the community server 3 receives the update request message, the community server 3 searches the storage 3A for update data of the widget content corresponding to the message. Next, a response message in which the searched update data is embedded is generated and returned to the widget manager 220. The widget manager 220 updates the widget content using the received update data. Thereby, for example, the latest weather forecast is displayed in the weather forecast widget W1.

  The community server 3 refers to the feature point numerical data stored in the widget management database 3B based on the advertisement request message. The community server 3 analyzes the preference, interest, and interest of the user of the mobile phone terminal 10 based on the status information of the widget content included in the advertisement request message and the feature point numerical data corresponding to the widget content (S3). .

  In the process of S3, the community server 3 calculates a weighting value for each widget content based on the status information. For example, a high weighting value is not specified for widget content that is designated for standby display, and a moderate weighting value is not specified for widget content that is specified for minimized display. A low weighting value is assigned to the widget content. In addition, a higher weighting value is assigned to a widget content having a longer total display time. Also, a high weighting value is assigned to the widget content that is set to update, and a low weighting value is assigned to the widget content that is not set to update. That is, the community server 3 assigns a higher weighting value to widget content that is frequently used by the user. The community server 3 calculates the final weight value of each widget content based on these weight values. Next, a weighting process is performed on the feature point numerical data of each widget content using the calculated weighting value. The community server 3 analyzes the user's preference, interest, and interest based on the feature point numerical data of each widget content obtained as a result of the weighting process. As described above, the analysis result is information in which the usage frequency of the widget content is taken into consideration, and thus the content reflects the characteristics of the widget content in which the user's interest continues. That is, the analysis result represents contents closer to the user's essential taste, interest, and interest rather than the contents according to the user's preference, interest, and interest at that time. The screen displayed during standby is the screen that the user sees most, and can be said to be the screen in which the user's hobbies and the like appear most remarkably. The analysis result can be said to be information that takes into consideration the display state of the screen (standby display, minimized display, etc.), and can be said to represent the contents reflecting the user's essential preferences, interests, and interests.

  For example, consider a case where a large number of political-related widgets and one sports-related widget are installed in the widget storage 230. In this case, all the political-related widgets are not designated as the standby display or the minimized display. On the other hand, since the user likes sports and frequently uses sports-related widgets, the widgets are designated as standby display. Since there are many installations of widgets related to politics, an analysis result that the user is interested in politics can be obtained without considering the usage frequency of widget contents. However, in the present embodiment, by considering the usage frequency of the widget content, an analysis result more in line with the substance that the user is interested in sports can be obtained.

  The community server 3 transmits the obtained analysis result to the advertisement distribution server 4 and requests advertisement data corresponding to the analysis result (S4).

  Here, consider a case where a widget installed in the widget storage 230 is deleted by a user operation. In this case, the widget stored in the widget storage 230 does not match the widget of the download history stored in the user database 3C of the community server 3. That is, the community server 3 cannot grasp the widget that is actually available in the mobile phone terminal 10 from the download history. Therefore, the community server 3 generates a list of widgets currently installed in the mobile phone terminal 10 based on the status information included in the advertisement request message, and stores the list in the user database 3C separately from the download history. To do. The community server 3 may execute the preference analysis process of S3 based only on the list, that is, only information indicating which widget is installed in the mobile phone terminal 10.

  The advertisement distribution server 4 has an advertisement database 4A that stores a large number of advertisement widget packages provided by various advertisers. The advertisement widget included in the advertisement widget package has a unique function for controlling the display of advertisement in cooperation with the widget manager 220 and the community server 3. Here, as a specific unique function, for example, there is a function of controlling which advertisement is displayed at which timing for each profiling of a user registered in the community site. The community server 3 performs user profiling based on the user information stored in the user database 3C. Other specific unique functions include, for example, the current time and the current position of the mobile phone terminal 10 (for example, when the GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver is mounted on the mobile phone terminal 10) Function to control the display of the advertisement according to the determination result, and the function to control the display of the advertisement based on the total counting the number of times of displaying the advertisement, the number of clicks, etc. . The advertisement widget is not limited to the one having such a unique function, and may have the same configuration as that of a normal widget, for example.

  The advertisement distribution server 4 selects an appropriate advertisement widget package from the advertisement database 4A based on the analysis result transmitted from the community server 3, and transmits the selected advertisement widget package to the community server 3 (S5). As described above, since the analysis result is content that represents the user's essential preferences, interests, and interests, the advertisement distribution server 4 selects and distributes the optimal advertisement widget package from among a large number of advertisement widget packages. be able to. The advertisement widget package is relayed by the community server 3 and distributed to the mobile phone terminal 10 (S6). The advertisement widget package may be distributed to the mobile phone terminal 10 without being relayed by the community server 3. In such a case, in the process of S4, the community server 3 transmits the IP address and port number of the mobile phone terminal 10 together with the request for advertisement data to the advertisement distribution server 4 as user terminal information. The advertisement distribution server 4 distributes the advertisement widget package to the mobile phone terminal 10 by referring to the IP address, the port number, and the routing information redirected from the community server 3 (IP of the relay base station, the port number, etc.) To do.

  In addition, in the process of S5 in FIG. 7, the advertisement distribution server 4 may transmit the advertisement data to the community server 3 instead of the advertisement widget package. In such a case, the advertisement data is processed into the advertisement widget package by the community server 3 and then distributed to the mobile phone terminal 10 by the process of S6.

  The widget manager 220 installs the distributed widget package in the widget storage 230. The widget manager 220 automatically displays the advertisement widget on the desktop after the installation process is completed (S7).

  FIG. 8 is a display example of the advertisement widget displayed on the display 111. As shown in FIG. 8, the advertisement widget W7 is displayed in a standby manner in the same manner as the weather forecast widget W1 and the like. By the way, the advertisement widget W7 is, for example, a link to an advertiser's website displaying an advertisement image. When the advertisement widget W7 is touched, the widget manager 220 may be configured to pass a command for starting the browser 202 to the firmware 200 together with the advertiser's site URL, for example. When the command and the site URL are passed to the browser 202 by the firmware 200, the browser 202 accesses the URL and displays the advertiser's website on the screen.

  Note that the advertisement widget may be automatically registered (that is, displayed in a minimized manner) in the DOCK area DA after the installation process is completed, so that the user can quickly start the advertisement widget. Further, after the installation process is completed, a predetermined message may be displayed in a pop-up so that the user can select whether or not to display the advertisement widget on the desktop. Further, the advertisement widget may be activated when a specific widget is activated. Alternatively, it may be automatically activated at a predetermined independent timing. The advertisement widget may be automatically deleted after a predetermined expiration date, for example, in consideration of the resources of the mobile phone terminal 10.

  Further, the various widgets including the advertisement widget are not limited to being displayed on a so-called normal desktop (standby screen) of the mobile phone terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 8, but are displayed on, for example, a virtual desktop or a sub standby screen. You may be made to do.

  The present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, the community server 3 and the advertisement distribution server 4 may be configured by a single server device, or may be configured by a plurality of more distributed server devices.

  Further, the advertisement distribution server 4 may be configured to process the advertisement widget based on, for example, the result of the preference analysis process in S3 of FIG. In this case, the advertisement distribution server 4 distributes not only the advertisement widget itself provided by the vendor or the user but the advertisement widget that has been processed to reflect the taste, interest, and interest of each user. Note that the processing of the advertisement widget may be periodically executed based on the result of the preference analysis process. Further, the window of the advertisement widget may be processed into a character shape related to the widget content subscribed by the user (for example, the widget content downloaded periodically) by such processing. On the window thus processed, not only content related to the character but also content of other genres such as sports may be displayed. The processing frequency of the window and the update frequency of the content displayed in the window may be separate and independent timings.

  In another embodiment, the advertisement data distributed by the advertisement distribution server 4 is not limited to the advertisement widget. In such an embodiment, for example, a JavaScript (registered trademark) advertisement tag for designating a predetermined advertisement display space (display position and size of advertisement in the widget content) is described in each widget content such as the weather forecast widget W1. Yes. The advertisement distribution server 4 distributes advertisement data corresponding to the advertisement tag instead of the advertisement widget. The advertisement data is automatically inserted into any advertisement tag of the widget content that is displayed on standby. As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, an advertisement is inserted into the advertisement display space of the weather forecast widget W1 and displayed on the screen. Note that the display position of the advertisement based on the advertisement data is not limited to the example of FIG. The advertisement may be displayed outside the window of the widget content such as a position adjacent to the DOCK area DA.

  Further, data distributed from the advertisement distribution server 4 is not limited to advertisement-related data. The advertisement distribution server 4 may distribute various types of information based on the result of the preference analysis process in S3 of FIG. 7, such as Web contents and applications that conform to the user's preference, interest, and interest.

  Further, the feature point numerical value data of each widget included in the widget management database 3B may be stored in, for example, the widget storage 230 (that is, local).

It is a network block diagram for demonstrating embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the external appearance of the mobile telephone terminal of embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed schematic structure of the mobile telephone terminal of embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the browser engine contained in the browser of the embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed notionally the widget execution environment for operating the various widgets mounted in the mobile telephone terminal of embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a display of the widget displayed on the display of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the process which each component which the information provision system of embodiment of this invention has has performs. It is an example of a display of the widget displayed on the display of embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a display of the advertisement displayed on the display of another embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 Information Providing System 3 Community Server 4 Advertisement Distribution Server 10 Mobile Phone Terminal 103 CPU
105 Flash memory 107 RAM
109 Network interface 111 Display 113 User input device 115 VRAM
200 Firmware 210 Browser Engine 220 Widget Manager 230 Widget Storage 240 Widget Player

Claims (16)

A plurality of applications are stored, and information for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests, which is executed by a client device that performs update processing of the plurality of applications by communicating with a predetermined server device at a predetermined timing, is provided. A method for providing user information,
A usage status information management step for managing usage status information regarding the usage status of the plurality of applications;
A usage status information collecting step for collecting usage status information of the plurality of managed applications when performing at least one update process among the plurality of applications;
Usage status information uploading step for uploading the collected usage status information to the server device together with data necessary for the update process, as information for analyzing user preferences, interests, and interests;
A method for providing user information.   The user information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the usage status information includes setting information related to display of each of the plurality of applications.   3. The user information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the update process is executed periodically or at a timing according to a user operation.   The user information providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plurality of applications are widgets.   A user information providing program for causing a computer to execute the user information providing method according to any one of claims 1 to 4. A client device that stores a plurality of applications, communicates with a predetermined server device at a predetermined timing, and performs update processing of the plurality of applications,
Program storage means for storing the user information providing program according to claim 5;
Program execution means for executing the user information providing program stored in the program storage means;
A client device comprising: User preferences, interests, and interests executed by the server device based on usage status information related to usage statuses of a plurality of applications on the client device that are connected to the client device via a predetermined network and uploaded from the client device A user information providing method for providing information in accordance with
Based on the uploaded usage information, a user analysis step for analyzing user preferences and interests, interests, and
Based on the analysis result obtained by the execution of the user analysis step, a database search step for searching for information according to the user's preference and interest, interest from a predetermined database;
A user information distribution step of distributing information in accordance with the searched user's preference, interest, and interest to the client device;
A method for providing user information. User preferences, interests, and interests executed by the server device based on usage status information related to usage statuses of a plurality of applications on the client device that are connected to the client device via a predetermined network and uploaded from the client device A user information providing method for providing information in accordance with
Based on the uploaded usage information, a user analysis step for analyzing user preferences and interests, interests, and
The analysis result obtained by the execution of the user analysis step is transmitted to another server device having a predetermined database that stores a plurality of information in accordance with the user's preference, interest, and interest, and the analysis result corresponding to the analysis result A user information request step for requesting information;
A user information receiving step for receiving user preference and interest from the other server device returned in response to the request, information in accordance with the interest;
A user information distribution step of distributing information in accordance with the received user preference and interest to the client device;
A method for providing user information.   9. The user information providing method according to claim 7, wherein the information in accordance with the user's preference, interest, and interest is a widget that displays an advertisement.   The method for providing user information according to claim 9, wherein the widget that displays the advertisement has a function of controlling display of the advertisement based on predetermined data included in the server device or the client device.   The information according to the user's preference, interest, and interest is advertisement data inserted into an advertisement tag that designates a display position and a size of an advertisement in the application, which the application has. The user information providing method according to claim 7 or 8.   12. The user information providing method according to claim 7, wherein the information according to the user's preference, interest, and interest is information in which a predetermined expiration date is set.   A user information providing program for causing a computer to execute the user information providing method according to any one of claims 7 to 12. A server device that communicates with a client device having a plurality of applications and distributes update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device,
A predetermined database storing a plurality of information in accordance with user preferences, interests and interests;
Program storage means for storing the user information providing program according to claim 13 quoting claim 7;
Program execution means for executing the user information providing program stored in the program storage means;
The server apparatus characterized by having. A server device that communicates with a client device having a plurality of applications and distributes update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device,
Program storage means for storing the user information providing program according to claim 13 quoting claim 8;
Program execution means for executing the user information providing program stored in the program storage means;
The server apparatus characterized by having. A client device having a plurality of applications, an update data distribution server that distributes update data for updating the plurality of applications to the client device, and at least one that provides information in accordance with user preferences, interests, and interests A user information providing system in which an information providing server is connected via a predetermined network,
The client device is
Usage status information management means for managing usage status information regarding the usage status of the plurality of applications;
Usage status information collecting means for collecting usage status information of the plurality of managed applications when performing at least one update process among the plurality of applications;
Usage status information uploading means for uploading the collected usage status information to the update data distribution server together with data necessary for the update process;
Have
The update data distribution server includes:
Based on the uploaded usage information, user analysis means for analyzing user preferences and interests, and interests;
User information requesting means for sending the analysis result by the user analyzing means to the information providing server, and requesting user preference and interest according to the analysis result, information in accordance with the interest;
User information receiving means for receiving user preference and interest from the information providing server returned in response to the request, information in accordance with the interest;
User information distribution means for distributing information to the client device according to the received user's preference and interest, interest;
A system for providing user information, comprising:

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