WO2001052105A1

WO2001052105A1 - Device and method for controlling an information search on internet

Info

Publication number: WO2001052105A1
Application number: PCT/KR2000/000625
Authority: WO
Inventors: Young Jun Shin
Original assignee: Myseek Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2000-01-14
Filing date: 2000-06-13
Publication date: 2001-07-19
Also published as: KR20000017909A; AU5254100A

Abstract

The present invention discloses a device and a method for controlling an information search on the internet, which provides an internal search engine to registered members among the people owning their homepages, so that the members can efficiently search information by using the internal search engine. By providing the internal search engine to the individuals or companies owning their homepages free of charge, the cost for introducing an internal search system is minimized, and the exact information can be obtained through the second search at a very high speed.

Description

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING AN INFORMATION SEARCH ON INTERNET

Technical Field The present invention relates to a device and method for controlling an information search on the internet, and more particularly, to a device and method for providing homepage owners with a quick search for the exact information they want.

Background Art

As the internet has become easily accessible to many, it is now a great source of getting information in every filed although there are also provided useless information at the same time.

Thus, internet users have long sought for a method of obtaining only the information they wanted as quickly as possible, which is now made possible by a search engine.

The search engine gathers information by navigating the internet at a very high speed which is fast enough to satisfy the internet user's need. That is, the user informs the search engine of what information he or she wants, using the query language format provided by the search engine, and the search engine undertakes information search accordingly.

Most of search engines collect and manage information on the internet in advance regardless of the search order from the user.

The search engines includes a directory search engine that classifies and manages information according to a subject, a general search engine that manages the information only, a metatag search engine that does not collect and manage information, but receives a user's request, delivers it to other search engines, and then shows the result of searching collectively, and so on. For the most part, the directory search engine and the metatag search engine are frequently used. The directory search engine is an information search system that classifies information into hierarchal groups in a tree shape and manages the same so that the information can be searched by a subject, by which the users can search the object information step by step by selecting it in a directory service.

However, although the directory search engine can search information by a subject, it directly searches for the sites that the staffs of the corresponding company applied for a registration thereof, and makes the database for each subject, taking more than one week for the registration. In addition, since the directory search engine describes the entire contents of a homepage comprehensively, and provides only the URL of the homepage, it is difficult to get the specific information in the homepage.

In the metatag search engine, since a search robot collects homepage information by searching for a metatag contained in a homepage while searching the internet, it is possible to store all pages in the lower portion of the homepage in the database. In the case that the contents of the pages in the lower portion of the homepage have been updated, or the corresponding page has been deleted, however, it takes a considerable time to update the contents.

On the other hand, although it is convenient for homepage owners, individuals or small sized companies, to employ the above-mentioned search engines, there are limitations on their ability to implement a program, or there occurs a problem with time or cost, as compared to large sized companies. Subsequently, it is difficult for the individuals having their own homepages or small sized companies to load a search engine in their homepages.

Disclosure of Invention It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a device for controlling an information search on the internet which conveniently provides an internal search engine to registered subscribers among the homepage owners and efficiently performs an information search by using the internal search engine.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling an information search on the internet described above.

To achieve the above object, there is provided a device for controlling an information search on the internet according to the present invention, comprising an information providing unit which has an internal search engine capable of searching extensive information; checks whether or not an information searcher has been registered in order to request of the internal search engine; provides the internal search engine in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher; manages all the information in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher; searches for the personal homepage relating to a corresponding search word among currently managed personal homepages by entering the search word by the information searcher; and searches for the homepage relating to the next search word in the searched personal homepages by entering the next search word.

In addition, there is provided a method for controlling an information search on the internet according to the present invention, comprising the steps of: storing the personal infoπnation of an infoπnation searcher and infoπnation in the personal homepage of the information searcher upon request of an internal search engine of the information searcher, providing the internal search engine to the personal homepage of the information searcher; searching for the personal homepage relating to an initial search word among currently stored personal homepages by entering the initial search word through the information searcher; and searching for the pages relating to the next search word upon completion of the selection of the personal homepage to be desired to be searched for among the searched personal homepages and the designation of the search range of the selected personal homepage.

Brief Description of Drawings

The above objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a device for controlling an information search on the internet according to the embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a flow chart explaining the operation of providing an internal search window to a personal homepage administrator registered on a server in Figure 1;

Figures 3 through 6 are views adapted to the explanation of the flow chart in Figure 2;

Figure 7 is a flow chart explaining the operation of controlling an information search according to the embodiment of the present invention; and Figures 8 through 11 are views adapted to the explanation of the flow chart in Figure 7.

Detailed description of the Invention

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a device for controlling an information search on the internet according to the embodiment of the present invention. An information providing system 30 is connected to the individuals or companies owning their own homepages 10a, 10b, or 10c, and a user 20 without a homepage through internet network. Here, the administrator or company of the homepages 10a, 10b, or 10c, the company, and the user 20 each connect to the internet by using a computer connectable to the internet.

The individuals or companies administrating their own homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c subscribe to the information providing system 30, and then receives an internal search engine (i.e., internal search interface) service and an internal search window service free of charge which is capable of performing an internal search for the information managed by the information providing system 30.

When the user 20 without a homepage connects to the personal homepage

10a, 10b, or 10c having the internal search engine and makes a query, he or she is provided with the information from the personal homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c. In addition, the user 20 is provided also with a wanted information by connecting to the information providing system 30.

The infoπnation providing system 30 has a server 40 which examines connection trial from the homepage owner, both individuals and companies, of 10a, 10b, or 10c, and the user 20 not having his or her own homepage. If there is, the system 30 permits a connection, a database 50 which stores the information in the personal homepage of the subscriber (i.e., personal homepage administrator) having registered in the information providing system 30 to receive an internal search engine service, and an internal search system 60 which provides the internal search engine to the registered subscriber (i.e., the individual homepage owner), for searching the information in each personal homepage stored in the database 50.

Here, when a homepage owner connects to the server 40 for registration, parts of the storage area of the database 50 are allocated as a data storage space for the homepage of the registered administrator. In the embodiment of the present invention, if an individual having his or her own homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c wants to connect to the server and receives an internal search window service, the internal search system 60 provides an internal search window to the registered subscriber (administrator).

Therefore, the individual described above and the user 20 who does not have his or her own homepage firstly connect to the server 40 to check which homepage among other personal homepages stored in the database 50 has the infoπnation exactly what they want, and thereafter they can directly view the information without visiting the corresponding homepage itself.

Then, if the user 20 connects to the personal homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c to enter a desired search word in the internal search window, he or she can view the information respecting the search word in the coπesponding personal homepage.

The operation of providing an internal search engine to the individual homepage owners will now be described with reference to the flow chart in Figure

2. If an individual (administrator) homepage owner connects to the site (for example, www.myseek.net) of the information search system 30 in step 100, the server of the information providing system 30 displays an initial screen as shown in Figure 3 to the individual homepage owner.

If the administrator aforementioned clicks the "generate search engine" at the button of the initial screen ("Yes" in step 110), the server 40 displays a screen for requesting personal information to the administrator in step 120.

Accordingly, the administrator provides all the contents or selective contents of the homepage along with his or her personal information to the database 50. That is, when the administrator inputs correct information in step 130, the server 40 displays the screen as shown in Figure 5 to the administrator.

If the administrator clicks the "inserting internal search window" button in Figure 5, the internal search system 60, operated by control of the server 40, inserts the internal search window for a homepage into the administrator in step 140.

On the screen of Figure 5, if the administrator clicks the "add page" button, the server automatically inserts the contents of all the pages registered in his or her personal homepage to the database 50. For example, if the number of the pages registered in the personal homepage is 26, the contents of the 26 pages are automatically inserted into the database 50. At this time, they are automatically inserted into the area allocated for the personal homepage in the database 50. Here, in the case where the automatically registered contents differs from the main object of the original homepage of the administrator, as shown in Figure 5, the contents of the registered page can be edited/deleted by clicking the "[edit] [delete]" button on each coπesponding page. In other words, the administrator can freely edit/delete the contents of the 26 registered pages. Thereafter, in the case that the administrator changed the subject of his or her homepage, for instance, from "shoes" to "bags", he or she can simply click "add page" button, then the contents of the homepage allocated to the database 50 are automatically changed from "shoes" to "bags" in steps 150 and 160.

In addition, though not shown in Figure 5, it is also possible to add the "manual" button next to the "add page" button: the "add page" button for automatically storing all the registered pages to the homepage, and the "manual" button for manually selecting and/or storing a page in step 140.

In this way, a search window 5 for internal search as shown in Figure 6 is prepared in the homepage of the administrator. The operation of controlling an information search according to the embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the flow chart of Figure 7.

An information searcher, i.e., a subscriber registered in the information providing system 30 or unregistered person (user 20) connects to the server 40 in step 200.

Then, the initial screen 15 as shown in Figure 8 is displayed on the screen of the terminal of the subscriber or of the user. If the information searcher writes a first search word, for example, business opportunities, and gives a search command, the information providing system 30 displays the URL of the sites relating to the search word "business opportunities" (i.e., the homepage sites providing information relating to "business opportunities" among all homepages allocated to and stored in the database 50) on the screen of the information searcher in step 210. In the embodiment of the present invention, the operation performed until step 210 is refeπed to as a first search process. The difference of the present invention form the conventional art is that there is provided a designated area of search range named "Inside of site" . That is, the area makes it possible for a searcher to get only information he or she wants. For example, on the screen 20, a square check box is set up in front of a title for corresponding site, and the searcher checks off a the box of a favorable site in order to get information he or she wants.

Also, in the embodiment of the present invention, the process of entering a second search word and performing a search after the first search process is referred to as a second search process.

Specifically, the information searcher checks a site he or she wants as shown in Figure 9 out of two homepage sites displayed on the screen in Figure 8, designates a search range into the inside of the checked site, writes a second search word, i.e, "management", and then gives a search command ("Yes" in step 220).

After the second search word is entered, and the search command is executed on the screen in Figure 9, the internal search system 60 searches the internal pages having the information relating to "management" and the description thereof in the checked homepage sites in step 230. The displayed internal pages relating to the second search word is the internal pages in the finally linked state in which a further specified linkage is impossible.

In addition, though the information search is performed by a search word of "business opportunity" in the first search process, if the information searcher wants to change the search word to thus select the web in the search range on the screen of Figure 8, enters another word other than "business opportunity" (for example, "sports"), and then gives a search command, the first search process is repeated. In this case, the homepage sites respecting "sports" among the homepages allocated to and stored in the database 50 are displayed accordingly. If the information searcher clicks a favorable internal page on the screen as shown in Figure 10, the internal search system 60 directly moves to the clicked internal page, and displays the corresponding information (a certain information among a wide variety of HTML documents, graphic data, music data, and the like) on the screen of the information searcher in steps 240 and 250. Then, the accumulated number of connections according to the clicking of the internal page is displayed. The accumulated connection number is updated when the individual owning its own homepage looks around its own homepage, or when the user 20 visits a personal homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c. With reference to the operation in steps 240 and 250, according to the conventional art, the information searcher views the wanted information by means of sequential linkage in the conventional art. On the contrary, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the finally linked page including the information that the infoπnation searcher wants is displayed by performing a second search, for thereby enabling a more rapid checking of the corresponding information.

In the embodiment of the present invention described with reference to Figure 7, the operation of performing a first search or second search by means of the server 40 is described. In some cases, the user 20, i.e., unregistered person may visit the personal homepage 10a, 10b, or 10c having an internal search window.

In this case, if the information searcher connects to a certain homepage (for example, the homepage of Professor, Jae-suk Lim), the initial screen of the homepage of Professor Lim is displayed as shown in Figure 6. If a search word such as "management" is entered into the internal search window 5 of the initial screen, and then a search command is executed, the information according to the results of the internal search in the homepage of Professor Lim, that is, the information of the finally linked page (internal page) among the infoπnation relating to "management" in the homepage of Professor Lim, is displayed. In this state, if the information searcher designates a wanted internal page, the contents of the corresponding internal page are directly displayed on the screen of the information searcher.

Industrial Applicability

According to the thusly described present invention, by providing the internal search engine to the individuals or companies owning their homepages free of charge, the cost for supplying an internal search system can be greatly reduced, and the object information is obtained at a very high speed through the second search.

In the conventional art, since most of search engines are based on a system for registering and searching HTML documents, it is impossible to search data relating to multimedia, such as Hangul documents, PowerPoint data, music files, graphic files, and the like. On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention, in the case where a personal homepage administrator administrates the homepage by collecting data in the homepage for the purpose of delivering graphic files to the user, there is a hope that the search engine will serve as a multimedia search engine by attaching comments to the graphic files registered by a search robot.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment of the present invention, an information search is performed by first and second searches, if necessary, first through third searches. While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

What Is Claimed Is;

1. A device for controlling an information search on the internet, which comprises an information providing unit having an internal search engine capable of searching an information in detail, checks whether or not an information searcher has been registered in order to request for the internal search engine, provides the internal search engine in the personal homepage of the registered infoπnation searcher, manages all the information in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher, and searches for the personal homepage relating to a corresponding search word among currently managed personal homepages by entering the search word by the information searcher, and searches for the homepage relating to the next search word in the searched personal homepages by entering the next search word.

2. A device for controlling an infomiation search on the internet, comprising: an internal search engine capable of searching extensive information; an information providing unit which checks whether or not an information searcher has been registered in order to request for the internal search engine, provides the internal search engine in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher, manages all the infomiation in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher, and searches for the personal homepage relating to a coπesponding search word among cuπently managed personal homepages by entering the search word by the information searcher, and searches for the homepage relating to the next search word in the searched personal homepages by entering the next search word; and a storage unit which stores all the information in the personal homepage of the registered information searcher.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit is partitioned into storage areas by each personal homepage of the registered information searcher, said partitioned storage area stores the information of the personal homepage of the corresponding information searcher.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the information of each personal homepage stored in the storage unit can be selectively stored by the coπesponding information searcher.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the information of each personal homepage stored in the storage unit is automatically stored at once by entering a storage command only once by the coπesponding information searcher.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the information of each personal homepage stored in the storage unit can be edited and deleted by the coπesponding information searcher.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein the internal page relating to the next search word is the internal page in the finally linked state in which a further linkage is impossible in the coπesponding personal homepage.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the internal page in the finally linked state is clicked, the accumulated number of connections to the coπesponding internal page is displayed.

9. A method for controlling an information search on the internet, comprising the steps of: storing an personal infonnation of an information searcher and the information in the personal homepage of the information searcher upon request of an internal search engine of the infoπnation searcher, and providing the internal search engine to the personal homepage of the information searcher; searching for the personal homepage relating to an initial search word among cuπently stored personal homepages by entering the initial search word by the information searcher; and searching for the pages relating to the next search word upon completion of the selection of the personal homepage to be desired to be searched for among the searched personal homepages and the designation of the search range of the selected personal homepage.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the information of the personal homepage of the information searcher is stored in the database partitioned into storage areas by each personal homepage.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the information of the personal homepage of the information searcher can be selectively stored by the information searcher having the personal homepage.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the information of each personal homepage stored in the database is automatically stored at once by entering a storage command only once by the coπesponding information searcher.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the information of each personal homepage stored in the storage unit can be edited and deleted by the coπesponding information searcher.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the selection of the personal homepage desired to be searched for among the personal homepages is performed by checking a check box of a certain shape foπned in front of each personal homepage listed on the screen displayed after the execution of the second step.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein, if a search range designation area called as "inside of site" is selected on the screen displayed after the execution of the second step, an information search is performed only in the personal homepage checked by the information searcher.

16. The method according to claim 9, wherein, in the third step, the internal page relating to the next search word is the internal page in the finally linked state in which a further linkage relating to the next search word is impossible in the coπesponding personal homepage.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, if the internal page in the finally linked state is clicked, the accumulated number of connections to the coπesponding internal page is displayed.