JP2000003301A - System and method for information provision - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information provision method which reduces the load on a network and does not need to incorporate an exclusive client program. SOLUTION: An information contents collection program 21 is connected to an information provision server 1 with a specified timing, collects information contents, extracts an address on a computer network of an index of the collected information contents and a text corresponding to the index and accumulates it in an information contents data base 22. When an information contents distribution program 23 receives a connection demand from an information display program 31 of a user terminal 3, it adds the index and the address to software which is always stationed on the information display program and has a function to display the index and the address on a screen of the user terminal 3 and distributes them as an information distribution client program 311 to the user terminal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system comprising a plurality of information providing servers, a plurality of user terminals and a computer network connecting them, and in particular, an information provider mainly distributes information such as news. The present invention relates to an information providing method and an information providing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The current society is the Internet, WWW
With the spread of information, a large amount of information has been disclosed, and the information society has become a useful information society for active users who search for information and actively extract necessary information. However, many users who are not so aggressive have a desire to continuously receive information from a large amount of information that changes from moment to moment according to the limited information receiving ability of human beings.

As a conventional information providing system in which an information provider takes the initiative in providing information contents, there is push-type information provision. (If the user on the Internet
An information providing system that accesses a W server with a WWW browser to extract information is called a “pull type”, and an information providing service that sends information from a server is called a “push type”. In the push-type information providing system, all of the headline (headline) and text of the information content are distributed to the user terminals, and the distributed data is stored in each user terminal. Also, a method is adopted in which a dedicated client program is installed in advance in a client system (user terminal side computer system), and information contents are distributed to users via the dedicated client program.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional information providing method has the following problems. First, regarding information contents: (1) Transfer a large amount of headlines and all texts regardless of whether the user really reads or not. As a result, a heavy load is imposed on the network, and the hard disk area of the user terminal is wasted with unnecessary information. (2) Many formats of information contents to be provided are unique, and information providers create and manage two types of information contents, so-called WWW information contents and information contents for push-type information provision services. There is a need.

[0005] Further, regarding the client system, (3) In many cases, a dedicated client program is required, and a troublesome installation is required for the user before receiving the service. (4) It is troublesome for the information provider to distribute and maintain the dedicated client program.

[0006]

An information providing system according to the present invention collects information contents from a plurality of information providing servers and information providing servers, edits the collected information contents, and distributes the edited information contents to each user terminal. An information delivery server, a computer network, and a plurality of user terminals connected to the information delivery server via the computer network, wherein each information providing server operates the information providing server to provide information to the user. Information distribution server, the information distribution server controlling the operation of the information distribution server to collect, edit, and accumulate information contents from the plurality of information provision servers via a computer network. A program, an information content database that stores the collected information content, and And an information content distribution program for controlling the operation of the information distribution server to select the stored information content distributed to the user terminal,
Each of the user terminals is a system having an information display program for controlling an operation of the user terminal in order to display information content acquired from the information distribution server. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the information providing system of the present invention, an information content collection program connects to the information providing server at a predetermined timing to collect information content, and information on a predetermined item of the collected information content. Is extracted and stored in the information distribution server, and the information content distribution program, when receiving a connection request from the information display program of the user terminal, resides in the information display program and displays on the screen of the user terminal. Information on the predetermined item is added to software having a function of displaying information on the predetermined item, and the information is distributed to the user terminal as an information distribution client program.

[0007] As described above, the information distribution client program for displaying the information content (information related to the predetermined item) distributed to the user terminal is provided from the information distribution server to each user terminal. No client program is required. This eliminates the need to install the dedicated client program on the user terminal, and facilitates distribution and maintenance of the client system. It is effective to attach the headline of the article of the collected information content and the address of the text of the article on the computer network to the information distribution client program as the information on the predetermined item.
(Claim 2) As described above, not all information contents are distributed to each user terminal, but only a headline and an address (URL) on a computer network are distributed. The load can be reduced.

It is desirable that the information providing system is configured as a WWW information providing system. In this case,
The information providing program is configured as a WWW server program, the information display program is configured as a WWW browser program, and the information content collected by the information content collecting program is an HTML document. (Claim 3)
In this manner, information content provided by a general information providing server can be used. This allows
The information provider only needs to create and manage information contents provided from a generally used WWW server.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information providing system showing an embodiment of an information providing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of each section of the information providing system of FIG. The information providing system according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of information providing servers 1, an information distribution server 2 that collects information contents from the information providing servers, edits the collected information contents, and distributes the edited information contents to each user terminal. It has a network 4 and a plurality of user terminals 3 connected to the information distribution server via the computer network 4.
Each information providing server 1 includes an information providing program 11 for controlling the operation of the information providing server to provide information to a user. The information distribution server 2 collects, edits, and accumulates information contents from a plurality of information providing servers via the computer network 4 at a predetermined timing, and stores an information content collection program 21 for controlling the operation of the information distribution server. The operation of the information distribution server is controlled so that the information content database 22 and the stored information content are selected, added to an information distribution client program (hereinafter, referred to as an information distribution client) 311 and distributed to a user terminal. An information content distribution program 23 is provided. The user terminal 3 has an information display program 31 for controlling the operation of the user terminal 3 in order to display the information content acquired from the information distribution server 2.

The information providing system of FIG. 2 operates as follows. FIG. 6 is a communication sequence diagram for explaining a basic operation of the information providing system of FIG. The information content collection program 21 connects to the information provision programs 11 of the plurality of information provision servers 1 at an appropriate timing to collect information contents (process a). The collected information content is edited by the information content collection program 21,
The headline in the information content, an address (hereinafter, referred to as an information providing server address) that specifies the position on the network where the main body information content exists corresponding to the headline, and attributes such as a genre for each headline are included. Information content database 2 extracted and displayed as display data
2 (process b).

When receiving an information content request from the information display program 31 of the user terminal 3, the information content distribution program 23 operating on the information distribution server 2 selects an appropriate heading from the information content database 22 (for example, (For example, selecting an item that matches the hobby) (processing d), and passing the information distribution client 311 including the address list of the information server having the headline and the text thereof to the information display program 31 via the computer network (processing d). c).

The information distribution client (311) has a graphical user interface (hereinafter, GUI) for displaying a headline on a screen of a user terminal. When the information display program (31) receives the information distribution client (311), the information distribution client (311) resides in the information display program 31 and displays a headline. The headline is displayed in an appropriate form, for example, displayed in a telop. When the user wants to see the displayed heading and further wants to see the detailed text of the heading, the user connects to the information providing server having the detailed text using the GUI of the information distribution client 31 (processing). e), obtaining the information content of the relevant text. In this way, the user can see the text.

The information display program 31 connects to the information distribution server 2 at regular timings via the information display program function and acquires the next information distribution client having the latest heading list (process c). can do. The user can always receive the latest headline by activating the acquired information distribution client. In addition, the information distribution client has a function of acquiring and displaying a list of headings related to a certain information content as necessary from the information content distribution program.

Next, an embodiment in the case where WWW generally used on the Internet is used will be described.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of each unit of the embodiment using WWW. The basic configuration of the information providing system of the present embodiment is the same as that of the information providing system of FIG. Therefore,
Corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

The information content collection program 21 connects to the WWW server programs 11 of the plurality of information providing servers 1 at an appropriate timing to collect an HTML document (process a). The collected HTML document is edited by the information content collection program 21, and the headline in the HTML document and the URL of the HTML document of the text corresponding to the headline are provided.
(Address used by the web browser to request information on the web) and attributes such as the genre of information content for each heading are extracted, and the information content database 2
Store in 2.

When the information content distribution program 23 receives a connection request from the WWW browser program (31) of the user terminal (3), it selects an appropriate heading from the information content database (22) (for example, according to the user's hobby). Then, an information distribution client 311 including a list of the headings and the HTML document URL of the text is passed to the user's WWW browser program 31 via the Internet 4 (process c). The information delivery client 311 uses JavaScr
general-purpose W such as ipt, Java, and ActiveX
A small program written in a programming language that can be interpreted by a WW browser program.
It can be executed on a W browser.

The information distribution client (311) received by the WWW browser program (31) resides in the WWW browser program and displays a headline. If the user wants to see the displayed heading and further wants to see the detailed text of the heading, the user can use the GUI of the process of the operating information distribution client 311 to provide the information having the detailed text. Server WWW server program 11
To obtain the HTML document of the corresponding text (process e). In this way, the user can see the desired text.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the functions of one embodiment of the information content collection program 21 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Information content collection program 21 of the present embodiment
Includes an information providing server connection unit 211, analysis units (1 to n) 212 provided corresponding to the information providing server, and an information content storage unit 213. The reason why the analysis unit is provided corresponding to the information providing server is that the format of the information content supplied from the information providing server is not necessarily the same for each information providing server.

The information providing server connection unit 211 connects to a plurality of information providing servers 1 at an appropriate timing, and acquires an HTML document for each information providing server (process a). The acquired HTML document is passed to the analysis unit 212 corresponding to the information providing server that provided the HTML document (processing f), and the H
Articles in the TML document are analyzed. At this time, attributes such as the headline of the article, the URL of the information providing server having the article, and the genre of the article are extracted. The headline, the URL of the information providing server, and the attribute extracted from the HTML document are passed to the information content storage unit 213 (process g).
The information content storage unit 213 stores the passed heading, address, and attribute in the information content database 22 (process b). In addition, the information content storage unit 213 removes old data in the information content database at an appropriate timing.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing functions of an embodiment of an information content distribution program. The information content distribution program according to the present embodiment includes an information content selection unit 2
33, information distribution client generated CGI program 23
2, an information distribution client template 234 and a WWW server program 231 are provided.

The WWW server program (231) receives a connection request from the WWW browser program (31) of the user terminal (3), and generates an information distribution client-generated CG.
An I (Common Gateway Interface, interface with an external application provided in the WWW server) program 232 issues an information distribution client generation request.
Further, upon receiving the information distribution client generated by the information distribution client generation CGI program 232, the WWW server program calls the information distribution client the WWW browser program (3) of the user terminal (3).
Pass to 1).

When the information distribution client generation CGI program 232 receives the information distribution client generation request, it issues an information content selection request to the information content selection unit 233. In addition, the information delivery client generated CGI
The program 232 stores the selected data (heading, UR
When the list of L) is received, an information distribution client is generated by adding the list to the information distribution client template 234 and passed to the WWW server program 231.

Upon receiving the information content selection request, the information content selection section (233) selects appropriate data from the information content database 22 based on the attribute of each data, and selects the selected data (heading and URL).
Is passed to the information distribution client generation CGI program 232.

The information content distribution program shown in FIG.
It works as follows. WWW server program (23
1), upon receiving a connection request from the WWW browser program (31) of the user terminal (3), issues an information distribution client generation request to the information distribution client generation CGI program 232. Information distribution client generated CGI
Upon receiving the information distribution client generation request, the program 232 issues a selection request for information content to the information content selection unit 233. Information content selection unit (233)
Selects appropriate data from the information content database 22 based on the attribute of each data (process d). Here, existing information filtering technology or the like, for example, selecting appropriate data according to the current user's hobby or the like can be used. The list of the selected data (headings and URLs) is passed to the information distribution client generation CGI program 232 (process i). The information distribution client generation CGI program 232 adds the list of the selected data (headings and URLs) to the information distribution client template 234 to generate an information distribution client, and passes it to the WWW server program 231 (h). WW
The W server program transmits the generated information distribution client to the WWW browser program (3) of the user terminal (3).
1) (Process c).

[0025]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. (A) Since not all information contents are distributed to each user terminal but only the headline and URL are distributed, the network load can be reduced as compared with the existing distribution method. (B) By the information content collection program, information content provided by a general information providing server (WWW server) can be used. As a result, the information provider can only create and manage the information content provided by the commonly used WWW server. (C) Since a client program for displaying the distributed information content is provided from the information distribution server to each user terminal, a dedicated client program becomes unnecessary, and installation of the dedicated client program conventionally performed on the user terminal is eliminated. You can save time and effort. Also,
Distribution and maintenance of client systems are facilitated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information providing system showing an embodiment of an information providing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of each unit of the information providing system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of each unit of an embodiment using WWW.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating functions of an embodiment of the information content collection program of FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing functions of an embodiment of an information content distribution program.

FIG. 6 is an information providing server of the information providing system of the present invention;
It is a sequence diagram of communication between an information distribution server and a user terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information provision server 2 Information distribution server 3 User terminal 4 Computer network 11 Information provision server 21 Information contents collection program 22 Information contents database 23 Information contents distribution program 31 Information display program (WWW browser program) 211 Information connection server connection part 212 Analysis Unit 213 information content storage unit 231 WWW server program 232 information distribution client generation CGI program 233 information content selection unit 234 information distribution client template 311 information distribution client

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme coat II (Reference) H04L 12/54 H04L 11/20 101B 12/58 F term (Reference) 5B075 KK07 ND03 NK02 NK10 PP22 PQ02 PQ32 PQ40 UU40 5B082 AA00 BA00 EA07 GC02 GC03 GC04 HA06 HA08 5B089 AA03 AA16 AA22 AD02 AE01 AE03 AF02 AF03 BB06 CB02 CF02 5K030 GA17 HA06 HB19 HC01 KA07

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A computer network, comprising: a plurality of information providing servers; an information distribution server that collects information contents from the information providing servers, edits the collected information contents, and distributes the information contents to each user terminal; A plurality of user terminals connected to the information distribution server via the information distribution server, wherein each information provision server includes an information provision program for controlling operation of the information provision server to provide information to the user; An information content collection program for controlling the operation of the information distribution server for collecting, editing, and storing information content from the plurality of information providing servers via a computer network; and an information content for storing the collected information content. Select database and stored information contents And an information content distribution program for controlling the operation of the information distribution server for distributing the information at the end. The user terminal is adapted to display the information content acquired from the information distribution server. An information providing system, comprising: an information display program that controls an operation of the information providing system, wherein the information content collecting program connects to the information providing server at a predetermined timing to collect information content, and displays information on a predetermined item of the collected information content. Extracting and storing the information in the information content database, the information content distribution program, when receiving a connection request from the information display program of the user terminal, resides in the information display program and displays the information on the screen of the user terminal. A software having a function of displaying information on a predetermined item By adding information about the predetermined item in software, the information providing system characterized in that to distribute to the user terminal as the information delivery client program. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information on the predetermined item is an address on the computer network of a headline of an article of the collected information content and a text of the article. 3. The information providing system is a WWW information providing system, wherein the information providing program is a WWW server program, the information display program is a WWW browser program, and the information content collected by the information content collecting program is The system of claim 1, wherein the system is an HTML document. 4. The information content collection program according to claim 1,
An information providing server connecting section, an analyzing section provided corresponding to each information providing server, and an information content storage section, wherein the information providing server connecting section is connected to a plurality of information providing servers at a predetermined timing to provide an information providing server; The information unit is acquired every time, and the analysis unit analyzes the information content articles from the corresponding information providing server acquired by the information providing server connection unit, and analyzes the headings of those articles and the articles corresponding to the headings. , The address on the computer network, and the attribute of the article are extracted. The information content storage unit stores the extracted heading, address, and attribute in the information content database. 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein data is removed at a predetermined timing. 5. The information content distribution program according to claim 1,
Information content selection unit, information distribution client generated CG
An I distribution program, an information distribution client template, and a WWW server program. The WWW server program receives a connection request from a WWW browser program of a user terminal, sends an information distribution client generation request to an information distribution client generation CGI program, and distributes the information. Upon receiving the information delivery client program generated by the client-generated CGI program, the information delivery client program is passed to the WWW browser program of the user terminal, and the information delivery client template stores a template in the format of the information delivery client program. Upon receiving the information distribution client generation request, the distribution client generation CGI program sends an information content selection request to the information content selection unit. When the CGI program receives the selected data, it generates an information distribution client program by adding it to the template of the information distribution client program and passes it to the WWW server program, and the information content selection unit receives the information content selection request 4. The system according to claim 3, wherein desired data is selected from the information content database based on an attribute of each data, and the selected data is passed to the information distribution client-generated CGI program. 6. A plurality of information providing servers for providing information to a user, collecting, editing, and storing information contents from the information providing server, and further selecting the stored information contents to a user terminal. An information distribution server to distribute,
A computer network, having a plurality of user terminals connected to the information distribution server via the computer network, the user terminals, respectively, to display the information content obtained from the information distribution server,
An information providing method in an information providing system having an information display program for controlling operation of the user terminal, wherein the information distribution server is connected to the information providing server at a predetermined timing to collect information content, and Information about a predetermined item of information content is extracted and stored in the information distribution server. When a user terminal makes a connection request, the user terminal resides in the information display program and displays the information regarding the predetermined item on a screen of the user terminal. An information providing method, wherein information relating to the predetermined item is added to software having a function of displaying information, and the information is distributed from the information content distribution server to a user terminal as an information distribution client program. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the information on the predetermined item is an address on the computer network of a headline of the article of the collected information content and a body of the article. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein when the user looks at the headline displayed by the information distribution client program and tries to acquire the body of the headline, the method accesses the address of the body. 9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the user periodically acquires an information distribution client program having a heading and an address extracted from the information content newly collected by the information distribution server from the information distribution server.