JP2001076040A - Electronic dealing method using internet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a customer to conduct electronic dealings similar to catalog shopping and to enable a company to sell and advertise articles timely, and deliver the latest catalog (homepage) to customers with minimum alterations, even with respect to alterations or addition. SOLUTION: Electronic mail addresses of users are registered in a list 47 and homepage groups 31 to 33 of catalogs are downloaded, first together to a hard disk 30 of a customer-side personal computer 1. Then when a homepage group is altered (updated, added, or deleted), a compay- or provider-side personal computer 2 delivers an altering program 44 (28) and an altered homepage 45 (29) combined together to the customer-side personal computer 1. Consequently, the altering program 28 alters the updated homepage 34 and links the added homepage group 35 to the initial homepage 31.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic commerce using the Internet (hereinafter abbreviated as EC: Electronic Commerce). In particular, a company performs timely sales of goods, advertisements, etc. through the Internet, and provides customers with the latest information. The present invention relates to an electronic transaction method on the Internet where a catalog can be delivered on a homepage and a customer can perform a catalog shopping at a low price and conduct an electronic transaction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the use of the personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as "PC"), which has become widespread at home, has been relayed to a specific Internet connection company (hereinafter referred to as a "provider") through a public line such as a telephone. Internet surfing, which makes it easier to view homepages created by companies and the like, is becoming widespread. Some of these homepages have companies posting their products for the purpose of buying and selling products, and customers who see them through the Internet (hereinafter abbreviated as customers) also purchase these products through the Internet ( Or ordering), EC is spreading.

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a conventional EC using the Internet. In FIG. 3, 1 is a customer side P
C, 51, 53 and 55 are downloaded homepage contents, 52, 54 and 56 are browser programs, 2 is a company / provider-side PC, 61 and 6
2 is the homepage accessed first, 62, 64,
Reference numeral 65 denotes a home page which is linked and sequentially moved. Note that solid arrows indicate links, and broken arrows indicate downloads. The customer accesses the homepages 61 to 65 on which products created by the company are posted one after another in a manner similar to a normal catalog shopping. This is because each of the home pages 61 to 65 has a relationship called a link, and can be moved between the home pages by a simple operation (such as clicking with a mouse). In this case, the dedicated files constituting the home pages 62, 64, 65 are transferred from the provider side 2 via a public line or the like, and the programs 52, 54, 56, which are called browsers on the customer side, are provided.
Reads and displays the dedicated file. At this time, except when the file is transferred, the customer enters the homepage 61,
While browsing 64 and 65, respectively, the public lines and the like between the customer side 1 and the provider side 2 remain connected. Therefore, the communication fee is charged for the time indicated by the thick arrow. Also, from the customer side 1 to the homepage 6
Access to 1-65 is also a normal catalog
There are windows and shopping-like aspects such as shopping, and occasions when access is needed again.

[0004] In order to improve the sales profit of a product, a company adds new products, updates / deletes existing products, or sells products for a limited time, etc., to provide homepages 61 to 6.
5. Add, update, delete, etc. As another situation, with the recent development and spread of PCs, the capacity and cost of hard disks (hereinafter abbreviated as HD) for connecting to PCs and storing information have been increasing. I have. Recently, there is also a page where the homepage provider 2 downloads the HTML file constituting the homepage of the homepage collectively to the HD of the personal computer of the user 1. This allows the user to browse the homepage read from the HD in the personal computer, except for connecting to the Internet during downloading, so that no connection to the Internet is required. Also, as one function of the browsers 52, 54, 56 for browsing the homepage on the Internet, for the homepage specified by the user, all the files constituting the homepage are downloaded to the HD in the personal computer and the page is updated. By checking the file update date, for example, on a daily basis, if a file has been updated, a new file is automatically imported to the HD in the personal computer, and at the same time the user is notified that the file has been updated. A function of notifying by e-mail or the like also exists as a known technique.

[0005] As the above-mentioned well-known function, the Internet Explorer provides offline display, that is, a function called "subscription" or a channel folder in a "favorite" list when "channel" is used. There is a search function. In the first case, if new content has been added, either indicate to the user that the page has been updated, or automatically download the updated content to the user's hard disk be able to. For example, at night or PC
If you set it to download automatically when you are not operating, you can display the page when you are free. This setting is referred to as “subscribing to a website”. The period for updating the contents of the Web site can be arbitrarily set, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or the like.
Another way to subscribe to websites is to use "Channels"
There is. This is a Web site in which the updated content is automatically reflected on the user's PC according to the schedule specified by the content provider. On the other hand, if the Web page can be used offline, the contents of the page can be viewed even when the PC is not connected to the Internet. For example, when not connected to a network or the Internet, a Web page can be displayed on a PC,
It is also possible to specify a usable range, such as specifying only one page or including all link destinations.

[0006]

Generally, in order for a customer to use the Internet and carry out EC and the like, it is necessary to connect the customer's PC and a provider with a public line or the like. At this time, if the customer accesses the homepage one after another, the time for browsing the homepage may be longer than the time for transferring the dedicated file for displaying the homepage. The browsing time of this homepage is
Unnecessary public line connection time can be said to be wasted time, which is a load on the customer (a fee for using the public line or the like). For example, in the case of FIG. 3, the time for actually using the public line is obtained by excluding the time for the user to browse the screens displayed by the browser programs 52, 54 and 56 from the public line connection time indicated by the bold line on the right. Despite only the time (that is, the time for downloading), since the connection is continuously connected to the public line during the period from connection to disconnection, the use efficiency of the line decreases and the connection fee increases. Has been invited. This problem can be solved by batch downloading the files that make up the homepage to the HD in the customer's personal computer, but the customer's desire to always view the latest homepage and the desire to provide the latest page In order to meet the demands of the company, it is necessary to access the server computer that provides the home page on a condition set by the user as described above, for example, on a daily basis, and check the file update date and time. In this case, a connection (= connection fee) with the server computer also occurs. This is a problem in that a connection fee is incurred if a connection is made regardless of whether or not the page is updated, so that a homepage that is not updated frequently places a heavy burden on a customer.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve these conventional problems, so that customers can perform normal catalog shopping with a small communication fee, and companies can always sell and sell new products in a timely manner. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic trading method on the Internet that can realize useful EC for customers and companies.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, in the electronic transaction method on the Internet according to the present invention, home page data on a server computer is
In a WWW system for browsing on a client computer connected to the server computer via a network such as the Internet, a step of inputting the user's e-mail address when downloading the homepage data to the client computer according to a user's specification Registering the input e-mail address as a list on a server computer; and when the homepage data is updated, an updated file is stored for the registered e-mail address, And distributing together with a change program for updating homepage data constructed by download on the hard disk of the client computer. In this way, by registering the customer's own e-mail address with the homepage provider, for example, a company that provides online shopping, the customer can always obtain the latest information and replace it. Also, the latest product information can be transmitted to customers in a timely manner.

[0009] The downloaded home page data is data that prompts the user to make an electronic transaction. When an object for confirming the intention to make an electronic transaction on the browsing screen is instructed by the user through a pointing device or the like, the above-mentioned data is downloaded. There is further provided the step of initiating a connection to the server computer. By doing this,
For example, in online shopping, customers can browse products many times on the homepage without worrying about connection time, and after finding a product they like,
There is no need to reconnect to the corresponding page on the server computer. That is, the connection with the server computer is started only by a normal homepage operation such as clicking a “purchase product” button on the browsing screen.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic transaction method on the Internet according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a customer-side PC, 14 is an HD, 15 to 19, 19
a is all downloaded homepages, 11-1
3 is a browser, 2 is a company / provider PC
And 20 is the homepage accessed first, 21,
Reference numeral 22 denotes a sequentially moved home page. Product catalogs are posted on these homepages 20 to 22 and are sold by EC. Customer PC1
Is the entire homepage group of the company / provider side 2,
Alternatively, select the field where the HD is connected to your PC1.
14 download. The public line connection time at this time is equivalent to the case where the download target of the homepage group on the company / provider side 2 is sequentially browsed (the time indicated by the bold arrow in the upper left). Therefore, the customer is not burdened with useless public line usage fees. Next, the customer
The homepage groups 15 to 19 and 19a downloaded to the HD 14 connected to the own PC 1 are browsed by the browsers 11 to 13. In this case, there is no need to pay public line usage fees. Further, the customer can repeatedly use the homepage groups 15 to 19 and 19a once downloaded to the HD 14 as long as they are not deleted. As a result, the customer can select a product without worrying about time and when and when necessary, as in ordinary catalog shopping.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a processing procedure when a company changes (adds, updates, or deletes) a homepage in the present invention. In FIG. 2, 1 is a PC on the customer side.
25 is a user registration request program, 26 is an e-mail receiving program, 27 is a memory in the PC 1, 28 is a downloaded changing program, 29 is a group of changed home pages, 30 is an HD connected to the PC, 31 to 31 3
3 is a group of homepages downloaded from the company / provider side to the HD, 34 is a homepage with updated contents being downloaded and constructed, 35 is a group of newly added homepages, and 2 is a group of homepages added to the company / provider. PC, 41 is a user list creation program, 4
2 is an e-mail sending program, 43 is a memory in the PC 2, 44 is a change program, 45 is a group of changed home pages, 46 is a previous user e-mail address list,
Reference numeral 47 denotes an updated latest user electronic mail address list.

First, when the customer PC 1 downloads the homepage groups 31 to 33 of the company / provider 2, the customer PC 1 performs user registration including the customer e-mail address. save. That is, the user registration program 25 of the customer 1 is started, and data describing the customer's user name and e-mail address is sent to the company / provider 2. On the company / provider side 2, the user name (BBBB) of the customer who has just received is stored in the corresponding column of the content of the immediately preceding list 46.
And an e-mail address (bb@bbb.com) and other data are registered, and the latest list 47 is created.
Next, when the company side 2 changes (adds / updates / deletes) the home pages 31 to 33, the changed home page group 45 and the changed home page group 45 are connected to the customer PC 1.
The combined information of the program 44 having a change function for the homepage groups 31 to 33 (hereinafter referred to as a change program) constructed on the D30 is added to all the e-mail addresses of the stored customer list 47. Deliver to That is, by executing the electronic mail transmission program 42, the change program 44 and the change homepage 45 are read from the memory 43 and transmitted to the customer side 1.

The customer side 1 has an electronic mail receiving program 2
E-mail sent from the company side 2 by executing step 6 (change homepage group 45 + change program 44)
Is received and stored in the memory 27 of the customer-side PC 1 as a changed homepage group 29 + change program 28. next,
The change program 44 stored in the memory 27 is read, the change program 44 is started, and the homepage groups 31 to 3 constructed on the HD 30 connected to the customer PC 1 are read.
3 to be updated. That is, in the case of FIG. 2, the home page 34 linked below the home page 31 and a series of subsequent home pages are updated, for example, to the contents shown on the right side of the figure. Here, a picture of the model-changed car, its product name and model name are displayed, and a “buy” button is arranged below the picture. Further, a new homepage group 35 linked to the homepage 31 is additionally displayed. The updated homepage 34 and the added homepage group 35
All of them are included in the transmitted change homepage 29. When the customer's PC 1 receives the change homepage 29 and the change program 28 as e-mails, the server PC (that is, the company / provider P)
Since it is only necessary to connect to C2), processes such as checking the update date of the file group on the server computer do not occur regularly as in the related art. Since the connection fee only needs to be for the time to receive the e-mail, the connection fee is extremely low.

In the change program 28, since the link relationship between the homepage groups 31 to 33 is equivalent to the structure of a folder (directory) + file in a normal HD, a simple folder (directory) + addition of a file is added. -It has updates / deletions and can be easily realized.
The homepages 31 to 33, 3 shown in this embodiment
In the case where 4, 35 is, for example, an online shopping page, the customer first browses the homepages 31 to 33 taken into the PC 1 on the browser, and if there is a product to be purchased, the customer sees the page. Then, for example, a "purchase" button is clicked with a pointing device such as a mouse. When the user clicks the "purchase" button, the system is configured to be connected to the server 2 providing the home page for the first time, so that the customer usually clicks the "purchase" button on the browsing screen, for example. The connection with the server computer 2 is started only by the operation of the homepage, and there is no need to reconnect to the corresponding page of the server computer 2.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Customers can conduct electronic transactions in the form of regular catalog shopping, and companies can sell and advertise products in a timely manner without waiting for customers to visit the store (that is, access on the Internet), In addition, for products that have not changed, there is no need to print repeatedly like a book catalog. For products that have been changed or added, the latest catalog (that is, homepage) can be provided to customers with minimal changes. Can be delivered.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an electronic transaction on the Internet showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic operation explanatory view of a homepage update function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing a conventional electronic transaction on the Internet.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Customer side personal computer, 2 ... Company / provider side personal computer, 11-13 ... Browser program, 14 ... Hard disk, 15-19, 1
9a ... group of homepages downloaded collectively, 20 ...
Homepage accessed first, 22-22 ... linked homepage, 25 ... user registration program,
26 ... E-mail incoming program, 27 ... Memory in PC1, 28 ... Change program, 29 ... Change homepage, 30 ... Hard disk, 31-33 ... Downloaded homepage group, 34 ... Updated homepage, 35 ... Added Homepage, 41: User list creation program, 42: E-mail transmission program,
43: memory in PC2, 44: change program, 45
... Change homepage, 46... A list in which the previous e-mail address is registered, 47.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a WWW system for browsing homepage data on a server computer with a client computer connected to the server computer via a network such as the Internet, the homepage data is downloaded to the client computer according to a user's designation. At the time of inputting the user's e-mail address for registration, registering the input e-mail address on the server computer as a list, and when the homepage data is updated, The file updated for the updated e-mail address and the homepage data already constructed by downloading on the hard disk of the client computer are changed to the updated file. And delivering the program together with the program. 2. The electronic transaction method on the Internet according to claim 1, wherein the downloaded home page data is data for prompting a user to perform an electronic transaction, and confirms a will to perform the electronic transaction on a browsing screen. An electronic transaction method on the Internet, further comprising a step of starting a connection to the server computer when an object is instructed by a user using a pointing device or the like.