JP2001155021A - Information retrieval device and method, and record medium recorded with program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently retrieve electronic information, in which a comment on a designated theme is inserted, from a lot of electronic information (Web pages). SOLUTION: This information retrieval device is provided with an information acquiring means 12 for acquiring plural kinds of electronic information (Web pages), an electronic information extracting means 15 for extracting electronic information, which includes a comment expression in contents, out of respective kinds of electronic information acquired by this information acquiring means, a similarity calculating means 18 for calculating similarity showing the number of generated designated themes or importance of generation in each of electronic information, which includes the comment expression, extracted by this electronic information extracting means, and a retrieved result editing means 19 for editing the theme and electronic information specification information (address) for specifying the electronic information of high similarity to the relevant theme as the retrieved result to be outputted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information retrieval technique for retrieving electronic information relating to a theme designated by a user from an enormous amount of electronic information and providing the retrieved information to the user. The present invention relates to an information search device for searching electronic information, an information search method, and a storage medium storing a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the spread of word processors and electronic computers, and the spread of Web pages, electronic mails, and electronic news via computer networks such as the Internet, the digitization of documents has been accelerated. As the word "Denyo Publishing" implies, it is expected that information on newspapers, magazines, and books will be provided electronically in the future.

[0003] As a result, the amount of electronic information such as the Web pages, electronic mails, electronic news, electronic publications, and the like that can be obtained in real time by individuals is expected to become enormous. Along with this, a search service for selecting and providing the user with a user's request / interest from a vast amount of electronic information such as Web pages, newspapers, magazines, etc., and information for periodically providing the user with the search results Kasumi, such as filtering services, is increasing.
Hereinafter, in this specification, the term information search is used in a sense that also includes an information filter.

Until now, an information filtering system for text articles has already been developed, and there is an example in which a service using the system is provided (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-53392).

[0005] In this system, distribution of an article that occurred on the day is received from a plurality of news sources, and only a text article that meets a search condition specified in advance by a user is transmitted to the user. The search condition is a search condition for searching for each piece of electronic information using the theme as a keyword when the user desires to obtain electronic information described for a specific theme.

[0006] Then, a similarity between the search condition and the distributed electronic information indicating how much the search condition matches the search condition is calculated. Specifically, the similarity indicates, for example, the number of occurrences of the above-described theme or the importance of the occurrence. Then, the similarity is obtained, the electronic information having the highest similarity is sorted, and only the electronic information having the high similarity is provided to the user.

[0007]

However, the above-mentioned system still has the following problems to be solved.

That is, as described above, in the above-described system, it is possible to provide the relevant user with electronic information related to the theme specified by the user. However, it has not been possible to extract and provide only electronic information describing criticism such as evaluation or criticism on the subject to the user.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and reliably searches only electronic information in which criticism about a subject is described from electronic information in which information on a theme designated by a user is described. An object of the present invention is to provide an information search device, an information search method, and a storage medium that stores a program that can be used.

[0010] Further, an information retrieval apparatus capable of more accurately and quantitatively grasping public criticism of the subject by searching for electronic information describing that the criticism of the subject should be referred to. And an information search method, and a storage medium storing a program.

[0011]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information retrieval apparatus, comprising: an information acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of pieces of electronic information; Electronic information extracting means for extracting electronic information including a critical expression in the content of each electronic information, and the number of occurrences and occurrences of a specified theme in each electronic information including the critical expression extracted by the electronic information extracting means; A similarity calculation unit configured to calculate similarity indicating importance; and a search result editing unit configured to edit, as a search result to be output, electronic information specifying information that specifies a theme and electronic information having a high similarity to the subject. I have.

[0012] In the information retrieval apparatus thus configured, electronic information including a critique expression in its content is extracted from each electronic information obtained by the information obtaining means, and the extracted electronic information is included in each of the extracted electronic information. Thus, for example, electronic information having a high degree of similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of the theme specified by the user of the device is edited and output together with the theme.

Therefore, as a user of this device,
It is possible to reliably grasp the criticism of the theme designated by the user and the name and address of the electronic information on which the criticism is posted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the information acquiring means in the information retrieval apparatus according to the above-mentioned invention periodically reads the contents of a plurality of electronic information to be monitored which are designated in advance, and the contents are stored in the previous period. Only when the content is different from the content read in step (1), the corresponding electronic information is sent to the electronic information extracting means as acquired electronic information.

In the information retrieval apparatus thus configured, electronic information that frequently criticizes various themes is selected in advance, and the contents of the selected plurality of electronic information are periodically read. The above-described processing is performed only on the electronic information whose contents have been updated.

Therefore, it is possible to more efficiently search for electronic information in which criticisms about the theme specified by the user are described.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information retrieval apparatus of the above-mentioned invention, a reference electronic information search means for searching for reference electronic information having a content indicating that electronic information having a high degree of similarity should be referenced. Is added.

That is, the description content of the electronic information often describes the name or address of the electronic information to be referred to. As described above, more attention is paid to the electronic information that is described to be referred to other electronic information than the self.

For example, when evaluating the repercussions of a new product that has begun to be sold, in addition to the electronic information that directly criticizes the new product (theme), “the criticism of this new product is included in the electronic information of xxx”. There is electronic information described as:

Therefore, to grasp the electronic information describing that the electronic information that criticizes this theme should be referred to, that is, to know the name or address of the reference electronic information and the number of the reference electronic information, it is necessary to have a public response to the theme specified by the user. Is important in obtaining high accuracy.

Therefore, in the present invention, the criticism of the subject can be grasped more accurately and quantitatively by searching the above-mentioned reference electronic information.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the search result editing means of the information search apparatus of the above invention adds the reference electronic information searched by the reference electronic information search means to the search result to be output.

In the information retrieval apparatus configured as described above, electronic information specifying information such as a name and an address for specifying a theme specified by a user and electronic information that criticized the theme, and a name and an address for specifying reference electronic information. And so on are edited as one set, which makes it very easy for the user to see.

[0024] In the information retrieval apparatus according to claim 5 of the present invention, an information acquiring means for acquiring a plurality of electronic information,
The similarity calculating means for calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of the designated theme in each electronic information acquired by the information acquiring means, and that the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to Reference electronic information search means for searching for reference electronic information having contents, and a search result for editing, as search results to be output, electronic information specifying information for specifying a theme and electronic information having a high degree of similarity to the subject and reference electronic information Editing means.

In the information retrieval apparatus configured as described above, it is possible to quantitatively grasp the electronic information and the reference electronic information picked up for the theme, irrespective of the criticism of the theme specified by the user.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information retrieval method comprising: acquiring a plurality of electronic information; extracting electronic information including a critique expression in the content of the acquired electronic information; Calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of the designated theme in each electronic information including the criticism expression, and outputting the electronic information specifying information identifying the theme and the electronic information having a high similarity to the theme; Editing as a search result to be performed.

The information retrieval method thus configured can provide substantially the same operation and effect as the information retrieval device of the first aspect.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of electronic information in the above information search method includes periodically reading the contents of a plurality of pieces of electronic information to be monitored which are designated in advance. Only when the content is different from the content read in the previous cycle, the corresponding electronic information is sent to the step of extracting the electronic information as the acquired electronic information.

In the information retrieval method thus configured, it is possible to achieve substantially the same operation and effect as the above-described information retrieval apparatus of the second aspect.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, after the step of calculating the similarity in the above-described information search method, a step of searching for reference electronic information having a content stating that electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to Is added.

According to the information retrieval method having the above-described configuration, it is possible to obtain substantially the same operation and effect as the information retrieval apparatus according to the third aspect.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is a storage medium storing a program incorporated in an information search device. The program provides the computer with a step of acquiring a plurality of electronic information, a step of extracting electronic information including a critical expression in the content of the acquired electronic information, and a step of extracting the extracted critical expression. Calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of the specified theme in each piece of electronic information including, and outputting electronic information specifying information for specifying the theme and electronic information having a high degree of similarity to the theme. Editing as search results.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the storage medium storing the program, the step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of electronic information in the storage medium storing the above-described program comprises:
The contents of a plurality of pieces of electronic information to be monitored which are specified in advance are periodically read, and only when the contents are different from the contents read in the previous cycle, the electronic information is extracted as the obtained electronic information. To the step to be performed.

Further, the storage medium storing the program according to claim 11 is a storage medium storing the above-mentioned program, in which after the step of calculating the similarity, the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to. The step of searching for reference electronic information having the following is added.

By using the storage medium storing the program configured as described above, for example, a general-purpose personal computer can be simply made an information search device having the above-described functions.

[0036]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information search device to which an information search method according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a software configuration of the information search device of the first embodiment. FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information retrieval apparatus according to the first embodiment controls execution of various application programs (including various programs for performing search processing) including an operating system (OS) and utilities. CPUI, a storage device 3 for storing application programs and various data connected to the CPUI via a system bus 2, and a number of Web sites (Web sites) via a communication network 4.
A line input / output device 5 for reading various electronic information (Web pages) from a server).

In the software configuration diagram of the information search apparatus of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a control unit 1 for controlling the operation of each unit
1 to a large number of Web sites via the communication network 4
An information acquisition unit 12, a format analysis unit 13, and a critical expression extraction unit 15 as an electronic information extraction unit having a critical expression dictionary 14, which takes in various electronic information (Web pages) from a site (Web server). Each electronic information (Web page) using the stored theme search expression 17
A similarity calculating unit 18 for calculating the similarity of the search result, a search result editing unit 19, and an output unit 20 for transmitting the edited search result to, for example, a user or displaying the edited result on a display unit are connected.

Next, the operation of each of the units 12 to 20 will be described.

The information acquisition section 12 randomly or in accordance with a predetermined system according to homepage search software built in the information acquisition section 12, via the communication network 4 to each Web site (WWW)
A page (Web page) in which an HTML document as electronic information is described is sequentially fetched from an (e.g., web server) and sent to the control unit 11.

The format analysis unit 13 performs the HTM
The information of the corresponding page is converted into a document having a normal internal structure based on each tag added to the data of the document in the L format. HTML is a subset of SGML, and generally defines a logical structure by a start tag and an end tag.

For example, in HTML, the start tag <TIT
LE> and an end tag </ TITLE> are the evening title, and a start tag <UL> and an end tag <
/ UL> is defined as an itemized list. There are also tags that may omit the end tag, such as <P> that specifies a paragraph and <LI> that expresses each item in a bulleted list. Regarding these tags, it is considered that an end tag exists when the same start tag appears.

The format analysis unit 13 scans the character string of the input page to detect an HTML start tag.
Then, by detecting an end tag corresponding to the start evening, information corresponding to each tag is extracted.

The process of the critical expression extracting unit 15 as the electronic information extracting means uses the critical expression dictionary 14. As shown in FIG. 3, a number of criticism expressions (words) such as criticism and evaluation are registered in the criticism expression dictionary 14.

The processing procedure of the critical expression extracting unit 13 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When one page is input from the control unit 11 (step A1), the corresponding page is searched by each expression (word) registered in the critical expression dictionary 14 (A2). Then, it is determined whether there is a critical expression (A
3). The result of the presence / absence determination is returned to the control unit 11.

Next, the processing of the similarity calculating section 18 will be described. The search target theme memory 16 stores themes to be examined for criticism of consumers and the public specified by the user of the information search device and the search requester. For example, the theme includes an industry name, a product genre name, a product name, a service name, a company name, a president name, an executive name, and the like.

Then, one or a plurality of themes specified by the user from the search target theme memory 16 are incorporated into each search formula 17.

Then, the similarity calculation unit 18 searches each page input from the control unit 11 for each search expression 17
The number of occurrences of the theme and the similarity indicating the importance of occurrence are calculated and returned to the control unit 11. Specifically, for example, search expression 1
The search condition including the theme stored in 7 and the page to be processed are respectively expressed as word frequency vectors,
A conventionally known calculation method, such as obtaining a degree of similarity by taking an inner product between these vectors, is used.

Next, the editing processing operation of the search result editing unit 19 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When each page with similarity is input from the control unit 11, the pages are sorted in order of similarity (B1). Next, the headings of each page are edited in a bulleted format in the order of the sorting results (B2). Further, an abstract is generated from the sentence (text) on the ground of the page and edited (B3). The generation of the summary may be a simple process of extracting several sentences from the front of the page, for example. Finally, the editing result is returned to the control unit 11 (B4).

The output unit 20 sends the edited search result to the user by e-mail or displays it on a display unit in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 11. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing search results displayed and output on the display. FIG. 6 is a table of contents of the search result. When a theme such as “Company A”, “OO product”, or “ΔΔ service” displayed on the table of contents is selected with a mouse, the search result shown in FIG. 7 is displayed. You.

FIG. 7 shows an example in which the theme 21 of "notebook personal computer NI" is selected. As shown in the figure, a theme 21 and a heading 22 of each searched page are displayed.
, An address 23 for specifying a page, and a summary 24 of the text
Is displayed.

In this embodiment, since it is assumed that an HTML browser is used to display the display screen of the display device, the search result is output in the HTML format. This is to ensure consistency with the document format when accessing the original of the document retrieved by the retrieval process. Therefore, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the HTML browser, and it is very easy to transform the data so that the data is converted into data in a format that can be captured by a special browser.

Next, the processing operation of the control unit 11 for controlling the above-described units 12 to 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the information acquisition unit 12 is accessed (C1), and a page (We) as one piece of electronic information is
When page (b) is input (C2), this page (We)
b) is sent to the format analysis unit 13 and converted into a normal document page (C3), and then sent to the critical expression extraction unit 15 (C4). If there is no critique expression in the corresponding page (C5), this page is discarded, the process returns to C1, and the acquisition of the next page is started.

If a critique expression exists on the page, (C
5), and sends this page to the similarity calculating section 18 (C
6) Obtain similarity. Then, the corresponding page and the similarity are stored and held (C7).

At C2, when the critical expression non-judgment process for all the pages to be acquired and the similarity calculation process for the page including the critical expression are completed, the search result editing unit 19 retrieves all the stored pages and similarities. To (C
8). Then, the edited search result is sent to the output unit 20 (C9).

In the information retrieval apparatus of the first embodiment configured as described above, of the pages acquired by the information acquisition unit 12, only the page containing the critical expression in its content is extracted by the critical expression extraction unit 15. You. Then, from among the extracted pages, the similarity calculating unit 18 determines, for example, an industry name, a product genre name, a product name, a service name, a company name, and a president, which are designated by a user of the information search device or a research client. The similarity indicating the number of occurrences of themes such as names, officer names, and the likelihood of occurrence is calculated.

Then, in the search result editing section 19, the page having the high similarity is edited together with the corresponding theme and output to the output section 20.
Are output as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, for example.

Therefore, the user of the information retrieval apparatus and the research requester can surely understand the criticism of the theme specified by the user and the name and address of the page on which the criticism is placed.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information retrieval apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The same parts as those of the information search apparatus of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description of the overlapping parts will be omitted. In the information search device of the second embodiment,
The information acquisition unit 12 of the information search device according to the first embodiment is replaced with a new information acquisition unit 12a illustrated. Other configurations are almost the same as those of the information search device of the first embodiment.

The information acquisition unit 12a of the information retrieval apparatus according to the second embodiment stores a page (Web page) from each Web site designated via the communication network 4.
Access unit 25 for acquiring the information, monitoring page list 2
6, an update determination unit 27, and a previous page memory 28 are provided.

As shown in FIG. 10, in the monitoring page list 26, each address (Web site) of a page on which criticism is relatively frequently posted for each theme stored in the search target theme memory 16 is stored. Have been. For example, B
There are BS sites, chat sites, specific personal homepage sites, form sites, and the like. There are also network news (USENET), mail magazines, forums, and the like.

The contents (text data) of one page of each address stored in the monitoring page list 26 are stored in the previous page memory 28. The update determination unit 27 determines whether the content of the page acquired in the current cycle is different from the content of the page acquired in the previous cycle.

The information acquiring unit 12a having such a configuration performs a page acquiring process in accordance with the flowchart of FIG. 11 at regular intervals such as 24 hours a day. Alternatively, if there is an unaccessed address in the monitoring page list 26, which can be obtained immediately before executing the search processing (D1),
The homepage of the address not accessed is accessed from the monitoring page list 26, and the corresponding page is acquired (D2). Then, the acquired contents of the current page are compared with the contents of the previous page at the same address one cycle before stored in the previous page memory 28 (D3). If the content of the previous page has been updated (D4), the current page is transmitted to the control unit 11 (D5), and the content of the previous page in the previous page memory 28 is updated to the content of the current page (D4). D6). Then, the process returns to D1, and access to an unaccessed address in the monitoring page list 26 is started. If it has not been updated in D4, the process returns to D1 without doing anything, and access to an unaccessed address in the monitoring page list 26 is started.

Then, at D1, the monitoring page list 26
When there are no unaccessed addresses, the control unit 11 returns to the control unit 11 that all accesses for the current cycle have been completed (D7).

As described above, the information acquisition unit 12a accesses each address registered in the monitoring page list 26 at a constant cycle, and transmits only the changed (updated) page to the control unit 11.

The processing operation of the control unit 11 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, a start command is sent to the information acquisition unit 12a (E1). When one page is input from the information acquisition unit 12a (E2), this page is sent to the format analysis unit 13 and becomes a page of a normal document. After conversion (E
3), and send it to the critical expression extraction unit 15 (E4). If there is no critical expression on the page (E5), the page is discarded, the process returns to E2, and the input of the next page is awaited.

If a critique expression exists on the corresponding page (E
5) Then, this page is sent to the similarity calculation unit 18 (E
6) Obtain similarity. Then, the corresponding page and the similarity are stored and held (E7).

At E8, when a page access end notification in this cycle is input from the information acquisition unit 12a, all the stored pages and the similarity are sent to the search result editing unit 19 (E9). Then, the edited search result is sent to the output unit 20 (E10).

In the information retrieval apparatus of the second embodiment configured as described above, the address of a Web site (home page) that frequently criticizes each theme specified by the user is selected in advance, and this selection is performed. The contents of the plurality of pages thus read are periodically read, and only the pages whose contents have been updated are subjected to the critical expression extraction processing and the similarity calculation processing. Therefore, it is possible to more efficiently search for a page in which criticism of the theme specified by the user is described. In addition, it becomes possible to monitor.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information retrieval apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention. The same portions as those of the information search device of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 9 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description of the overlapping portions will be omitted.

In the information search device of the third embodiment, the search result editing unit 19 of the information search device of the second embodiment
Is replaced by a new search result editing unit 19a shown in the figure, and a reference page (reference electronic information) search unit 29 is connected to the search result editing unit 19a.
0 and a reference page database creation unit 31 are provided. Other configurations are almost the same as those of the information search device of the second embodiment shown in FIG.

In the reference page database 30, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, for example, an address specifying each page acquired by the information acquiring unit 12a and an address described (quoted) to be referred to in the text of the page of the corresponding address are stored. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the relationship between the “page address” and the “address quoted in the page” in one page.

For example, the second “def.ne.jp/def.html”
Page with the address `` ccc.co.jp/xxx/pc.h
two addresses of tml "and" abc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pcn1.html "indicating that have been described (reference) is.

The registration of the “page address” and the “address quoted in the page” in the reference page database 30 may be manually performed by a staff member, but the reference page database creation unit 31 automatically registers the address. It is also possible. In this case, the reference page database creation unit 31 performs the creation process according to the flowchart of FIG.

One or more cited addresses are extracted from each page obtained by the information obtaining unit 12a (H1). Then, the relationship between the page address and the quoted address is registered in the reference page database 30 (H2).

Specifically, in FIG. 16, the variable “* A
* The "and" abc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pcnl.html ", is to be recognized as a reference page.

The reference page search section 29 retrieves a reference page indicating a page in which the address of a page having a high degree of similarity to the theme is specified (quoted) in the text (within the page) specified by the search result editing section 19a. , Using the reference page database 30. Therefore, the “page address” in the reference page database 30 is the reference page.

Then, the search result editing unit 19a performs an editing process on each page input from the control unit 11 according to the flowchart of FIG.

When each page with similarity is input from the control section 11, the pages are sorted in order of similarity (F1). Next, the headings of each page are edited in a bulleted format in the order of the sorting results (F2). Next, for each page, a reference page button 32 shown in FIGS. 20 and 21 for searching for another page that quotes the address of the corresponding page in the text, that is, a reference page, is added.

Next, a reference page search command for each input page is sent to the reference page search unit 29 to obtain each address (reference address) of the reference page for each page (F4). Based on this address,
A reference page search screen is created (F5), and the reference page button 32 is linked to this page.

Further, a summary is generated from the sentence (text) on the ground of the page and edited (F6). The generation of the summary may be a simple process of extracting several sentences from the front of the page, for example. Finally, the editing result of each page and the search result of the reference page (reference address) of each page are returned to the control unit 11 (F7).

The reference page search unit 29 executes a reference page search process for each page according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The page address input from the control unit 11 creates a reference page search result screen according to the flowchart shown in FIG. For example, if the address of the input page is "http://abc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pcnl.html", "a
bc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pcnl.html "quoted the page in the text that (as described) and to find the page (see page) and (G1). Since “abc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pcnl.html” is described in the second right column in the reference page database 30, it is the address of the page described in the second left column. def.ne.jp/def.html "is the address of the reference page.

When the address of the reference page is searched (G
2), the address of this reference page is entered into the search result editing unit 19
Reply to a (G3). If the address of the reference page is not searched (G3), the search result editing unit 1 determines that there is no reference page.
Reply to 9a (G4).

The output unit 20 displays each page and the reference page of each page edited by the search result editing unit 19a input from the control unit 11, for example, on a display.

In the above description, in accessing the search result screen of the reference page, the reference page button 32 is used as a link to the page. However, a search formula for the direct reference page search device may be used. An example is shown in FIG.

Here, the search expression “../cig-bin/kensaku./
cig /? kw = abc.ne.jp / ^~ xxx / pcnl.html ”indicates to the reference page search device (kensaku.cgi) that“ abc.ne.jp/ ^~ xxx / pc
nl.html ".

FIGS. 20 to 27 show examples of the display output.

In the example shown in FIG. 20, pages 1, 2, and 3 are arranged in order of similarity. Each page has a heading 22, an address 23, a summary 24, and a reference page button 32. Is displayed. In the example of FIG.
Only the position of the reference page button 32 is different from the example of 0.

In the example shown in FIG. 22, when the reference page button 32 of the first page having the highest similarity in FIGS. Page).

FIG. 23 is an example in which FIG. 20 is described in the HTML format. FIG. 24 is an example in which the number of reference pages is displayed. FIG. 25 is an example in which each page is rearranged in the order of the number of reference pages.

FIG. 26 is an example showing whether the number of reference pages in each page has increased or decreased compared to the previous cycle. FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating the time history of the number of reference pages in one page.

In the information retrieval apparatus of the third embodiment configured as described above, a page describing a page that criticizes a theme specified by a user when it should be referred to in the text, that is, the address of the reference page and the reference page thereof The number is searched.

Therefore, the user can obtain public criticism with respect to the theme specified by the user with high accuracy.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, in the information search device of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 13, the critical expression extraction unit 15 and the critical expression dictionary 14 can be eliminated. Further, the information income unit 12 in the information search device of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 can be used instead of the information income unit 12a.

In the information retrieval apparatus configured as described above, the user can quantitatively grasp the degree of public attention on the theme specified by the user, regardless of criticism or evaluation of the theme specified by the user.

In the above example, a Web page has been described, but it is of course possible to apply to electronic mail, news, and various other electronic information. Further, the provision of the page information referring to a certain page is not limited to the apparatus for searching the document of the page as in the information search apparatus of the present embodiment. In the case of an information providing apparatus for providing a certain document, the reference document (reference page) is extracted by extracting the document storage expression and searching for the reference document (reference page) using the obtained document storage position as a key. It is possible to provide

It is also possible to implement the method of the present invention on the server side and send a document to which related information has been added by e-mail.
It is also possible to realize so as to read out according to the protocol described above. When the system is realized as a simple system, it can be realized by operating on a personal computer or a work station of an individual and reading it out by a browser for displaying hypertext.

Each information search device described in each embodiment can be realized by causing a computer to read a program stored in a storage medium.

Here, as the storage medium in the present invention,
Magnetic disk, floppy disk, hard disk,
Any storage medium that can store a program and can be read by a computer, such as an optical disk (CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, etc.), a magneto-optical disk (MO, etc.), a semiconductor memory, etc. It may be.

An OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on instructions of a program installed in the computer from the storage medium,
MW for database management software, network software, etc.
(Middleware) or the like may execute a part of each process for realizing the present embodiment.

Further, the storage medium in the present invention is not limited to a medium independent of a computer, but also includes a storage medium in which a program transmitted via a LAN, the Internet, or the like is downloaded and stored or temporarily stored.

The number of storage media is not limited to one, and the case where the processing in this embodiment is executed from a plurality of media is also included in the storage media of the present invention, and the media configuration may be any configuration.

The computer according to the present invention executes each process in the present embodiment based on a program stored in a storage medium.
Any configuration such as a single device, a system in which a plurality of devices are connected to a network, or the like may be used.

Further, the computer in the present invention is:
It is not limited to a personal computer, but also includes a processing device, a microcomputer, and the like included in an information processing device, and generically refers to a device and a device capable of implementing the functions of the present invention by a program.

[0106]

As described above, in the information search device, the information search method, and the storage medium storing the program of the present invention, electronic information such as a Web page in which information on a theme designated by a user is described. It is possible to reliably search only electronic information in which criticisms on the subject are described.

[0107] Further, the electronic information in which it is necessary to refer to the electronic information in which the criticism of the subject is described is searched. Therefore, public criticism of the subject can be grasped more accurately and quantitatively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information search device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing storage contents of a critical expression dictionary incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of a critical expression extracting unit incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a detection result editing unit incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a view showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a view showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of a control unit incorporated in the information search device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information search device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing storage contents of a monitoring page list incorporated in the information search device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of an information acquisition unit incorporated in the information search device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a control unit incorporated in the information search device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an information search device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing storage contents of a reference page database incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a view for explaining a relationship between a page address and an address quoted in the page;

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a relationship between a page reference expression pattern and a reference page.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of a search result editing unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of a reference page search unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a reference page database creation unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing a search result output from an output unit incorporated in the information search device according to the third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Control part 12, 12a ... Information acquisition part 13 ... Format analysis part 14 ... Critic expression dictionary 15 ... Critic expression extraction part 16 ... Search target theme memory 17 ... Search formula 18 ... Similarity calculation part 19, 19a ... Search result editing Unit 20 Output unit 21 Theme 25 Page access unit 26 Monitored page list 27 Update determination unit 28 Previous page memory 29 Reference page search unit 30 Reference page database 31 Reference page database creation unit 32 Reference page button

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Setsu Suzuoka, Inventor 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Toshiba Corporation Head Office (72) Inventor Akiko Okumura 1-1-1, Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo Stock (72) Inventor Kazuo Sumita 1st location, Komukai Toshiba-cho, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa F-term (Reference) 5B075 KK07 ND03 PR06 PR08 QM08

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An information acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of electronic information, an electronic information extraction unit for extracting electronic information including a critique expression in the content of each electronic information acquired by the information acquisition unit, A similarity calculating means for calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of the designated theme in each piece of electronic information including the critique expression extracted by the information extracting means; An information search device comprising: a search result editing unit that edits electronic information specifying information for specifying electronic information as a search result to be output. 2. The information acquisition means periodically reads the contents of a plurality of electronic information to be monitored which are designated in advance, and only when the contents are different from the contents read in the immediately preceding cycle,
2. The information retrieval apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said electronic information is transmitted to said electronic information extracting means as acquired electronic information. 3. The information retrieval device according to claim 1, further comprising: reference electronic information retrieval means for retrieving reference electronic information having contents indicating that the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to. apparatus. 4. The information search apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the search result editing means adds the reference electronic information searched by the reference electronic information search means to the search result to be output. 5. An information acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of electronic information, and a similarity for calculating a similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of occurrence of a designated theme in each electronic information acquired by the information acquisition unit. Calculating means; reference electronic information searching means for searching for reference electronic information having contents stating that the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to; and electronic specifying the electronic information having a high similarity to the theme and the relevant theme An information search device comprising: a search result editing unit that edits information specifying information and the reference electronic information as search results to be output. 6. A step of acquiring a plurality of electronic information, a step of extracting electronic information including a critical expression in the content of each of the acquired electronic information, and a step of acquiring each electronic information including the extracted critical expression Calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of the occurrence of the specified theme, and editing electronic information specifying information for specifying the theme and electronic information having high similarity to the theme as a search result to be output Performing an information search. 7. The step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of electronic information includes periodically reading contents of a plurality of pieces of electronic information to be monitored which are specified in advance, and when the contents are different from contents read in a previous cycle. 7. The information search method according to claim 6, wherein only the electronic information is sent to the step of extracting the electronic information as the acquired electronic information. 8. After the step of calculating the similarity,
8. The information retrieval method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of retrieving reference electronic information having contents indicating that the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to. 9. A storage medium storing a program incorporated in an information search device, said program providing a computer with a step of obtaining a plurality of pieces of electronic information; Extracting the electronic information including the critical expression in the content; calculating the similarity indicating the number of occurrences and the importance of the occurrence of the specified theme in each electronic information including the extracted critical expression; And a step of editing electronic information specifying electronic information having a high degree of similarity to the relevant theme as a search result to be output as a search result to be output. 10. The step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of electronic information includes periodically reading contents of a plurality of pieces of electronic information to be monitored which are specified in advance, and when the contents are different from the contents read in a previous cycle. 10. The storage medium storing a computer-readable program according to claim 9, wherein only the electronic information is sent to the step of extracting the electronic information as the acquired electronic information. 11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of searching for reference electronic information having a content indicating that the electronic information having a high similarity should be referred to, after the step of calculating the similarity. Or a storage medium storing the computer-readable program according to 10.