JP2001306853A - Method and system for mediating auction, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily obtain a desired merchandise through the use of a net auction by mediating an auction site and a user. SOLUTION: A patrol means 122 performs access to the auction site to extract auction information consisting of information concerning the merchandise to be sold at auction, which is put up to auction, and of information concerning the auction site. A comparing means 123 compares extracted auction information with desire information which is prepared in a register part 121 and confirms the existence of the merchandise corresponding to desire information among auction information. A reporting means 124 reports the result to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an auction mediation method, an auction mediation system, and a recording medium for mediating between an auction on the Internet and a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of computers and the spread of networks using computers, the use of portal sites as places for exchanging information on networks has attracted attention. Representative examples include “YAHOO!” And “EXCITE” on the Internet. These are composed of a search function for information on the Internet and a collection of links. The main purpose of these functions is to respond to information requested by the user in real time.

[0003] Many of the above portal sites hold auctions (auctions). In a system that implements an auction on the Internet, a user selects desired products, prices the selected products, and performs auctioning. In auctions on the Internet, time is delimited, and the desired product must be priced within the delimited time.

[0004] In this delimited time, another person may give a higher price to the desired product, and as a result, the price of the desired product rises in the delimited time. There is also. This bid may rise to the very end of the delimited time. Therefore, those who are participating in an auction and trying to make a bid for a desired product must constantly monitor the bid status of the target product and present the highest price exceeding that of others as the purchase price of the target product. As mentioned above, even in the auction on the Internet (net auction),
In order to participate in an auction for a desired product within a limited time and to make a bid for the desired product, the highest bid price must be set within a limited time.

[0005]

By the way, in order to obtain a desired product by using the net auction as described above, first, the net auction in which the desired product is sold is not detected within the auction holding time. must not. In addition, in order to make a successful bid for the desired product, it is necessary to keep connecting to the net auction via the Internet, and to continuously monitor the auction desired product exhibited in the net auction while the auction is being held. As described above, conventionally, in order to obtain a desired product by using an Internet auction, there are many time restrictions, which hinder a successful bid of a desired product.

[0006] The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the desired product can be obtained more easily by using an Internet auction by mediating between an auction site and a user. The purpose is to be able to be.

[0007]

According to the auction mediation method of the present invention, desired information on a product which a user desires to bid is prepared and set in advance at an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held. Access at a predetermined frequency, and extract auction information including information on the auction-targeted product exhibited in the auction and information on the auction site. When the auction information is extracted, the extracted auction information and the desired auction information are extracted. Information, and check if there is a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information,
As a result of confirming the existence of the product, if the existence of the product corresponding to the desired information is confirmed, the user is requested to report the product information including the information of the auction site where the product is exhibited and the state of the product on the auction site. It was done. According to the present invention, when a product that the user desires to bid for is listed on the auction site as an auction target, information on the auction site and the displayed product is reported to the user.

[0008] In the above invention, a plurality of preset auction sites may be accessed, and auction information may be extracted from each accessed auction site. Also, the desired information includes, in addition to the product name of the product that the user wants to auction, any or all of the model number, nickname, manufacturer, date of sale, and condition of the product, and the auction information Includes, in addition to the product name of the product being exhibited, any or all of the model number, nickname, manufacturer, date of sale, current price, and condition of the product, and the auction listing period of this product. It is a thing.

Further, the auction mediation system of the present invention is provided in advance in a registration unit in which desired information on a product which a user desires to buy is prepared in an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held. A circulating means for accessing at a predetermined frequency and extracting auction information composed of information on an auction target product exhibited in the auction and information on the auction site; and auction information and registration unit extracted by the circulating means. A comparison means for comparing the desired information with the prepared information and confirming whether there is a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information, and when the comparing means confirms the existence of the product corresponding to the desired information, Information on the auction site where the product is sold and the auction site for this product Is obtained by so and a reporting means for reporting the product information comprising the definitive state to the user. According to the present invention, when a product for which a user desires to bid is placed on the auction, it is detected by the comparison means extracted by the patrol means, so that the information on the auction site and the exhibited goods is detected. Is reported to the user by the reporting means.

In the above invention, the patrol means accesses a plurality of preset auction sites, and extracts auction information from each accessed auction site. In addition, the desired information prepared in the registration section includes, in addition to the product name of the product that the user wants to auction, any of the model number, nickname, manufacturer, date of sale, and state of the product of this product. Or the auction information extracted by the patrol means including all items, in addition to the product name of the product being exhibited, any of the model number and nickname of this product, the manufacturer, the date of sale, the current price, and the state of the product Or all, and the auction listing period for this product.

[0011] The recording medium of the present invention comprises a first step of preparing desired information on a product which a user desires to bid, and a predetermined step set in an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held. A second step of extracting auction information consisting of information on an auction target product and information on this auction site that are accessed at this auction, and auction information extracted in the second step The third step is to compare the information with the information and confirm whether there is a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information. In the third step, when the existence of the product corresponding to the desired information is confirmed, the product is The information is based on the information of the auction site being sold and the status of this product on the auction site. Fourth to report the commodity information to the user
And the following steps. In the above invention, in the second step, a plurality of preset auction sites are accessed, and auction information is extracted from each accessed auction site. The desired information prepared in the first step includes, in addition to the product name of the product that the user wants to auction, any one of the model number, nickname, manufacturer, date of sale, and state of the product of this product. Or the auction information extracted in the second step, including all the items, includes the product name of the product being exhibited, the model number and nickname of this product, the manufacturer, the date of sale, the current price, and the status of the product. Includes any or all, and the auction listing period for this product.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of an auction mediation system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this system, a mediation server 102 connected to the Internet 101 reports information collected from a plurality of auction sites 103 on the Internet 101 to a user 105 using a terminal 104 on the Internet 101. is there.

The intermediary server 102 sequentially accesses a registration unit 121 in which information of a product desired by the user is registered and an auction site set in advance, and extracts (downloads) information to the intermediary server 102. Patrol means 122; comparing means 123 for comparing the information extracted by patrol means 122 with the information registered in registration section 121; and reporting predetermined information to the user based on the comparison result of said comparing means 123 And reporting means 124.

The registration section 121 has registered therein detailed information of a product desired by the user 105. Hereinafter, this detailed information is referred to as desired information. The desired information is, for example, information such as a product name, a product type, a product model number, a product state, a product price, a sale date of the product, a manufacturer of the product, and the like. This is information that clarifies the characteristics of the product such as the production time, the color of the product, and the selling price. The user 105 connects the terminal 104 to the Internet, accesses a homepage prepared in the server 102, and inputs the desired information in a predetermined area on the homepage, whereby the desired information is registered in the registration unit 121. Is done. The above-mentioned products are securities such as automobiles, books, antiques, real estate such as land and buildings, and securities such as various prepaid cards, and are similar to the telephone rights of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. You may.

The patrol means 122 accesses a predetermined address (URL) of the auction site 103, and from a homepage of the auction prepared here, information on a plurality of auctioned products for sale (auction information). Is extracted. For example, in the auction site 103, a homepage related to the auction is prepared in an HTML format.
2 extracts an HTML document by HTTP and extracts predetermined auction information from the HTML document. For example, the traveling unit 122 searches the extracted HTML document for the item name of the product name, extracts the text described after the item of the product name, and extracts auction information on the product name (text). search).

Similarly, the patrol means 122 uses the extracted HTML document to retrieve the product name, product type, product model number, product state,
Information that clarifies the characteristics of the product, such as the price of the product, the date of sale of the product, the manufacturer that manufactured the product, the name of the seller of the product, the time of manufacture, the color of the product and the selling price, and the information on the auction site Information and auction information such as the scheduled end date of the auction are extracted. When the form of the homepage of the traveling auction site is known in advance, the auction information can be extracted by optimizing the information extraction location and extracting only the information of the predetermined location.

[0017] On the homepage of the auction site,
Since the link is also set, the patrol means 122 determines whether the link destination is an auction site, and if the link destination is an auction site, also acquires the contents (information) of the homepage of the URL of the link destination. Generally, words characteristic of an auction such as a product name, a product number, and an auction expiration date appearing on an auction appear on a homepage (HTML) of an auction site. Therefore, whether or not the linked homepage is an auction site can be determined based on the presence or absence of the word. The patrol means 122 performs the above-described patrol and information extraction,
Performed at predetermined time intervals. It is desirable that the frequency of the tour and the information extraction be as high as possible.

When the traveling unit 122 extracts the auction information, the comparing unit 123 compares the auction information with the desired information registered in the registration unit 121, and determines whether there is auction information that matches the desired information. Since both information to be compared is text information, a part or all of the registered desired information is compared with the closest information in the auction information, and a product matching the desired information exists on the auction site. Is determined.

If they match, the reporting means 124 reports to the user whether this information exists. This reporting means 124 may be any means such as telephone, FAX, electronic mail, instant message and the like.
In an auction, since immediacy is often required, a telephone or an instant message tool that guarantees real-time communication to some extent is more desirable.

Hereinafter, an instant message tool will be described as a tool for reporting matched product information. The instant message tool is a tool for determining whether a user using the Internet is connected to the Internet, and then reporting the message to the user. Unlike e-mail, it is possible to send a message while the user is connected to the Internet, and to transmit information in real time.

When this instant message tool is used as a report means, the result of the patrol means and the reference result with the comparison means are transmitted to the user terminal by the instant message tool. In this case, the information from the patrol means and the comparison means is fetched and sent as a message to the user's terminal. This reporting system uses an API for receiving messages on the user's terminal.
(Application program interface) or by adding a CGI (common gateway interface) for flowing information into a WWW browser used in a user terminal.
Several tools are currently being actively used to implement instant messaging. For example, AOL Messenger used by American Online (AOL), ICQ by Miravis, MSN Messenger by Microsoft, and the like have been proposed.

The user who has received a report by any of the above-mentioned reporting means can directly access the auction site for the reported product information as necessary and participate in the auction. In addition, the frequency of patrol of the auction site by the patrol means and the reporting of product information by the reporting means are increased according to the user's specification, and the details of the product information on the auction are reported at a frequency according to the user's request. You may. In this case, the patrol means, the comparing means, and the reporting means may perform predetermined operations based on the information on the frequency, including the information on the frequency in the desired information registered in the registration unit.

Next, the operation of the mediation server in the present embodiment will be described. First, in step S101,
The mediation server registers desired information from the user in the registration unit. Next, in step S102, the mediation server accesses the auction site of the first URL set in advance by the patrol means, and in step S103, the patrol means obtains auction information from the accessed auction site.

Next, in step S104, the mediation server determines whether or not the auction site corresponding to all the URLs for which the patrol means has been set has been visited. In S105, the patrol means accesses the auction site of the next URL, and repeats Step S103. In step S104, all URLs that have been set
If it is determined that the auction site corresponding to the auction has been visited, in step S106, the mediation server compares the desired information registered in the registration unit by the comparing unit with the auction information acquired by the patrol unit, and generates a desired report. Search for matching auction information.

Next, in step S107, the mediation server determines whether there is auction information that matches the desired information in the search in step S106, and if there is information that matches the desired information, in step S108, The product information is reported to the user by the reporting means. If there is no information that matches the request in the determination in step S107, the mediation server returns to step S109 after a predetermined time that has been set in advance (step S109).
Returning to 102, the above series of operations is repeated.

In the above embodiment, the mediation server includes the reporting means, the comparing means, the circulating means, and the registration unit, and performs the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 with these. However, the present invention is not limited to this. is not. The mediation server is a CP
U, a network connection unit, and a recording unit, and a CP based on a program including the following steps stored in the recording unit.
The operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 may be performed by U controlling the network connection unit.

The program stored in the recording unit is a first step of preparing desired information on a product that a user wants to auction, and is set in advance at an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held. A second step of accessing at a predetermined frequency and extracting auction information including information on an auction target product and an auction site displayed in the auction, and auction information extracted in the second step The third step is to compare the auction information with the desired information to determine whether there is a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information. In the third step, when the existence of the product corresponding to the desired information is confirmed, Information on the auction site where the product is sold and the auction site for this product It is made of a fourth step of reporting product information comprising the state to the user.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Information such as the fact that a user wants to buy a product is posted on an auction held on an auction site on the Internet is reported to the user without the need for the user to directly access the auction site Therefore, an excellent effect that the user can easily obtain the desired product by using the Internet auction is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an auction mediation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an auction mediation method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: Internet, 102: Mediation server, 103
... Auction site, 104 terminal, 105 user, 121 registration unit, 122 patrol means, 123 comparison means, 124 reporting means.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Yoshida 1-6-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo NTT Communications Corporation (72) Takaaki Akimoto 1-1-1, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 6 F-term in NTT Communications Corporation (reference) 5B049 AA01 AA06 BB11 BB36 CC05 CC08 CC32 DD01 DD05 EE05 FF03 GG02 GG04 GG07 GG09

Claims (9)

[Claims] [Claim 1] A user prepares desired information on a product he / she wants to auction, accesses an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held at a predetermined frequency, and exhibits in this auction. Auction information including information on the auction target product and information on the auction site is extracted. When the auction information is extracted, the extracted auction information is compared with the desired information. Then, the presence or absence of a product corresponding to the desired information is confirmed. As a result of the presence / absence confirmation, if the presence of a product corresponding to the desired information is confirmed, the information of the auction site where the product is exhibited and the Reporting product information consisting of the status on the auction site to the user An auction mediation method characterized by the following. 2. The auction mediation method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of auction sites set in advance are accessed, and auction information is extracted from each accessed auction site. 3. The auction mediation method according to claim 1, wherein the desired information includes, in addition to a product name of a product that the user wants to auction, a model number, a nickname, a manufacturer, and a sales year of the product. The auction information includes any or all of the date and the state of the product, and the auction information includes, in addition to the product name of the product being exhibited, a model number, a nickname, a manufacturer, a sales date, a current price, and a product of the product. Any or all of the states
And an auction mediation method including an auction posting period of the product. 4. A user accesses, at a predetermined frequency, a registration section in which desired information on a product desired by the user for auction is prepared in advance and an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held, Patrol means for extracting auction information consisting of information on the auction-targeted product exhibited in the auction and information on the auction site; and auction information extracted by the patrol means and desired information prepared in the registration unit. And comparing means for confirming the presence or absence of a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information. If the comparing means confirms the presence of a product corresponding to the desired information, the product is sold. Of auction site information and the status of this product on the auction site An auction mediation system comprising: a report unit for reporting article information to the user. 5. The auction mediation system according to claim 4, wherein said patrol means accesses a plurality of preset auction sites and extracts auction information from each accessed auction site. Auction brokerage system. 6. The auction mediation system according to claim 4, wherein the desired information prepared in the registration unit includes, in addition to a product name of a product that the user wants to auction, a model number of the product. Auction information extracted by the patrol means includes any or all of the name of the product, the name of the manufacturer, the date of sale, the state of the product, and the status of the product. An auction mediation system characterized by including any or all of a manufacturer, a date of sale, a current price, and a state of a product, and an auction posting period of the product. 7. A first step in which a user prepares desired information on a product desired to be auctioned, and accesses an auction site on the Internet where an auction is held at a predetermined frequency set in advance. A second step of extracting auction information consisting of information on an auction target product and information on the auction site exhibited in the auction; comparing the auction information extracted in the second step with the desired information; A third step of confirming the presence or absence of a product corresponding to the desired information in the auction information; and a step of confirming the presence of the product corresponding to the desired information in the third step. Of auction site information and the status of this product on the auction site A program comprising: a fourth step of reporting article information to the user. 8. The recording medium according to claim 7, wherein in the second step, a plurality of preset auction sites are accessed, and auction information is extracted from each accessed auction site. Recording medium. 9. The recording medium according to claim 7, wherein the desired information prepared in the first step includes, in addition to a product name of a product that the user wants to auction, a model number and a nickname of the product. And any or all of the manufacturer, the date of sale, and the state of the product, and the auction information extracted in the second step is, in addition to the product name of the product being exhibited, the model number and nickname of this product. A recording medium comprising any or all of a manufacturer, a date of sale, a current price, and a state of a product, and an auction posting period of the product.