JP2001312519A - Method to generate compound content and its retrieval method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide users with a simplified retrieved data for retrieval request for compound contents. SOLUTION: An integrated retrieval part 303 retrieves the contents that match with a keyword obtained from an information storage 202 part by using a retrieval function of an information retrieval part 203, and obtains a root content included in the compound contents as the result of the retrieval. The integrated retrieval part 303 retrieves a meta-data of the root content from the information storage part 202 by using the function of the information retrieval part 203 and obtains URL data of the root content. The obtained URL is returned to a user's computer 103 as the result of the retrieval via a Web server 204.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the distribution of digital contents (hereinafter, referred to as "contents") using a computer network, and more particularly to a composite contents generation method and a composite contents search method for searching contents on a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method for effectively distributing contents on a network such as the Internet has been known as WWW.
And the use of search engines for the WWW. WW
In W, one content is generally configured by associating a plurality of contents using hyperlinks (hereinafter, referred to as composite content). A hyperlink describes reference information from a character string of a Web page, which is a component of the content, to another content. Here, FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a general HTML hyperlink. Reference numeral 401 denotes hypertext, and 402 denotes hypertext or content. In the character string in the hypertext 401, the reference information for the hypertext or the content 402 is U
RL.

[0003] The search engine collects Web page information from the network, decomposes the information into character strings, and develops them into an index table. The keyword input in the search is referred to this index table, and an individual Web page including the keyword is output as a search result.

[0004] In order to search for information more reliably, metadata is added to digital contents,
There is a method of searching for the target digital content by searching for the metadata. here,
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of content in Dublin Core Metadata according to the related art. Content 5
01 has metadata 502 indicating the characteristics of the content. In Dublin Core Metadata, metadata 50
2 is (1) title, (2) author, (3) keyword, (4) summary, (5) publisher, (6) contributor, (7)
Date, (8) resource type, (9) data format, (10)
Resource identifier, (11) information source, (12) language, (13)
It consists of 15 items of relation, (14) target range, and (15) right.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information retrieval server according to the prior art. In the figure, inside the information search server 102, an information collecting unit 201 collects metadata indicating characteristics of contents in the content server. The information storage unit 202 is a part that stores the information collected by the information collection unit 201. The information search unit 203 is a unit that searches for metadata of content in the information storage unit 202. The Web server 204 transmits the information search unit 2 from the user computer 103.
03 is a part for making it available. The operating system unit 205 is an operating system unit for operating a computer.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a sequence for collecting information on the Internet according to the related art. In the information search server 102, the information collection unit 201 issues an information acquisition request to a content server that is an information source on the network (S1). The content server outputs the requested information to the information search server 102 (S2). The information collection unit in the information search server 102 generates metadata for the information from the information obtained from the content server, and records the metadata and the URL to the information in the information storage unit 202 (S3).

Next, FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of an information search sequence according to the prior art. A keyword for information search is input to the information search server 102 from a user computer on the network (S4). The keyword is the Web server 2 in the information search server 102
The information is sent to the information search unit 203 via the server 04 (S5). The information search unit 203 searches the information in the information storage unit 202 (S6), and obtains a list of URLs of the corresponding information as a search result (S6). S7), and return to the user computer via the Web server 204 (S8, S9). The user computer acquires the content from the content server by designating the URL obtained in the search result (S10) (S11).

[0008]

However, in the prior art, in the use of WWW, when a search engine searches for a content composed of a plurality of Web pages, a series of the same content is output in large quantities as a search result. Therefore, there is a problem that a large amount of search results (URLs) matching the keyword are returned to the user. This is because (a) W that forms the content
The WW hyperlink is constituted by a simple hyperlink from a character string in the content to the content. (B) In the search engine, the content is
Collected in page units, individual Web pages by keyword
This is because there is a reason that the same keyword is often included in each Web page in a composite content including a plurality of Web pages that are searching for a page.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a composite content generation method and a composite content search method capable of providing a user with simplified search results in response to a search request for composite content. The purpose is to provide.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a composite content in which a plurality of contents available on a computer network are combined to generate one composite content. In the generation method, a link relationship between the contents is described in metadata describing characteristics of the content given to each of the plurality of contents.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect of the present invention is provided.
In the composite content generation method described above, the link relationship includes at least information indicating a root content that is a link source of a plurality of contents including the own content.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems,
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a composite content search method for searching for a predetermined content from a plurality of composite contents configured by combining a plurality of contents available on a computer network. Collects and accumulates metadata that is assigned to each of a plurality of contents and describes at least a link relation between the contents. When any of the contents matches the search, the link relation in the metadata of the matched contents is collected. , The root content that is the link source of the composite content including the matched content is acquired, and the root content is output as a search result.

According to the invention described in claim 4, in claim 3,
In the composite content search method described above, at least a URL of a corresponding content is described in the metadata, and the search result is a URL of the root content.
RL.

According to the present invention, in the composite content generation method for generating one composite content, the metadata describing the characteristics of the content given to each of the plurality of contents includes a link relationship between the contents as
At least information indicating a root content which is a link source of a plurality of contents including the own content is described.
In the search, the content including the input keyword is searched using the metadata, and when any of the contents matches the search, the matching content is referred to by referring to the link relationship in the metadata of the matched content. The root content that is the link source of the included composite content is acquired, and the root content is output as a search result. Therefore, for a search request for composite content,
It is possible to provide simplified search results to the user.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A. Configuration of Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer network according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a content server 101 is a computer that stores content so that the content can be referred to by a Web browser. The information search server 302 is a computer that collects and accumulates only the metadata indicating the characteristics of the content, and searches for these using keywords. User computer 10
Reference numeral 3 denotes a content server 101 via a web browser.
Is a computer of a user for searching and referring to the content stored in. The computer network 104 is a network for providing a communication service between computers, such as the Internet or an intranet, for example.

Next, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of the composite content according to the present embodiment. Composite content 60
1 is content 602 (A), content 604
(B), content 606 (C), content 608
(D). Content 602, 60
4, 606 and 608 are metadata 603 and 60, respectively.
5,607,609. Content 602, 6
04,606,608 metadata 603,605,6
In 07 and 609, in the item of relation of Dublin Core Metadata, the relation between the contents constituting the composite content is recorded in a tree structure.

That is, in the metadata 603, the content 602 (A) is the root content in the tree structure of the composite content 601,
The relationship that 4 (B) and the content 608 (D) are child contents thereof is recorded. Note that the root content indicates the source content in the composite content. In the metadata 605, a relationship is recorded that the content 602 (A) is the root, the parent content, and the child content 606 (C) exists. Note that the parent content indicates the immediately higher content, and the child content indicates the immediately lower content. In the metadata 607, a relationship that the content 602 (A) is a root content and the content 604 (B) is a parent content is recorded. Further, a relationship that the content 602 (A) is the root and the parent content is recorded in the metadata 609.

Next, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the information search server according to the present embodiment. Note that FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to the portions corresponding to and description thereof is omitted. The information search server 302 is different from the conventional information search server shown in FIG. 9 in that an integrated search unit 303 is added. The integrated search unit 303 searches the information storage unit 202 for content that matches the keyword by using the search function of the information search unit 203, and obtains the root content of the composite content including the content as a search result. Further, the integrated search unit 303 searches the information storage unit 202 for metadata of the root content obtained as a result of the search, using the search function of the information search unit 203.
The URL information of the root content is obtained. The URL is
The search result is returned to the user computer 103 via the Web server 204.

B. Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described in detail. First, FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a collection sequence when collecting metadata of content on a network according to the present embodiment. The content server 101 registers metadata of each content in the information search server 302 (S20). Upon receiving the registration of the content, the information collection unit 201 in the information search server 302 records the metadata of the content and the URL of the content in the information storage unit 202 (S21).

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of an information search sequence according to this embodiment. A keyword for information search is input from the user computer 103 to the information search server 302 (S30). The keyword is input to the integrated search unit 303 via the web server 204 in the information search server 302 (S31). The integrated search unit 303 searches for a content that matches the keyword in the information storage unit 202 using the search function of the information search unit 203 (S32, S33), and uses the root content of the composite content including the content as a search result. It is acquired (S34, S35). The integrated search unit 303 uses the search function of the information search unit 203 to search the information storage unit 202 for the metadata of the root content obtained as a result of the search (S36, S37), and obtains the URL of the root content.
Is obtained (S38, S39). The URL thus obtained is returned to the user computer 103 via the Web server 204 as a search result (S4).
0, S41). The user computer 103 specifies the URL obtained in the search result (S42),
Acquire the content from the content server (S4
3).

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a search for composite content according to the present embodiment. 701 is a keyword for search. The composite content 702 is
The contents 703, 705, and 707 have a tree structure, and metadata of the contents 703, 705, and 707 are metadata 704, 706, and 708, respectively. Reference numeral 709 denotes a URL to the content 703 described in the metadata 704. In the illustrated example, the content 701 includes the content 105 and the content 70.
At the root of the content, the content is a parent content.

In the search, the input keyword 70
In the case where the metadata 706 and 708 match 1, the content 703 which is the root described in the related item in each metadata is searched. And
A URL to the content 703 described in the metadata 704 of the root content 703 is searched, and an intermediate search result of the keyword 701 is set. Since the search result of the keyword 701 is the URL 708 to the same content, only the URL 708 is set as the final search result.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the metadata describing the characteristics of the content assigned to each of the plurality of contents, at least information indicating a root content which is a link source of the plurality of contents including the own content is described as a link relationship between the contents. In the search, when any one of the contents matches the search, the root content that is the link source of the composite content including the matched content is acquired by referring to the link relationship in the metadata of the matched content,
Since the root content is output as a search result, there is an advantage that a simplified search result can be provided to a user in response to a search request for composite content.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a composite content according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an information search server according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a collection sequence when collecting metadata of a content on a network according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of an information search sequence according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a search for composite content according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a general HTML hyperlink.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of content in Dublin Core Metadata according to the related art.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information search server according to a conventional technique.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a sequence for collecting information on the Internet according to the related art.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of an information search sequence according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Content Server 103 User Computer 104 Computer Network 201 Information Collection Unit 202 Information Storage Unit 203 Information Search Unit 204 Web Server 205 Operating System Unit 302 Information Search Server 303 Integrated Search Unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A composite content generation method for generating one composite content by combining a plurality of contents available on a computer network, wherein metadata describing characteristics of the content assigned to each of the plurality of contents A method for generating a composite content, wherein a link relationship between the contents is described therein. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the link relation includes at least information indicating a root content which is a link source of a plurality of contents including the own content.
The described composite content generation method. 3. A composite content search method for retrieving a predetermined content from a plurality of composite contents configured by combining a plurality of contents available on a computer network, comprising: Collect and accumulate metadata attached to each of the contents and describing at least the link relation between the contents. When any of the contents matches the search, refer to the link relation in the metadata of the matched contents. A root content which is a link source of the composite content including the matched content, and outputs the root content as a search result. 4. The composite content search method according to claim 3, wherein the metadata describes at least a URL of a corresponding content, and the search result is a URL of the root content. .