JP2002342369A - Method and program for dynamically displaying menu, program storage medium and server - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dynamically change the ranking on the menu of contents in a server in accordance with prescribed conditions. SOLUTION: Corresponding to requests from client terminals 131, 133 and 135, a gateway server 101 distributes the contents of a plurality of contents providers (CP) 121. In that case, an access log from each of client terminals corresponding to each of contents distributed through the server 101 is acquired and, on the basis of this access log, the frequency of access to each of contents is calculated. Corresponding to this access frequency, the menu page of contents, to which ranking is applied, is dynamically generated and displayed on the client terminal. With respect to publication charges collected from the providing sources of contents in relation to the publication of the relevant contents on the menu page, the charges of a prescribed amount may be returned in accordance with the rank of the contents.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a Web server for distributing contents to client terminals on a network such as the Internet, and more particularly, to a method for dynamically generating and displaying a menu of contents. Related to a typical menu display method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Internet WWW (World Wide Wealth)
The system b) is a treasure trove of various kinds of information, and it is very convenient because various necessary information can be obtained while staying at a company or at home using a search function or the like. In recent years, portable information terminals, such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), which have an Internet connection function, have appeared, so that web access can be made anywhere as long as radio waves can be reached. It has become

[0003] In particular, when accessing contents from a portable information terminal, restrictions on the specifications of the installed browser,
Centralized billing process, URL (Universal Res
In many cases, a menu screen for accessing various contents is prepared in advance for the purpose of, for example, omitting the input of ource Locator). Not only access from portable information terminals, but also personal computers (P
Even when accessed from C), a menu screen of such contents is prepared in a so-called portal site. A portal site is a place where users can access the Internet.Generally, a place where an Internet user launches a web browser and accesses it first, and provides attractive content and abundant services. The site to provide.

[0004]

Such a content menu has an advertising function for the content provider, and is useful as a window for distributing its own web page to customers.

[0005] However, when the number of contents to be posted on the menu increases, all the contents do not fit on one display screen, and operations such as scrolling and page switching are required. Therefore, where a menu item of its own content is arranged (displayed) in the menu is a serious concern for the content provider.

The present invention has been made under such a background, and an object of the present invention is to dynamically change the ranking of contents on a menu on a server on a network according to predetermined conditions. An object of the present invention is to provide a dynamic menu display method, a dynamic menu display program, a program storage medium, and a server.

[0007]

A dynamic menu display method and program according to the present invention dynamically generate, in a server on a network, a menu of contents to be distributed from the server to a client terminal, and display the menu on the client terminal. A method and program for displaying a dynamic menu, comprising: obtaining an access log from a client terminal for each content delivered via the server; and determining an access frequency to each content based on the access log. Calculating, generating a menu page of the content ranked according to the access frequency, and transmitting and displaying the menu page to the client terminal in response to a request from the client terminal. And wherein the door.

As described above, the access frequency to the content is obtained based on the access log to the content, and the content of the menu page is ranked accordingly. The ranking can be performed, for example, based on the display order (posting order).

Preferably, the menu page is automatically generated for each unit period.

[0010] The content menu is prepared, for example, for each predetermined content group, and the content is ranked for each group.

[0011] In the above dynamic menu display method, a step of determining a refund amount according to a rank of the content with respect to a publication fee collected from a provider of the content in connection with the publication of the content on a menu page. May be further provided.

A server on a network for implementing the above dynamic menu display method according to the present invention is distributed via a data storage means for storing contents to be distributed to a client terminal and menu page data thereof, and the server. Access log storage means for storing an access log from a client terminal for each content;
A dynamic menu page generation unit that calculates an access frequency to each of the contents based on the access log, and generates a menu page of the contents ranked according to the access frequency; and Communication processing means for transmitting a menu page to the client terminal and displaying the menu page.

The present invention is also understood as a program storage medium for storing the dynamic menu display program. This program storage medium is used to install the dynamic menu display program in a computer and make it executable by the computer,
For example, floppy (registered trademark) disk, CD-RO
It may include not only package media such as M and DVD, but also a semiconductor memory or a magnetic disk in which a program is temporarily or permanently stored.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of the entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the present specification, the “system” refers to a logical collection of a plurality of devices, and it does not matter whether the devices of each configuration are in the same housing.

This system includes a gateway server 101 having a web server function, a PC 131 or a PDA 133 as a client terminal of a user, via a network 110 such as a mobile communication network or the Internet.
A mobile phone 135 and a content provider (CP) 121 for providing various contents are connected. In this specification, the PDA 133 and the mobile phone 135 are referred to as portable information terminals.

The gateway server 101 constitutes a portal site, and functions as a window for delivering contents provided by a plurality of CPs 121 to users. At the same time, for example, the CP1
21 (specification of page,
Conversion of size, number of colors, file format, etc.). The web server is a server that mainly provides a client with a document described in a markup language such as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) according to the http protocol.

Although the PDA 133 in the illustrated example uses the communication function of the mobile phone 135, the PDA 133 may use a built-in (or inserted) dedicated communication device. When the mobile phone 135 itself has a network connection and web browsing function, the mobile phone 135 can be used alone as a client terminal. The gateway server 101 is connected to the billing system 103 and the authentication server 105, and supports electronic commerce on the Internet. In the present embodiment, the gateway server 101 and the charging system 10
3 and the connection form with the authentication server 105 are not particularly limited.
A dedicated line, a LAN, a telephone network, or the like is optional.

FIG. 2 shows the gateway server 10 in FIG.
1 shows an outline of a hardware configuration. The CPU 510
An OS (Operating System) and various application programs are executed to control each part of the server. ROM5
Reference numeral 11 stores programs executed by the CPU 510 and fixed data of calculation parameters. RAM
Reference numeral 512 provides a work area for the CPU 510 and a temporary storage area for data. ROM 511 and RAM 512
It is connected to CPU 510 via bus 530. Input device 514 such as keyboard, display device 515 such as CRT, liquid crystal display, hard disk device, MO, C
An external storage device 516 such as a D-ROM is connected to the bus 530 via the interface 513. The bus 530 is connected to a network such as the Internet via the communication unit 520. The hardware configurations of the PC 131 and the content provider 121 are basically the same.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of the gateway server 101 from the functional aspect. Gateway server 101
Are a control unit 600 composed mainly of a CPU 510 (FIG. 2), a web data storage unit 611 composed of an external storage device 516 (FIG. 2), and an access log storage unit 6.
15, an access frequency table 617. The control unit 600 includes a communication processing unit 601, a web server processing unit 60
3, a dynamic menu generation unit 605, and an access log analysis unit 607.

The communication processing unit 601 performs communication processing for exchanging data with the client terminal via the communication unit 520.

The web data storage unit 611 stores web data (for example, an HTML document and various image files and audio files incorporated therein) read and written by the web server processing unit 603. Web data constituting a page of a dynamic menu, which is a dynamically generated content menu in the present invention, is also stored in the web data storage unit 611.

The access log storage unit 615 stores access history information when content is accessed from the user's client terminal via the menu. The access log collection / analysis unit 607 collects access logs. , And periodically updates the contents of the access frequency table 617 for ranking the access to the contents in the menu based on the access log information. A specific example of the access frequency table 617 will be described later.

Here, P as one type of portable information terminal
A case in which a web page is browsed by connecting to the Internet from the DA 133 (FIG. 1) will be described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to the use of a PDA.

FIG. 4 shows a specific portal site (name: ○
OO Plaza! 3) shows an example of the hierarchical structure of FIG. This site allows only registered users to enter "My
○○○ Plaza! ", And when a LOGIN is performed with a user ID and a password, the page shifts to that page. Once the user has registered and has performed LOGIN in a regular procedure, it is possible to skip the procedure and go directly to the member-only page by using cookies.

On the member-only page, the user can purchase various kinds of products / services such as “app / content sales”, “My menu” which is a user's own content menu, and “menu list” which is a content menu provided in advance by this site. , And "change of registered contents / user settings" can be selected.
What is relevant in the present embodiment is the “menu list”. The menu list is provided for each content group (for example, genre), and the user can select and browse desired content from the menu of each group.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the "menu list" of FIG. The menu list includes a top menu displaying a list of genres such as travel, sports, and money, and a submenu (a genre-specific menu) displaying a list of a plurality of contents belonging to each genre below the top menu. A menu item of each submenu is associated with a title of a specific content and identification information (for example, URL) for designating the title.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a display screen of a specific submenu (genre of "money") in FIG. Here, the menu items are shown in the form of a list, but the display form of the menu is not limited to this, and may be displayed, for example, with icons. In the present invention, the display order of the menu items of the submenu is dynamically changed in accordance with predetermined conditions described later. The example in the figure is 2
The display screens of May 5, 2001 and May 7, 2001 are shown, indicating that the display order has been changed.

In the present embodiment, the access frequency of the content is used as a criterion for changing the display order. The access frequency is, for example, the number of accesses per unit period such as day or month. (The example of FIG. 6 shows a case of day unit.)

FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of an access frequency table 617 for managing such access frequency.
This table 617 includes, for each genre 621, identification information (CP) 623 of the content belonging to the genre,
Access frequency / the previous day 625, access frequency / the current day 62
6, access frequency / previous month 627, access frequency / current month 6
28. Record and manage the display order 629 of the day. According to the display order 629, a web page of the menu display screen as shown in FIG. 6 is created. In this example, the display order 629 of the menu list on the day is determined according to the number of accesses 625 on the previous day. Access count 626 on the day
Is determined at a predetermined time, the value is transferred to the access number 625 of the previous day. After that, the number of accesses on the day is 6
26 is reset to zero. 627 accesses in the previous month
Is used to determine the amount of the payback (refund) of the content publication fee described later. The access number 628 of the current month is a variable for accumulating the access number of the current month.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a procedure of an access log acquisition process. This process will be described with reference to the example of FIG. Is executed when a specific genre is designated from the menu list and the genre-specific menu is browsed (S11). When the user gives an instruction to access content, which is one of the menu items, from the menu (S1).
2), the access is authenticated (S13). this is,
This is for checking whether or not the access is from a registered user, and can be performed, for example, by the client terminal receiving a user ID and a password. If the authentication is OK, the access time, the identification information of the content to be accessed, the identification information of the user, and the like are stored as an access log in the access log storage unit 615 (FIG. 3), so that the access log is recorded and recorded. Update the access frequency table 617 to permit the user to access the content (S1).
4). Note that the access authentication in step S13 is not essential in the present invention. If the authentication result is NG,
It returns to step S11.

Next, with reference to FIG. 9, an example of a procedure for changing the display order of the display items of the genre-based menu will be described. In this process, first, a predetermined value Y1 (a value corresponding to the time of one day in this example) is set in the timer T (S21), and the timer is started (S22). When the timer value reaches Y1, the timer is stopped (S23), and the number of accesses 62 of the current day in the access frequency table 617 at this time is performed.
6 is moved to the access number 625 of the previous day, and the access number 626 of the current day is reset. Based on the access count 625 of the previous day, the display order 629 of the menu items of the genre-based menu is determined so that the content having the highest access count is arranged in the order of earlier, and the web data storage 6
The menu page in 11 is regenerated (or updated) (S24). By this processing, the genre-specific menu is automatically updated every predetermined unit period (here, one day).

Finally, an example of the procedure of the payback process will be described with reference to FIG. In this process, first, a predetermined value Y2 (in this example, a value corresponding to a one-month time: different for each month) is set in the timer T (S31), and the timer is started (S32). When the timer value reaches Y2, the timer is stopped (S33), the access frequency 628 of the current month in the access frequency table 617 at this time is moved to the access frequency 627 of the previous month, and the access frequency 62 of the current month is moved.
8 is reset to 0. Based on the determined number of accesses 627 of the previous month, the content to be paid back and its amount are determined (S34). Due to the existence of such payback processing, the content provider
It is possible to provide an incentive for enriching the content of the content and improving the attraction. If the attractiveness of the content increases, the number of viewers (registered users) of this portal site is expected to increase, and an increase in income of various fees such as a posting fee and a settlement fee can be expected. Instead of monitoring the timer value, the date and time of the calendar may be monitored.

While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, various modifications and changes other than those described above are possible. For example, although the content menu on the member-only page has been described, it is not necessarily limited to the member-only page. Further, the menu display order is updated on a daily basis, but is not limited to this. For example, the update may be performed on a weekly basis or on a monthly basis. The cycle of the payback is not limited to one month, and the payback itself is not an essential process. The access frequency table 617 is for managing the access status of each content, and specific items are not limited to those shown. Necessary items can be extracted from the access log each time. In this case, the access frequency table 617 becomes unnecessary, but from the viewpoint of reducing the processing load, a storage unit such as the access frequency table 617 is provided. Is preferred.

[0035]

According to the present invention, it is possible to dynamically change the ranking of a content on a menu in a server on a network according to the frequency of access to the content. Such dynamic change of the menu according to the access frequency helps the user to recognize popular content. It also serves as an incentive for content providers to constantly improve the quality and appeal of their content. Payback of the publication fee according to the rank can further increase the incentive. Improving the quality and attractiveness of the content further leads to an increase in the number of accesses to the server.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a hardware configuration of a gateway server in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the gateway server shown in FIG. 1 from a functional aspect.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchical menu list structure of a specific portal site according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the structure of a “menu list” in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a submenu of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an access frequency table for managing content access frequency in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure example of an access log acquisition process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of a display order changing process of display items of a genre-based menu according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure example of a payback process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: gateway server, 103: billing system,
105: authentication server, 121: content provider (CP), 131: personal computer (PC),
133: PDA, 135: mobile phone, 600: control unit,
601: Communication processing unit, 603: Web server processing unit, 605: Dynamic menu generation unit, 607: Access log collection / analysis unit, 611: Web data storage unit, 6
15 access log storage unit, 617 access frequency table

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/60 302 G06F 17/60 302E 332 332 336 336 504 504 ZEC ZEC F-term (Reference) 5B075 KK07 KK07 KK13 KK33 KK38 ND20 ND23 ND36 PP03 PP13 PP30 PQ02 PR04 UU40 5E501 AA02 AB15 BA03 CA03 CB09 DA17 EA12 EB05 FA05 FA22 FA42 FB44

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A dynamic menu display method in which a server on a network dynamically generates a menu of contents to be distributed from the server to a client terminal and displays the menu on the client terminal. Obtaining an access log from the client terminal for each content to be distributed; calculating the access frequency for each content based on the access log; and ranking the content ranked according to the access frequency. A dynamic menu display method, comprising: generating a menu page; and transmitting and displaying the menu page to the client terminal in response to a request from the client terminal. 2. The dynamic menu display method according to claim 1, wherein the menu page is automatically generated for each unit period. 3. The dynamic menu display method according to claim 1, wherein said content menu is prepared for each predetermined content group, and said content is ranked for each group. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a refund amount according to a rank of the content with respect to a publication fee collected from a provider of the content in connection with the publication of the content on a menu page. The dynamic menu display method according to claim 1, wherein: 5. A dynamic menu display program for dynamically generating a menu of contents to be distributed from a server to a client terminal in a server on a network, and displaying the menu on the client terminal, the program comprising: Obtaining an access log from the client terminal for each content to be distributed; calculating the access frequency for each content based on the access log; and ranking the content ranked according to the access frequency. Generating a menu page, and transmitting and displaying the menu page to the client terminal in response to a request from the client terminal, and executing the dynamic menu display program. 6. A program storage medium storing, in a server on a network, a dynamic menu display program for dynamically generating a menu of contents to be distributed from the server to a client terminal and displaying the menu on the client terminal. A step of obtaining an access log from a client terminal for each content distributed via the server; a step of calculating an access frequency to each of the contents based on the access log; and a rank according to the access frequency Generating a menu page of the attached content, and transmitting and displaying the menu page to the client terminal in response to a request from the client terminal, and executing the dynamic menu display program. Stored in the program storage medium. 7. A server on a network, comprising: data storage means for storing content to be delivered to a client terminal and menu page data thereof; and an access log from the client terminal for each content delivered via the server. An access log storage unit for storing, based on the access log, a dynamic menu page generation unit for calculating an access frequency for each of the contents, and generating a menu page of the content ranked according to the access frequency, Communication processing means for transmitting the menu page to the client terminal and displaying the menu page in response to a request from the client terminal.