JP2003108868A - Information providing device and information providing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that although an advertisement of a target corresponding to a user's screen operation (click) can be selected, the user's latent request can't be grasped only from the information related to the screen operation, so an advertisement of a target meeting the user's latent request can't be selected. SOLUTION: This information providing device includes a user category identification part 21 for identifying the category of a user from a retrieval keyword given from the user, and a notifying information select part 22 for selecting the information notified to the user according to the category identified by the user category identification part 21.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing device and an information providing method for providing a user with information (for example, an advertisement) that matches a potential request of the user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art On a corporate portal site or the like on the Internet, a user (site visitor) who accesses every day is accurately displayed an advertisement according to a user's specific request, and is linked to a concrete commercial transaction action. There is a strong demand for it. For example, prioritize the advertisements that the user really clicks from among the advertisements etc. requested by the advertiser from the advertiser that lead to the consumption behavior, and present the advertisements that meet the potential demands of the users. It is a request to do.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a conventional information providing apparatus. In the figure, 1 is a user (website visitor).
The user terminal 2 used by the user accepts the input of the search condition, and the Web client 3 transmits the search condition to the search portal 3. The user 3 uses the corporate portal site 4 browsing the Web page that matches the search condition. A search portal for searching, 4 is a corporate portal site, 5 is a web server of the corporate portal site 4, 6 is a target advertisement selected according to the user's screen operation (click) on the web page, and the advertisement is selected by the user. It is a profile server that transmits to the terminal 1.

Next, the operation will be described. First, the user operates the user terminal 1 to input a search condition when browsing a Web page of his / her interest. When the user inputs the search condition, the Web client 2 of the user terminal 1 sends the search condition to the search portal 3.

The search portal 3 is a Web client 2
When the search condition is received from, We that matches the search condition
Search the company portal site 4 that stores page b. The corporate portal site 4 searched by the search portal 3 transmits the display data of the TOP page among the Web pages stored in the Web server 5 to the user terminal 1 and uses the menu data of other Web pages. It is transmitted to the person terminal 1.

As a result, the Web client 2 of the user terminal 1 displays the TOP page of the company portal site 4 and U related to other Web pages that can be browsed.
RL (Uniform Resource Locat)
or) or a list of icons, etc. is displayed. And
When the user operates the user terminal 1 and clicks a list of URLs or icons related to an arbitrary web page, the display data of the web page is transmitted from the company portal site 4 and the user terminal 1 receives the display data. A web page is displayed.

At this time, the profile server 6 of the company portal site 4 selects a target advertisement corresponding to the user's screen operation (click) according to a preset rule, and the user selects the advertisement. Send to terminal 1. Therefore, in addition to the Web page, the related target advertisement is displayed on the user terminal 1.

In addition to the above-mentioned conventional example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-142907 discloses an information providing apparatus for classifying contents selected by the user by grasping the interest of the user. However, the information providing device does not sufficiently provide the user with information that matches the potential demand of the user, and is different from a device that categorizes the user.

[0009]

Since the conventional information providing apparatus is configured as described above, it is possible to select the target advertisement corresponding to the user's screen operation (click). There is a problem that it is not possible to grasp the potential demand of the user only with the information, and it is impossible to select the target advertisement that matches the potential demand of the user.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and obtains an information providing apparatus and an information providing method capable of providing the user with information that meets the potential demands of the user. The purpose is to

[0011]

An information providing apparatus according to the present invention provides a category identifying means for identifying a category of a user from a search condition acquired by a condition acquiring means, and a category identified by the category identifying means. Accordingly, the information notifying means for selecting the information to be notified to the user and notifying the user of the information is provided.

In the information providing apparatus according to the present invention, when notifying the user of the information selected by the information notifying means, the information is combined with the search result matching the search condition and the user is notified. Is.

In the information providing apparatus according to the present invention, the category identifying means identifies the search category to which the search condition belongs and identifies the category of the user corresponding to the search category.

In the information providing apparatus according to the present invention, the category identifying means identifies the category of the user by referring to the correspondence table between the search category and the user category.

In the information providing apparatus according to the present invention, the information notifying means refers to the correspondence table of user categories and notification information,
The information to be notified to the user is selected.

The information providing method according to the present invention identifies the category of the user from the search condition given by the user,
The information to be notified to the user is selected according to the category of the user, and the information is notified to the user.

In the information providing method according to the present invention, when notifying the user of the selected information, the information is combined with the search result matching the search condition and the user is notified.

The information providing method according to the present invention specifies the search category to which the search condition belongs and identifies the category of the user corresponding to the search category.

In the information providing method according to the present invention, the category of the user is identified by referring to the correspondence table between the search category and the user category.

In the information providing method according to the present invention, the information to be notified to the user is selected by referring to the correspondence table of the user category and the notification information.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Embodiment 1. 1 is a block diagram showing an information providing system applied by an information providing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 11 is a user terminal used by a user (website visitor), and 12 is a search. A Web client such as a Web browser that receives an input of a keyword (search condition) and transmits the search keyword to the company portal site 13. When 13 receives the search keyword from the Web client 12 of the user terminal 11, the search keyword is displayed. This is a company portal site that converts the search expression in a format that can be accepted by the search portal 14 and combines the search result of the search engine unit 15 and the selection information of the profiling unit 16 to notify the user.

Reference numeral 14 is a search portal (information providing device) that is connected to the company portal site 13 via a network line (for example, a dedicated line or the Internet) and provides a search function to the plurality of company portal sites 13, and 15 is a company portal. The search engine unit 16 for searching a Web page according to the search formula output from the site 13 identifies the category of the user from the search keyword after conversion by the company portal site 13, and notifies the user according to the category. A profiling unit that selects information.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the inside of the profiling unit 16. In FIG. 2, 21 is a user who acquires the converted search keyword by the corporate portal site 13 and identifies the category of the user from the search keyword. Category identification unit (condition acquisition means, category identification means), 2
Reference numeral 2 is a notification information selection unit (information notification means) for selecting information to notify the user according to the category identified by the user category identification unit 21, and reference numeral 23 is the company portal for the information selected by the notification information selection unit 22. This is an information notifying section (information notifying means) that outputs to the site 13.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the inside of the company portal site 13. In FIG. 3, 31 is a search condition receiving unit for receiving a search keyword from the Web client 12 of the user terminal 11, and 32 is a search condition receiving unit 31. A search expression generation unit that converts the received search keyword into a search expression in a format that can be accepted by the search portal 14, 33 is a display that generates the display information by combining the search result of the search engine unit 15 and the selection information of the profiling unit 16. It is an information generation unit (information notification means). FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an information providing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

Next, the operation will be described. First, the user operates the user terminal 11 to input a search keyword when browsing a Web page of his / her interest. When the user inputs a search keyword, the Web client 12 of the user terminal 11 transmits the search keyword to the company portal site 13 (step ST
1).

The search expression generator 3 of the company portal site 13
When the search condition receiving unit 31 receives the search keyword transmitted from the user terminal 11, the search condition receiving unit 31 converts the search keyword into a search expression in a format that the search portal 14 can accept, and the converted search keyword (search expression). Is output to the search portal 14 (step ST2). Search portal 14
The user category identification unit 21 of the company portal site 1
When the converted search keyword is acquired from 3, the category of the user is identified from the search keyword (step ST3). Specifically, the category of the user is identified as follows.

First, the user category identifying unit 21 identifies the search category to which the search keyword belongs (hereinafter referred to as KW category), and refers to the correspondence table shown in FIG. Specify the group of users who will
That is, the search keyword given by the user a is KWu.
And KWv, where the search keyword KWu is an element of KW category 2 and the search keyword KWv is an element of KW category x, the weights of KW category 2 and KW category x are used in the correspondence table of FIG. User group B has the highest value, so user a is identified as belonging to user group B.

For example, the search keyword KWu = “cylinder”, the search keyword KWv = “stove”,
When "cylinder" is an element of KW category 2 = "camping equipment" and "stove" is an element of KW category x = "cookware", in the correspondence table of Fig. 5A, KW category 2
Since the weight of the KW category x is highest in the user group B (group interested in outdoor activities), the user a is identified as belonging to the user group B.

At this time, the values (weights) in the correspondence table of FIG. 5A are updated from the KW frequency ratio of the entire table by a known statistical learning method based on the frequency information of the search keyword KW. . Any statistical method used in that case can be used as long as it represents the characteristics of the appearance tendency of the search keyword KW in the entire table, and any method does not impair the essence of the present invention.

Notification information selection section 22 of search portal 14
When the user category identifying unit 21 identifies the user group to which the user belongs, the target category which is the notification information corresponding to the user group is selected with reference to the correspondence table of FIG. 5B ( Step ST4). At this time, in the user group B, since the weight of the KW category y is high in addition to the KW category 2 and the KW category x, not only the advertisement regarding the KW category 2 and the KW category x but also the advertisement regarding the KW category y The latent demand for is selected as high information.

For example, when selecting a target advertisement associated with the user group B (group interested in outdoor activities), the user group B has KW category 2 = “camping equipment” and KW category x = “ In addition to “cookware”, the weight of KW category y = “cosmetics” is also high, so KW category y = “cosmetics” is used in addition to advertisements related to directly input search keywords KW “cylinder” and “stove”. This is a case where an advertisement regarding "sunscreen" is selected as the related advertisement Y. In other words, an advertisement called "sunscreen" that is likely to call the interest of the user a to the user a who is interested in outdoor activities is selected as the notification information.

When the notification information selection unit 22 selects the notification information as described above, the information notification unit 23 of the search portal 14 outputs the notification information to the company portal site 13 (step ST5). The display information generation unit 33 of the company portal site 13 combines the display data of the Web page that matches the search conditions searched by the search engine unit 15 with the notification information selected by the profiling unit 16, and uses the combined result. Certain display information is transmitted to the user terminal 11 (step ST6). As a result, the Web page that matches the search condition and the information that matches the user's potential request are displayed on the user terminal 11.

As is clear from the above, the first embodiment
According to the above, since the category of the user is identified from the search keyword given by the user and the information to be notified to the user is selected according to the category of the user, the potential of the user It is possible to provide the user with information that matches the request.

Embodiment 2. In the above-described first embodiment, the target advertisement is notified as the information that matches the potential request of the user, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a web page or other content is notified. You may do it. Although not particularly mentioned in the first embodiment, the search target by the search engine unit 15 may be a Web page or the like collected by a robot from the Internet, or may be collected in advance in a format such as a directory. The content may have been

In the first embodiment described above, the search keyword is used as the search condition. However, the input of a natural language expression such as a sentence or a sentence may be used as the search condition, and the search expression generation unit 32 or the search engine. The search keyword may be automatically extracted from the natural language input in the unit 15.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, the category identifying means for identifying the category of the user from the search condition acquired by the condition acquiring means and the category identified by the category identifying means Since the information notifying means for selecting the information to be notified to the user and notifying the information to the user is provided, it is possible to provide the user with the information matching the potential request of the user. effective.

According to the present invention, when notifying the user of the information selected by the information notifying means, the information is combined with the search result that matches the search condition to notify the user. There is an effect that the search result that matches the condition and the information that matches the potential request can be viewed at the same time.

According to the present invention, the category identifying means is
Since the search category to which the search condition belongs is specified and the category of the user corresponding to the search category is identified, the category of the user can be easily identified.

According to the present invention, since the category identifying means is configured to identify the category of the user by referring to the correspondence table between the search category and the user category, the category can be utilized without complicating the configuration. There is an effect that the category of the person can be identified.

According to the present invention, the information notifying means is configured to select the information to be notified to the user by referring to the correspondence table of the user category and the notification information, so that the structure is not complicated. There is an effect that the notification information can be selected.

According to the present invention, the category of the user is identified from the search condition given by the user, the information to be notified to the user is selected according to the category of the user, and the information is sent to the user. Since the notification is made, it is possible to provide the user with information that matches the user's potential request.

According to the present invention, when the selected information is notified to the user, the information is combined with the search result matching the search condition and notified to the user, so that the search condition is matched. There is an effect that the search result and the information matching the potential request can be viewed at the same time.

According to the present invention, since the search category to which the search condition belongs is specified and the category of the user corresponding to the search category is identified, the category of the user can be easily identified. There is an effect that can be done.

According to the present invention, since the user category is identified by referring to the correspondence table between the search category and the user category, the user category can be identified without complicating the configuration. There is an effect that can be identified.

According to the present invention, the correspondence table of the user category and the notification information is referred to so that the information to be notified to the user is selected, so that the notification information can be sent without complicating the structure. There is an effect that can be selected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an information providing system applied by an information providing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the inside of a profiling unit.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing the inside of a company portal site.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an information providing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence table.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a conventional information providing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 user terminal, 12 web client, 13
Corporate portal site, 14 search portal (information providing device), 15 search engine unit, 16 profiling unit, 21 user category identification unit (condition acquisition unit, category identification unit), 22 notification information selection unit (information notification unit), 23 Information notifying unit (information notifying unit), 31 search condition receiving unit, 32 search expression generating unit, 33 display information generating unit (information notifying unit).

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme Coat (reference) G06F 13/00 540 G06F 13/00 540E 17/30 340 17/30 340A (72) Inventor Aikawa Yuuyuki Tokyo 2-3-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo F term in Sanryo Electric Co., Ltd. (reference) 5B075 KK07 KK34 KK39 NR10 NR12 PP22 PQ02 PQ42 PR08

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A condition acquisition means for acquiring a search condition given by a user, a category identification means for identifying a category of a user from the search condition acquired by the condition acquisition means, and an identification by the category identification means. An information providing apparatus comprising: information notifying means for selecting information to be notified to a user according to the selected category and notifying the user of the information. 2. The information notifying means, when notifying the user of the selected information, combines the information with a search result that matches the search condition and notifies the user.
Information providing device described. 3. The category identifying means identifies a search category to which a search condition belongs and identifies a category of a user corresponding to the search category.
Information providing device described. 4. The information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the category identifying means identifies the category of the user by referring to a correspondence table between the search category and the user category. 5. The information providing device according to claim 1, wherein the information notifying means selects information to be notified to the user by referring to a correspondence table of user categories and notification information. 6. When a search condition given by a user is acquired, a category of the user is identified from the search condition, information to be notified to the user is selected according to the category of the user, and the information is selected. Method of providing information to notify the user. 7. The information providing method according to claim 6, wherein when notifying the user of the selected information, the information is combined with a search result that matches the search condition and notified to the user. 8. The information providing method according to claim 6, wherein a search category to which the search condition belongs is specified, and a category of a user corresponding to the search category is identified. 9. The information providing method according to claim 8, wherein the category of the user is identified by referring to a correspondence table between the search category and the user category. 10. The information providing method according to claim 6, wherein the information to be notified to the user is selected with reference to the correspondence table of the user category and the notification information.