JP2003330846A - Information delivery method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a promising information delivery method for high advertisement effect capable of delivering an advertisement at an optimum timing for an advertiser under a network environment. <P>SOLUTION: When the header information of advertisement information is entered and posted to an information server 3, the terminal computer 4 of a general user accesses the information server 3 every prescribed time interval to download the latest news information and advertisement information stored in the information server 3, and successively and fluently display the header information on a strip display area 21 provided in a display screen 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an information distribution method using the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Advertising techniques using the Internet
There is a banner ad. In this banner advertisement, for example, a banner image linked to the advertiser's advertisement page is posted on the web page opened by the content provider,
When a general user operates a web page browsing software (hereinafter referred to as a browser) to access a web page of a content provider and then selects a banner image,
The advertising page is open.

[0003]

According to this advertising method, since an advertisement can be distributed to an unspecified number of people who have accessed the web page of the content provider, a great advertising effect can be expected. However, the content provider's web page is updated only a few times a day at most, and it is impossible for the advertiser to deliver the advertisement effectively at the optimum timing, and the advertisement is delivered flexibly. It is not possible. In addition, the content of the content and the content of the banner advertisement are generally unrelated, so users who are interested in the content are unlikely to ignore the advertisement or pay attention to it.
Therefore, it is indispensable to create an attractive banner image in order to attract the attention of the user, which is also disadvantageous in that the cost of the advertiser is great. Furthermore, due to the recent development of digital technology, it is possible to cut and display only a banner image, which is a serious problem for advertisers. However, the banner itself is CGI (Common Gatew
ay Interface), the banner advertisement can be drawn according to a predetermined schedule, so the advertisement can be delivered at the timing desired by the advertiser. The inconvenience that the banner image is cut cannot be avoided.

In addition, in this advertisement method, since the activation of the browser is indispensable, the browser consumes a large amount of memory area of the user's terminal computer (hereinafter referred to as PC), and the processing of the PC is light. Movement may be disturbed. In addition, a computer virus or worm that causes a PC to malfunction by simply accessing a web page by hitting a vulnerable part of the browser, forcibly opening a large number of browser windows and freezing the PC with no remaining memory. Malicious programs represented by browser crushers are widely available, and it cannot be said that advertising methods using browsers are safe for general users.

An object of the present invention is to obtain an information distribution method which can reduce the cost burden on the advertiser, can distribute the advertisement at the optimum timing for the advertiser, and can expect a high advertising effect. An object of the present invention is to obtain information such as advertisements, news and the like without relying on a browser, and thus to reduce the processing load on the PC of a general user and to provide a highly safe information distribution method. .

[0006]

According to the present invention, a content server 1 in which news content as shown in FIG. 1 is recorded and an advertisement server 2 in which advertising content is recorded.
, An information server 3 for recording news information and advertisement information, a terminal device 7 of a content provider, a terminal device 8 of an advertiser, and a terminal computer 4 of a general user.
In the network environment where and are connected via the Internet 5, an information distribution method for distributing news information and advertisement information to the terminal computer 4 of a general user is targeted. This information distribution method is, as shown in FIG. 6, a news information input step (S) in which news information including heading information of news content is input from the terminal device 7 of the content provider to the information server 3.
1) and the advertising information including the heading information of the advertising content sent from the terminal device 8 of the advertiser is stored in the information server 3
When the advertisement information input step (S2) is input to the general user, the terminal computer 4 of the general user accesses the information server 3 at predetermined time intervals, and the news information and the advertisement information stored in the information server 3 Download step (S3, S4), and the general user terminal computer 4 is included in the strip-shaped display area 21 that is long in the left-right direction of the display screen 20 and is included in the news information and advertisement information downloaded in the download step. A display step (S5) of sequentially displaying the headline information in a flowing manner. The download step (S3, S4) and the display step (S5) are performed by information display software installed in the terminal computer 4 in advance.

The information display software accesses the information server 3 every tens of seconds to several minutes, and the news information and advertisement information recorded in the information server 3 and the news information downloaded in the immediately preceding download step and It is possible to compare with the advertising information and download only new information.

The news information sent from the information server 3 to the terminal computer 4 includes index information for organizing, genre information for categorizing genres, and URL for accessing news contents, in addition to the heading information. Information and may be included. Further, the advertisement information sent from the information server 3 to the terminal computer 4 includes index information for organizing, genre information for categorizing genres, and URL information for accessing advertisement content, in addition to the above-mentioned headline information. It may include and.

The terminal device 7 of the content provider and the terminal device 8 of the advertiser may be mobile devices 7b and 8b having a function of connecting to the Internet 5.

[0010]

According to the information distribution method of the present invention,
When the headline information of the advertisement information is input / posted to the information server 3, the terminal computer 4 of the general user is at a predetermined time interval (for example, every tens of seconds to several minutes, specifically, every 30 seconds to 5 minutes). To access the information server 3, download the latest news information and headline information of advertisement information stored in the information server 3, and flow the headline information to the display area 21 provided on the display screen 20. Are displayed in sequence. The download operation and the display operation of the terminal computer 4 are executed by the information display software independent of the browser.

Therefore, the general user has a great advantage that the latest news information and advertisement information can be obtained in real time without activating a browser. In addition, the headline information is sequentially displayed so as to flow in a strip-shaped display area 21 that is provided in the display screen 20 and is long in the left-right direction.
If such a display area 21 is placed at the lower end of the display screen 20 (near the so-called task bar), it will not interfere with work operations related to other applications such as CAD software.
In addition, since the startup of the browser can be minimized, it is less likely that a computer virus, worm, or browser crusher will be encountered, and the terminal computer 4
The safety of can be secured. In addition, since the browser generally occupies a large amount of memory area and memory resources, the light processing operation of the terminal computer 4 may be hindered. However, the information distribution method according to the present invention basically downloads the information. Since an application (information display software) having only two functions of the function and the display function is used, the consumption of the memory area is small, and thus the load on the terminal computer 4 is small.

As mentioned above, the terminal computer 4
Accesses the information server 3 every tens of seconds to several minutes,
The latest news information and advertisement information stored in the information server 3 are downloaded and their headline information is displayed. Therefore, for the advertiser who provides the advertisement information, it is possible to effectively deliver the advertisement at the optimum timing, and a high advertisement effect can be expected. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, when the news information is related to soccer, the most attention is given,
Since it becomes possible to display the headline information related to the advertisement before or after the display of the headline information related to the score, a high advertising effect can be obtained. In addition, since the distributed advertisement includes only text-type headline information, it is advantageous in that the cost burden on the advertiser can be relatively low.

First, for a content provider that provides news information, it is possible to increase recognition through information display software. That is, as the information display software spreads, new users can be effectively acquired. In addition, as mentioned earlier, information display software can be used to check the update status of the site in real time, which will contribute to the maintenance of existing users. Furthermore, it is also advantageous in that no additional investment or system change is required.

The information display software accesses the information server 3 at a predetermined time interval, and the news information and advertisement information recorded in the information server 3 and the news information and advertisement information downloaded in the immediately preceding download step. Compared with, and if only new information is downloaded, the size of information related to the download can be smaller than the case where all information is downloaded each time the information server 3 is accessed. Comfortable information distribution is realized without being affected by the connection environment of the general user's terminal computer 4 to the Internet 5. That is, not only in a broadband environment represented by ADSL, but also in a connection environment such as dial-up, smooth information distribution is possible.

The news information sent from the information server 3 to the terminal computer 4 includes index information for organizing, genre information for categorizing genres, and URL for accessing news contents, in addition to the above-mentioned heading information. Information and. Further, the advertisement information sent from the information server 3 to the terminal computer 4 includes index information for organizing and URL information for accessing the advertisement content in addition to the above-mentioned headline information. Thus, the information display software, based on the index information related to the news information and the advertisement information, the news information and the advertisement information recorded in the previous information server 3 and the news information and the advertisement information downloaded in the immediately preceding download step. It is easy to compare and download only new information. Further, the information display software classifies the headline information based on the genre information and displays it in the display area 21. When the headline information displayed in the display area 21 is selected (that is, when the mouse pointer is clicked while being aligned with the headline information), the browser is activated, and the browser is based on the URL information. To access the content server 1 or the advertisement server 2,
A web page of news content or advertisement content associated with the headline information is displayed on the display screen 20. With this, general users can browse web pages related to news content and advertisement content.

If the terminal device 7 of the content provider and the terminal device 8 of the advertiser are mobile devices 7b and 8b such as a mobile phone having a function of connecting to the Internet 5, news information and Advertisement information can be input / posted to the information server 3. This allows the advertiser to deliver the advertisement at a more optimal timing. It also has the advantage of being able to deliver advertisements even when you are out. In addition, content providers have the advantage of being able to easily deliver the latest news information. For general users, there is an advantage that the latest news information and advertisement information can be obtained.

[0017]

1 is a diagram showing an Internet environment to which an information distribution method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a content server in which news content is recorded, reference numeral 2 is an advertisement server in which advertisement content is recorded, reference numeral 3 is an information server in which news information and advertisement information are recorded, and reference numeral 4 is. The terminal computer of a general user is shown. Each of these hosts is connected to the Internet 5 via a LAN or a communication network.

The content server 1 records various news contents such as sports, entertainment, politics, economy, society, and international in HTML (Hyper Text Language) format documents and provides them on the Internet. The content provider in the figure is a person who provides / updates the content of the content server 1, specifically, an internet provider that provides a connection service to the internet and a newspaper company that provides various news content on the internet. And information providers related to media such as magazine companies. Reference numeral 7a indicates a terminal computer of the content provider, and reference numeral 7b indicates a mobile device such as a mobile phone having a connection function to the Internet. The terminal devices 7 such as the terminal computer 7a and the mobile device 7b are also connected to the Internet 5.

The advertisement server 2 records various advertisement contents in HTML format documents and provides them on the Internet. The advertiser in the figure is a person who provides / updates the content of the advertisement server 2, and specifically, various service providers such as insurance companies, securities companies, telephone companies, and distributors such as online shops, Furthermore, various manufacturing and sales companies such as drinking water manufacturers, cosmetics manufacturers, and home electric appliance manufacturers can be mentioned. Sign 8a
Indicates a terminal computer of the advertiser, and reference numeral 8b indicates a mobile device such as a mobile phone having a function of connecting to the Internet owned by the advertiser. These terminal computers 8a
A terminal device 8 such as a mobile device 8b or a mobile device 8b is also connected to the Internet 5.

The information server 3 is a device for providing the general users with the news information sent from the content provider and the advertisement information sent from the advertiser, and the news database 10 in which the news information is recorded. (Hereinafter, referred to as news DB), an advertisement database 11 (hereinafter, referred to as advertisement DB) in which advertisement information is recorded, a user usage history database 12 in which usage history of general users is recorded, attributes of general users, etc. And a user database 13 in which is stored.
The information server 3 also includes a transmitting / receiving means 14 for transmitting / receiving data to / from the terminal computer 4 and the terminal devices 7 and 8.

The transmission / posting of news information from the content provider to the information server 3 is performed by the terminal device 7 owned by the provider. 2 shows a news information transmission screen of the terminal computer 7a, in which the genre to which the news belongs (type in the figure), news headline information (text in the figure), and news content of the content server 1 are displayed. U to access
RL information and is input. In addition, the genre is a pull-down type selection field, and it is possible to select from sports, entertainment, politics, economy, society, and international genres.

When the send button is clicked after inputting all items, the headline information and the like are displayed on the Internet 2.
Is transmitted to the information server 3 via. An ID number and password issued in advance are required for sending / posting news information. That is, prior to the news information transmission screen, an authentication screen for confirming the identity of the sender is displayed, and it is necessary to enter the ID number and password there. Note that news information can also be transmitted / posted from a mobile device 7b such as a mobile phone having a function of connecting to the Internet 5.

FIG. 3 shows a screen for transmitting advertisement information to the information server 3 of the terminal computer 8a of the advertiser. In such an advertisement information transmission screen, the advertisement delivery date and time (broadcast year, broadcast month, broadcast date, broadcast time in the figure), advertiser name, advertisement headline information (advertisement text in the figure), advertisement URL to access the advertising content of server 2
Information and are entered. Prior to sending / posting advertisement information, a previously issued ID number and password are required.
The point that an advertisement can be transmitted from a mobile device 8b such as a mobile phone is exactly the same as the above-described method of transmitting news information.

The news DB 10 of the information server 3 is a recording means for storing the news information sent from the terminal device 7 of the content provider, and as shown in FIG. 4, "management No.", "heading", ""URL","genre","content provider name", "post date"
Stores each information of. “Management No.” is a number for organizing the headline information posted by the content provider, that is, index information. "Posted date"
Is the date and time when the news information was input to the information server 3.

Similarly, the advertisement DB 11 of the information server 3
Is a recording means for storing the advertisement information sent from the terminal device 8 of the advertiser, and as shown in FIG.
o. , "Headline", "URL", "advertiser name", "airing date / time", etc. are stored.

On the terminal computer 4 of a general user,
At least a browser and information display software are installed. Here, the browser is an application for viewing or reading an HTML document, that is, a homepage browsing application.

The information display software is an application independent of the browser and used only for the information distribution method of the present invention, and is stored in the information server 3 by accessing the information server 3 via the Internet 5. The download function for downloading the present news information and the advertisement information to the terminal computer 4 and the downloaded news information in the strip-shaped display area 21 that is long in the left-right direction of the display screen 20 of the terminal computer 4 as shown in FIG. The display function is provided for sequentially displaying the text-type headline information included in the advertisement information so as to flow from the upstream side (right end side) to the downstream side (left end) side. This strip-shaped display area 21 can be always displayed in the foreground when it overlaps with the display areas of other applications. The height and width of the display area 21 and the character color can be freely changed. The general user may be allowed to arbitrarily select the genre of the news information displayed in the display area 21. The display area 21 may be lengthened in the vertical direction, and headline information such as advertisements and news may be flowed so as to flow from the upper side to the lower side. Again, it should be noted here that the information display software is independent of the browser and not the plug-in function of the browser.

Next, the operation of the information distribution method according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the timing chart shown in FIG. Note that information acquisition or provision (indicated by an arrow in the figure) in the following operation is performed via the Internet 5 unless otherwise specified.

First, news information is input from the terminal device 7 of the content provider to the information server 3 (S1). Specifically, heading information, genre information, U
RL information and the like are input to the information server 3. Further, before or after the news information input step (S1), the advertisement information is input from the advertiser's terminal device 8 to the information server 3 (S2). Specifically, headline information, genre information, URL information, broadcast date / time information, etc. are input to the information server 3. Various information input to the information server 3 from the terminal devices 7 and 8 is used for news DB and advertisement DB.
Stored in. This news information input step (S
Prior to 1) or the advertisement information input step (S2), an authentication work for authenticating a content provider or an advertiser using an ID number issued in advance is performed. In addition,
When the broadcast time desired by the advertiser overlaps, the broadcast time needs to be scheduled. Therefore, the administrator of the server 3 may input the advertisement information to the information server 3.

When the information display software installed in the terminal computer 4 is activated, the information display software accesses the information server 3 (S3) and downloads news information and advertisement information (S4). In the download step (S4), various information such as news information and advertisement information is acquired in text format. Here, a series of download steps (S3, S
4) is set to be executed every 30 seconds.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1, the information display software of the terminal computer 4 displays the headline information included in the downloaded news information and advertisement information on the display screen 20.
Are sequentially displayed / broadcast on the display area 21 so as to flow from right to left (S5). With this, for general users,
News information and advertisement information can be distributed.
The information display software displays the headline information according to the genre information and the distribution time information.

When the headline information is selected, the terminal computer 4 activates a browser and uses the URL information included in the news information and the advertisement information to use the content server 1.
Or ad server 2 etc. to access these servers 1
Download and display the HTML format web page related to the content content stored in 2 (S6). However,
The operation by the browser is performed only when the headline information is selected.

When a predetermined time (for example, 30 seconds) elapses,
The information display software returns to S3 and again the information server 3
To download the news information and the advertisement information (S4). That is, the information display software accesses the information server 3 at predetermined time intervals. And
The news information and the advertisement information recorded in the information server 3 are compared with the news information and the advertisement information downloaded in the last download step, and only new information is downloaded. The access step (S3), the download step (S4), and the display step (S5) are continued until the information display software is finished.

The usage history of the general user is accumulated in the user usage history database 12 of the information server 3 and used for measuring the marketing effect, the advertisement distribution standard and the like.

As described above, according to the information distribution method of this embodiment, the headline information of the advertisement information is stored in the information server 3
After inputting / posting, the terminal computer 4 of the general user accesses the information server 3 at predetermined time intervals and downloads the latest news information and advertisement information stored in the information server 3. Since the headline information is sequentially displayed in a display area 21 provided on the display screen 20, the general user has a great advantage of being able to obtain the latest news information and advertisement information in real time. . For the advertiser who provides the advertisement information, it is possible to deliver the advertisement effectively at the optimum timing, and a high advertisement effect can be expected.

Further, since the information can be distributed without using a browser, the consumption amount of the memory area of the terminal computer 4 can be small and the load on the terminal computer 4 can be minimized. Further, the probability of being infected with a computer virus or the like can be suppressed to a low level, and safety can be secured.

The news information transmission screens and the advertisement information transmission screens shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are examples, and the present invention is not limited to these. The display area by the information display software is not limited to the portion shown in FIG. 1, and may be, for example, a vertically long strip-shaped area. The news DB 10 and the advertisement DB 11 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are examples, and the present invention is not limited to this.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a network configuration of an information distribution method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a news information transmission screen of the terminal computer 7a.

FIG. 3 is an advertisement information transmission screen of the terminal computer 8a.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a news database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of an advertisement database.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart of the operation of the information distribution method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Content server 2 Ad server 3 information server 4 terminal computer 5 Internet 7 Terminal equipment 7b Mobile device 8 terminal equipment 8b mobile devices 20 display screen 21 Display area

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A content server 1 for recording news content, an advertisement server 2 for recording advertisement content, an information server 3 for recording news information and advertisement information, and a terminal device 7 of a content provider.
In a network environment in which the terminal device 8 of the advertiser and the terminal computer 4 of the general user are connected via the Internet 5, information distribution for distributing news information and advertisement information to the terminal computer 4 of the general user In the method, the news information including the heading information of the news content is input to the information server 3 from the terminal device 7 of the content provider and the advertising content sent from the terminal device 8 of the advertiser. The advertisement information input step in which the advertisement information including the headline information is input to the information server 3, and the terminal computer 4 of the general user accesses the information server 3 at every predetermined time interval, and the information server 3
A download step of downloading the news information and the advertisement information stored in, and the general user's terminal computer 4 displays the news information downloaded in the download step in a strip-shaped display area 21 which is long in the left-right direction of the display screen 20. And a display step of sequentially displaying headline information included in the advertisement information in a flowing manner, wherein the download step and the display step are performed by information display software preinstalled in the terminal computer 4. And information distribution method. 2. The information display software accesses the information server 3 at predetermined time intervals, and the news information and advertisement information recorded in the information server 3 and the news information downloaded in the immediately preceding download step and The information distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information is compared and only new information is downloaded. 3. Information server 3 to terminal computer 4
In addition to the above heading information, the news information sent to
It includes index information for organizing, genre information for categorizing genres, and URL information for accessing news contents. The advertisement information sent from the information server 3 to the terminal computer 4 is Besides information, index information for organizing and U for accessing advertising content
The information distribution method according to claim 1 or 2, which includes RL information. 4. A terminal device 7 of a content provider,
The terminal device 8 of the advertiser is a mobile device 7b or 8b having a function of connecting to the Internet 5.
Alternatively, the information distribution method described in 2 or 3.