JP3623939B2 - Information providing system and method based on request data - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technique for providing a request information screen representing main information requested via a communication network such as the Internet to a requesting user terminal via the communication network.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As one of information providing methods, for example, an advertising method, a method of displaying an advertisement article or a banner advertisement on a Web page is known. As a Web page for displaying advertisements, a Web page of a portal site with a large number of accesses, for example, a top page of a search site providing an information search service seems to be selected.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, just because an advertisement is displayed on a Web page with a large number of accesses, a sufficient advertisement effect is not always obtained. The main reason is in the following (1) and (2).
[0004]
(1) Since the displayed advertisement is fixed, it does not necessarily meet the needs of the user who accesses the Web page on which the advertisement is displayed.
[0005]
(2) The portal site is generally a place where the Internet user first accesses when searching for desired information, and the user does not end up aiming to access the portal site itself. There is a possibility that the user has been jumped to a web page of another site without seeing.
[0006]
A similar problem may exist not only in advertising but also in various other information providing business fields.
[0007]
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method that can provide information effectively.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An information providing system according to a first aspect of the present invention is an information providing system that provides additional information to a request information screen that represents main information requested from a user terminal, and provides the additional information to the user terminal. A means for receiving request data for requesting specific main information from the user terminal (this request data is not limited to an http request), a means for analyzing the received request data, and an analysis of the request data A means for selecting specific additional information from a plurality of additional information based on the result, and a request information screen representing the specific main information requested, and the specific additional information selected above on the request information screen And means for providing the user terminal with a request information screen to which specific additional information has been added Equipped with a.
[0009]
In this case, the main information may be blank as described in a modification of the embodiment described later. In other words, the “request information screen representing the main information requested from the user terminal” may be a blank screen on which only the display position of the additional information is represented.
[0010]
In a preferred embodiment, the request data includes sub-data (for example, a referrer variable described later) that changes in accordance with an operation performed in the past at the user terminal, and the selecting means selects from among a plurality of additional information. Whether to select additional information is controlled according to the sub-data. Specifically, for example, the sub-data changes according to a search key used for searching for specific main information performed in the past at the user terminal. Alternatively, the sub-data is a display order of specific main information (this main information is, for example, simple information described later) in the search result list displayed as a result of searching for specific main information performed in the past on the user terminal. It depends on.
[0011]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information providing method in which additional information is added to a request information screen representing main information requested from a user terminal and the information is provided to the user terminal. Receiving request data for requesting information; analyzing received request data; selecting specific additional information from a plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data; Preparing a request information screen representing the requested specific main information, adding the selected additional information to the request information screen, and a request information screen with the specific additional information added to the user Providing to the terminal.
[0012]
The computer program according to the third aspect of the present invention can realize a system that provides additional information to a request information screen that represents main information requested from a user terminal, and provides the user terminal with the additional information. Analyzing the received request data for requesting specific main information received, selecting specific additional information from a plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data, and the requested specific And a step of adding the selected specific additional information to the request information screen representing the main information.
[0013]
Each element included in the system of the present invention can be provided in a single device, or can be shared by a plurality of devices.
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an advertisement will be taken as an example of additional information, and an embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0015]
FIG. 1 shows the entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0016]
In a communication network such as the Internet 7, a user terminal 1 such as a personal computer, a mobile phone, or a PDA used by a user, and a plurality of Web servers (only two are shown for convenience, hereinafter referred to as a search site) 3A providing an information search service 3B and a plurality of Web servers that register simple information described later in the search site 3A or 3B that can be listed as search results in the information search by the search site 3A or 3B (only two are shown for convenience, hereinafter, an information providing server) 5A and 5B are connected. The simple information is information that simply represents information (hereinafter, main information) that can be held and provided by the information providing servers 5A and 5B (for example, information in which the main information is expressed only in text). Compared to the main information, it is small in size.
[0017]
The user terminal 1 is equipped with a WWW browser (not shown) that displays the Web pages provided by the search sites 3A, 3B and the information providing servers 5A, 5B so that the user can browse. The WWW browser can access the Web pages in the search servers 3A, 3B and the information providing servers 5A, 5B via the Internet 7 and display the access destination Web page in response to a user request. In addition, when simple information is listed as a search result at the search site 3A or 3B, the WWW browser displays simple information according to the user's request from the listed simple information according to the user's request. Can be specified. At this time, the WWW browser searches for the IP address of the information providing server 5A or 5B that holds the main information of the link destination of the designated simple information, and if it finds it, it makes a TCP connection to the information providing server 5A or 5B and Request data to be described in detail later (sometimes referred to as “http request”) is transmitted to 5A or 5B.
[0018]
The search sites 3A and 3B receive an input of a search word (keyword) from the user of the user terminal 1, and search for information related to the search word from a database (not shown) managed by the search site 3A and 3B. The found information is displayed as a search result on the user terminal 1 in a list. The search service provided by the search sites 3A and 3B is not limited to a service that searches based on a search word. For example, information items are managed in a hierarchical manner, and information items can be selected based on the hierarchical relationship. There is also a service for searching for information desired by the user by displaying the information items in 1 and tracing the information items hierarchically from upper to lower.
[0019]
The information providing servers 5A and 5B include main information (for example, an html file, hereinafter referred to as a main information page) linked to simple information that can be displayed as a list as a result of the search at the search site 3A or 3B, and a plurality of advertisement information (for example, html files). ) And hold. When the user terminal 1 that communicates with the search site 3A or 3B and displays the search result specifies its own simple information from the search result, the information providing servers 5A and 5A specify the user terminal 1 (strictly Receives request data from the WWW browser of the user terminal 1, analyzes specific information in the request data, selects specific advertisement information from the plurality of advertisement information based on the analysis result, and selects The advertisement information is displayed at a predetermined position on the main information page, and the main information page is provided to the user terminal 1 that is the request data transmission source and displayed.
[0020]
Here, the request data is data for requesting the main information that is the link destination of the designated simple information, and the request data includes, for example, the following information (1) to (6) ( Note that (2) to (6) are request headers describing details regarding the request data).
[0021]
(1) “Get”
“Get” represents the name of a directory in which a Web page (for example, an html file, hereinafter referred to as a main information page) displaying the linked main information is stored.
[0022]
(2) “User-Agent”
The “User-Agent” header indicates information that can identify a used browser (for example, a WWW browser) of the user terminal 1 that is a transmission source of request data.
[0023]
(3) “Accept”
The “Accept” header indicates information (for example, text, html, etc.) that represents the type of data that can be processed by the browser used by the user terminal 1 among the data received from the server.
[0024]
(4) "Cookie"
The “Cookie” header indicates the name and value of a cookie (data block for specifying a user) received from the server 5A or 5B that previously accessed the request data transmission destination server 5A or 5B.
[0025]
(5) “Referer”
The “Referer” header represents information related to the link source of the main information page to be downloaded (hereinafter referred to as referrer information). The referrer information includes a URL of link source information and information corresponding to an operation performed on the user terminal 1 when the user terminal 1 is connected to the link source site. Specifically, for example, when the web page on which the link source information is displayed is a web page (hereinafter referred to as a search result page) in which one or more pieces of simple information are displayed as a search result, the referrer information is displayed. Is the URL of the search result page (that is, the URL of the link source), the display order of the designated simple information (information indicating the number displayed from the top on the search result page), the input search word, etc. It is included. Here, among the information described here, the display order of the search word itself and the designated simple information differs depending on the input search word. Hereinafter, such information is referred to as “referrer variable”. There are a plurality of types of referrer variables. In the following description, it is assumed that the referrer variables are search terms. Note that the number of link source pages of the main information page is not limited to one, and there may be a plurality of, or many, in some cases. In this case, in the request data requesting the same main information page, the above-mentioned referrer Not only variables but also URLs of link source pages may be different. Therefore, in a broad sense, the referrer variable includes the URL of the link source page.
[0026]
(6) “Host”
The “Host” header represents the host name of the URL of the request data transmission destination (that is, the link destination).
[0027]
The information providing servers 5A and 5B analyze a referrer variable included in the referrer information of the request data described above, for example, a search word, and select specific advertisement information from a plurality of advertisement information according to the analysis result. The selected advertisement information is displayed at a predetermined position on the main information page, and the main information page is provided to the user terminal 1 for display. Hereinafter, this will be specifically described with reference to FIG.
[0028]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram specifically showing the information providing server 5A (the other information providing server 5B is essentially the same).
[0029]
The information providing server 5A includes a search site definition file 15 in which search sites 3A and 3B are defined, and a plurality of types of advertisement information such as banner advertisements displayed at predetermined positions on the main information page 11 (only two are shown for convenience, Hereinafter, one or more main information pages in, for example, an html format in which an advertisement file) 19A, 19B, an advertisement definition file 17 in which the advertisement files 19A, 19B are defined, and a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) program 13 are embedded at predetermined positions (Only one is shown for convenience) 11 (Note that the CGI program 13 does not necessarily have to be embedded in the main information page 11 and exists, for example, in a specific location in the information providing server 5A. It may be in form).
[0030]
The search site definition file 15 records information defining the search site 3A or 3B that is the link source of the main information page (in other words, information about the link source) (link source of the main information page 11). As described above, the number of link sources is not limited to one, and a plurality of link sources may be present depending on circumstances. Specifically, for example, the URL of the link source page (or the host device having the link source page) included in the referrer information in the request data from the user terminal 1, and the referrer variable included in the referrer information A code for identifying (a search word code indicating a search word here) is recorded. More specifically, in the example shown in FIG. 2, when the information defining the search site is “http://www.xxx.ne.jp, MT”, the URL of the link source page is “http: //Www.OO.ne.jp ", and the code for identifying the search term (referrer variable) is" MT "after", "following the URL. The reason why such a search site definition file 15 is provided is that codes for enabling identification of search word codes included in the referrer information differ depending on the search sites 3A and 3B. By providing this search site definition file 15, the following becomes possible. That is, for example, referrer information included in request data is
[Http: // www. ○○. ne. jp / default. asp? MT =% C2% CE% BB% E9% CB% C3 & S = MC & DC = 10 & _v = 2 & SDB = PG]
In such a case, by referring to “http://www.OO.ne.jp, MT” in the search site definition file 15, the code “%” from “MT” to a predetermined character “%” It is possible to identify that “C2% CE% BB% E9% CB% C3” is a code corresponding to the search word.
[0031]
The advertisement definition file 17 records the file name and extension of each advertisement file 19A, 19B corresponding to each search term that can be input to the user. Here, since the referrer variable is used as a search term, the file names and extensions of the advertisement files 19A and 19B correspond to the search terms that can be input to the user. Of course, instead of the search terms, In addition, another referrer variable, for example, information indicating the display order of the simple information of the link source can be handled.
[0032]
The CGI program 13 embedded in the main information page 11 is called by a specific program in the information providing server 5A when the information providing server 5A having the main information page 11 receives the request data. Then, the CGI program 13 refers to the search site definition file 15 based on the received request data, and based on the search site definition file 15, a specific referrer variable (here, the search term is included in the referrer information). ) Is identified and analyzed. Then, the CGI program 13 refers to the advertisement definition file 17 based on the result of the analysis, acquires the advertisement file 19A or 19B corresponding to the analyzed search word, and executes its own execution result, that is, the acquired advertisement file 19A. Alternatively, 19B is inserted and displayed at a predetermined position on the main information page 11 (for example, a position where the user is embedded) by a predetermined method (for example, using an SSI (Sever Side Include) include command). .
[0033]
Hereinafter, in the case where the advertisement definition file 17 and the advertisement files 19A, 19B are as shown in FIG. 3 (that is, the advertisement file 19A having the file name “meter” corresponds to the search term “body fat scale”, The search term “body fat” corresponds to the advertisement file 19B having the file name “taishobou”). In this embodiment, the flow from when the search term is input until the main information page desired by the user is displayed is shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
[0034]
FIG. 4 shows a flow until the main information page 11 is displayed when “body fat scale” is input as a search word on the search word input page provided by the search site 3A or 3B.
[0035]
When the user terminal 1 accesses the search site 3A or 3B, a search word input page 21 on which a search word (keyword) for search can be input is displayed on the display screen of the user terminal 1. When a user-desired search word, for example, “body fat scale” is input to the search word input field 23 of the search word input page 21, the search site 3A or 3B is related to the input search word “body fat scale”. The retrieved simple information is searched from its own database (not shown), and a search result page 24 displaying a list of the searched simple information is displayed on the display screen of the user terminal 1.
[0036]
On the displayed search result page 24, when certain simple information “Skip body fat” 25 is designated, the user terminal 1 provides information having the main information page 11 that is a link destination of the simple information 25. While searching for an IP address of the server 5A and making a TCP connection, request data including referrer information (information represented by [Referer =) as shown in FIG. 4 is transmitted to the information providing server 5A.
[0037]
When the request data is received by the information providing server 5A, the CGI program 13 is called, and the CGI program 13 refers to the search site definition file 15 based on the received request data and stores the request data in the search site definition file 15. Based on this, the search term in the referrer information (“% C 2% CE% BB% E 9% CB% C 3 B 7% D 7” underlined in FIG. 4) is identified and analyzed. Then, as a result of the analysis, the CGI program 13 identifies that the search word is “body fat meter”, and refers to the advertisement definition file 17 based on the search word, and the advertisement corresponding to the search word “body fat meter”. The file 19A is acquired, and the acquired advertisement file 19A is displayed at a predetermined position illustrated by a dotted frame on the main information page 11. Thereafter, the main information page 11 on which the advertisement file 19 </ b> A is displayed is displayed on the display screen of the user terminal 1.
[0038]
In this flow, when “body fat” is input as a search word to the search word input page 21, as shown in FIG. 5, the advertisement file 19B corresponding to the search word “body fat” is stored in the CGI program. 13 is selected and displayed on the main information page 11. According to this, even if the requested main information page 11 is the same regardless of the input search term, the communication content of the user terminal 1 before receiving the request data, specifically, for example, Depending on what the entered search term is, the displayed advertisement varies. For this reason, it can be expected to provide an advertisement more suitable for the current needs of the user.
[0039]
The above is the description of the present embodiment. In this embodiment, for example, the following modifications can be considered.
[0040]
For example, in the advertisement definition file 17, various referrer variables such as the display order as the search result of the simple information designated on the search result page, the URL of the link source, etc. may be used instead of or in addition to the search word. Variables can be employed. Further, not only the referrer variable but also another variable in the request data can be adopted.
[0041]
Further, the display mode of the selected advertisement file 19A or 19B is not limited to the mode of being inserted into the main information page 11 and displayed. For example, a screen different from the screen (window) on which the main information page 11 is displayed may be developed, and the selected advertisement file 19A or 19B may be displayed on the other screen.
[0042]
Further, when the received request data does not include any referrer variable (for example, search term) recorded in the advertisement definition file 17 (for example, the main information page 11 has some external information in an external site). When a new link is established (that is, when a request data is received by designating the external information), the CGI program 13 stores a predetermined advertisement file as a main It can be displayed on the information page 11. Also, when this happens, so that you can display advertisements that are appropriate for the user who sent the request data (from another point of view, so that you can deal with new link sources) It is also possible to record a specific variable included in the request data and an advertisement file suitable for the variable in the advertisement definition file 17 in association with each other.
[0043]
Further, the additional information is not limited to the advertisement files 19A and 19B described above, and various types of information can be employed. In this case, for example, the information displayed on the main information page 11 may be a set of a plurality of selected specific additional information.
[0044]
Specifically, for example, the main information on the main information page 11 is substantially blank (that is, nothing is represented on the main information page 11 before the additional information is added), and the main information page 11, only a plurality of display positions of the selected specific additional information are defined. In addition, the information providing servers 5A and 5B are provided with a plurality of CGI programs for displaying the specific additional information respectively selected at the plurality of display positions. Further, in the additional information definition file (not shown, the content is similar to the advertisement definition file 17) instead of the advertisement definition file 17, a plurality of additions respectively corresponding to a plurality of referrer variables that can be included in the received request data. The file name and extension of information are recorded. In this state, when request data is received, each CGI program analyzes the request data, refers to the additional information definition file based on the analysis result, and selects a plurality of specific additional information based on the analysis result. Then, the plurality of selected specific additional information are respectively inserted and displayed at the corresponding predetermined display positions on the main information page 11. Thereby, it is possible to change the display content of the main information page 11 as a whole according to the request data from the user terminal 1. That is, a main information page according to each user's needs can be generated and provided. It should be noted that the contents explained by way of example in the previous stage and this stage are naturally included in the present invention.
[0045]
As described above, according to this embodiment, the displayed advertisement is a referrer variable that differs depending on the communication content performed by the user terminal 1 that is the access source before the information providing server 5A or 5B receives the request data. It is selected based on the search term input to the site 3A or 3B. Further, according to the above-described embodiment, the place where the advertisement is displayed is not the link source page that is a passing point for viewing the user-desired information, but the Web page displaying the user-desired information, that is, the user It is a Web page that is the final purpose of As a result, it is possible to display an advertisement suitable for the user's needs and to reduce the possibility of jumping to a web page of another site without viewing the advertisement. It is possible to provide an effective advertisement that realizes both.
[0046]
Further, according to the above-described embodiment, even if the main information page to be provided and displayed on the user terminal 1 is the same, the communication content of the user terminal 1 before receiving the request data, specifically, for example, the input search word Since the displayed advertisement varies depending on the word “”, it can be expected to provide an advertisement more suitable for the current needs of the user. In other words, every time the request data is received, the advertisement files 19A and 19B displayed on the main information page 11 are changed (switched) according to the analysis result of the referrer variable, so that the accessed main information page is the same main Even the information page dynamically changes its display content. That is, it is possible to dynamically generate different web pages (specifically, it is possible to dynamically generate web pages having different display contents without changing essential information).
[0047]
The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but this is an example for explaining the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. The present invention can be implemented in various other forms. That is, the present invention can be applied not only to advertising via the Internet but also to providing various information including advertisements using various communication methods such as digital broadcasting.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram specifically showing information providing servers 5A and 5B.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an advertisement definition file 17 and advertisement files 19A and 19B.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow until the main information page 11 is displayed when “body fat scale” is input as a search term on the search term input page.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow until the main information page 11 is displayed when “body fat” is input as a search word on the search word input page.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 User terminal
3A, 3B search site
5A, 5B Information provision server
7 Internet
11 Main information page
13 CGI program
15 Search site definition file
17 Ad definition file
19A, 19B Advertising file

Claims (4)

In the information provision system that provides additional information to the request information screen that represents the main information requested from the user terminal and provides the user terminal,
Multiple additional information,
Means for receiving request data for requesting specific main information from the user terminal;
Means for analyzing the received request data;
Means for selecting specific additional information from the plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data;
Means for adding the selected specific additional information to the request information screen representing the specific main information requested;
Providing the request information screen with the specific additional information added to the user terminal,
The request data includes sub-data that changes according to operations performed in the past at the user terminal, and the sub-data indicates which additional information is selected by the selecting means from the plurality of additional information. The information providing system is characterized in that the sub-data changes according to a search key used in the search of the specific main information performed in the past at the user terminal. In the information provision system that provides additional information to the request information screen that represents the main information requested from the user terminal and provides the user terminal,
Multiple additional information,
Means for receiving request data for requesting specific main information from the user terminal;
Means for analyzing the received request data;
Means for selecting specific additional information from the plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data;
Means for adding the selected specific additional information to the request information screen representing the specific main information requested;
Providing the request information screen with the specific additional information added to the user terminal,
The request data includes sub-data that changes according to operations performed in the past in the user terminal, and the sub-data indicates which additional information the selecting means selects from among the plurality of additional information. The sub data changes according to the display order of the specific main information in the search result list displayed as a result of the search of the specific main information performed in the past at the user terminal. An information providing system characterized by that. A computer of an information providing system that provides the user terminal with additional information added to the request information screen that represents the main information requested from the user terminal ,
Means for receiving request data for requesting specific main information from the user terminal;
Means for analyzing the received request data;
Means for selecting specific additional information from a plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data ;
Means for adding the selected specific additional information to the request information screen representing the requested specific main information ;
Means for providing the user terminal with the request information screen to which the specific additional information is added;
Means for controlling which additional information to select from among the plurality of additional information according to sub-data included in the request data and changing according to an operation performed in the past at the user terminal;
Means for changing the sub-data according to a search key used in the search of the specific main information performed in the past in the user terminal ;
Computer program to function as. A computer of an information providing system that provides the user terminal with additional information added to the request information screen that represents the main information requested from the user terminal ,
Means for receiving request data for requesting specific main information from the user terminal;
Means for analyzing the received request data;
Means for selecting specific additional information from a plurality of additional information based on the analysis result of the request data ;
Means for adding the selected specific additional information to the request information screen representing the requested specific main information ;
Means for providing the user terminal with the request information screen to which the specific additional information is added;
Means for controlling which additional information to select from among the plurality of additional information according to sub-data included in the request data and changing according to an operation performed in the past at the user terminal;
Means for changing the sub-data in accordance with a display order of the specific main information in a search result list displayed as a result of a search for the specific main information performed in the past at the user terminal;
Computer program to function as.

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