JP4259233B2 - Information retrieval apparatus and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information search apparatus, method, and program capable of storing the location of digitized information (such as a WWW URL) in an attribute and a character string included in a database and browsing the information. In particular, change the display order of search results using information on the number, destination, and time of sending the location of information attached to an e-mail, and urge the person in charge to register for unregistered information The present invention relates to an information search apparatus, method, and program.

  With the development of networks and information technology, various information existing on the network can be easily accessed. However, in reality, it is difficult to obtain only the information that you really want because it is flooded with a large amount of information. Therefore, various information retrieval techniques for efficiently retrieving only desired information have been developed.

  For example, there is a large amount of information on the World Wide Web (WWW), and there are two major search techniques for searching for appropriate information. One is a directory type represented by Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/) and the other is represented by Google (http://www.google.com/). Such a robot-type search technology. The former is a method of manually classifying URLs into categories that are organized in advance. This is because the information in the categories given to the information is highly reliable because it is manually registered, but it takes time and effort. There is a problem that the amount of data is small. The latter periodically collects information existing on the network and manages index information of the information on the DB. In this case, since the amount of information is very large, it is determined that the more important the page linked with other pages (the number of linked links) is, the higher the importance is. The method reflected in the date is used.

  Patent Documents 1 and 2 describe arranging links of sites accessed in the past according to the number of accesses.

  Patent Document 3 describes that a user who has accessed information evaluates the information and reflects the evaluation result in the rank of the search result.

JP 2002-157271 A JP 2002-215675 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-209601

  While there is a lot of information on the Internet, it contains a lot of unnecessary information, so in a group with a common purpose, such as a company or school, only the information required within the group is managed on the computer, There have been demands to improve efficiency and productivity. In such a case, using the above-described prior art is effective in efficiently searching for managed information.

  However, since the content and amount of information shared within a group always changes, inventory of whether or not shared information is classified into appropriate categories, creation of new categories, and deletion of unnecessary categories It is necessary to organize information such as reviewing classification categories. However, as the amount of information increases, it is difficult and difficult to impose such work on members who perform normal work.

  In addition, in order to utilize the number of linked links for improving the accuracy of search results, there is a work for linking information. However, it is also difficult to always impose an appropriate link relation to information on members.

  In addition, if a user who has information on the Internet does not register, other users cannot refer to the information. Similarly, it is difficult to confirm whether all necessary information is registered by simply requesting information registration work from members within the group.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information search apparatus and the like that improve search accuracy and search efficiency.

  In the present invention, the combination of the location of the digitized information existing on the network and the combination of at least one attribute and the character string included in the information is stored on at least one database, and at least one or more In the information search system that searches the database using the attribute of the information and the character string included in the information, and presents the location of the information that matches the search condition according to the degree of matching the search condition, in particular, the user An email attachment means for referring to an attribute specifying the specified information and an email destination, and sending the location of the information stored in the database as an attachment to at least one email. Means to store the number of times the location is attached to an e-mail in the database along with the location of the information, when calculating the search result presentation order There are, referring to the location delivery count information by the e-mail, providing the presentation order calculation means for calculating a presentation order of the search results from the delivery times. In particular, when sending the location of information attached to an e-mail, the means for storing the body of the e-mail described by the user in the database in association with the location of the information, when calculating the search result presentation order There are provided search means for searching the contents described in the text of the e-mail, and presentation order calculating means for calculating the search result presentation order from the degree of matching with the search conditions for the e-mail text. In particular, when the location of information is attached to an e-mail and sent by the user, the e-mail destination described in the e-mail destination is stored in a database in association with the location of the information. A means for extracting the user's e-mail address from the registered e-mail address of the user using the user information identified by the login authentication means, and also attaching to the e-mail when calculating the search result presentation order For the information in which the e-mail address where the location of the information is sent matches the user's e-mail destination, a presentation order calculation unit is provided for calculating a presentation order in which the search result presentation order is lower.

  In particular, means for storing the date and time information sent by attaching the location of the information to the e-mail, and referring to the e-mail location and the presentation order condition file when calculating the search result presentation order. In addition, a presentation order calculation means is provided so that the search result presentation order reflects the sending time.

  Further, in particular, means for determining whether or not an information entity exists in the location of information, means for determining whether or not information of a person in charge who should register the location of information is registered in the database, If the location of the information is sent by e-mail and the entity of the information is not registered in the location of the information, create an e-mail stating that the information is not registered and send it to the person in charge In contrast, an e-mail transmission / reception means for transmitting an e-mail is provided.

  In particular, means for automatically sending an email describing the information registration reminder, and creating and sending an email describing the information registration reminder when the information entity is not registered at the location of the information An e-mail transmission / reception means is provided for automatically sending an e-mail by referring to a dunning information transmission time definition file that defines the time to be sent and entering the e-mail together with the dunning content.

  In particular, means for extracting the correspondence between the location of the information and the substance of the information from the contents described in the e-mail and the attached information and registering them in the database, and receiving the e-mail describing the dunning contents of the information registration When a user attaches an entity of information to an e-mail and sends a reply to a specific address, a mail transmission / reception means is provided for extracting the information entity from the e-mail and storing the information at the location of the information.

  According to the present invention, in a group having a common purpose such as a company or a school, unlike the Internet where a large amount of various information exists, only the information required in the group is managed on the computer, and the information is used. Furthermore, when extracting information that matches a specific search condition, it is possible to change the order in which search results are presented according to the number, timing, and destination of the information sent by e-mail to related parties. Since information that has been referred to by more people recently increases the chance of being referred to by more people, it is effective in sharing information within a group. In addition, if the necessary information has not been registered yet, or if it has not been registered correctly, an e-mail with the information registration reminder will be sent to the person who should register the information. Can be left unregistered.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, the search accuracy is improved and the search efficiency is improved.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  First, FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of the entire present invention. The information search device 1001 includes a processing device 1 that performs information search processing, a storage device 2, a display device 3, and an input device 4.

  In the information search apparatus 1001, the information DB 201 storing the combination of the location of the information, at least one attribute and the character string included in the information, the number of times of sending by e-mail, the destination, and the timing, the search result presentation order A presentation order condition file 202 describing conditions to be changed, a dunning information definition file 203 describing dunning contents to be described when an information registration dunning is sent by e-mail when the location of information is not registered, and an information extraction definition The file 204 is stored in the storage device 2.

  In the processing apparatus 1, an information DB management unit that stores information registered by the user in the information DB or stores the destination, number of times, and time in the information DB when the user sends the information attached to an e-mail. 101. Information that matches the search condition input by the user is extracted from the information DB, the search processing unit 102 outputs the presentation order result according to the contents of the presentation order condition file, and the information registrant according to the contents of the dunning information definition file. An e-mail transmission / reception unit 103 that transmits an e-mail with a content requesting information registration and extracts the substance of the information from the e-mail returned from the registrant is stored in the processing apparatus 1 as a program.

  On the search screen presented on the display device 3, the user inputs search conditions for extracting desired information from the information DB via the input device 4, and the search results are output to the display device 3. . When the user selects at least one piece of information, designates at least one or more e-mail destinations, and sends the information as attached information by e-mail, the destination and the sending date / time are stored in the information DB. When displaying the search result, a rule for determining the search result presentation order according to the number of destinations, the number of times, and the date and time of the past electronic mail is stored in the presentation order definition file. If the substance of the information is not registered at the location of the information stored in the information DB, an e-mail with a content prompting the registration of the information is automatically sent to the person who should register the information. The rule regarding whether to send the dunning information with the correct contents is stored in the dunning information definition file. When a person in charge of registering information sends a reply to the e-mail that prompts information registration with the substance of the information attached, what information is extracted from the e-mail and the information DB is managed via the information DB management unit 101 The rules for storing in are stored in the information extraction definition file.

  As a result of extraction from the information DB according to the search results specified by the user, information sent by e-mail, contents of dunning information that urges registration by e-mail, and information extracted from e-mail returned from the person in charge of information registration The information extraction method is output to the display device 3.

  The information search apparatus 1001 can be connected to at least one client machine 1004 via the WWW server 1002 and the network 1003, searches the information DB from the client machine 201, and attaches the information by e-mail. It is also possible to register the information by attaching the information to an e-mail.

  FIG. 2 shows an overall processing flowchart in the information search apparatus 1001.

  First, in step 1011, an initial screen (FIG. 3) is displayed. When a user searches the information DB 201 and wants to send the location of at least one piece of information attached to an e-mail, the user inputs a search condition on the initial screen and selects a search execution button. The search condition input via the input device 4 is input.

  The search processing unit 102 performs a search from the information DB 201 and outputs a search result to the display device 3 according to the contents of the presentation order definition file 202 (step 1012). Details will be described with reference to a flowchart in the search processing unit of FIG.

  Next, the mail transmitting / receiving unit 103 describes the location of the information in the designated electronic mail and sends it by electronic mail (step 1013). Details will be described with reference to the flowchart in the mail transmission / reception unit of FIG.

  Next, the information DB management unit 101 stores, in the information DB, the destination and date / time of the email sent as an attachment to the email if the entity of the information exists at the location of the designated information (step 1015). ). If the information entity does not exist, the dunning information definition file 203 is referred to, and an e-mail with contents for urging information registration is created and transmitted to the person in charge of information registration (step 1016). Details will be described with reference to a flowchart in the information DB management unit of FIG.

  Further, when an information registration person who has received an e-mail with a content requesting information registration from the information search apparatus 1001 replies to the e-mail, the e-mail transmission / reception unit 103 refers to the information extraction definition file 204. The information is extracted from the e-mail, and the information is output to the information DB management unit 101 (step 1017).

  The information DB management unit 101 stores the input information in the information DB 201 (step 1018). These details will be described in each processing unit.

  FIG. 3 is an example of an initial screen of the information search apparatus. The initial screen 3011 in the display device 3 includes a search condition input area 3012, an area 3013 for instructing search processing, an area 3014 for displaying a list of search results, and electronic information when the selected information is attached to an e-mail. An area 3015 for inputting a mail destination and an area 3016 for instructing processing to be attached and sent.

  FIG. 4 is an example of an e-mail attachment screen on the information search apparatus. An e-mail attachment screen example 3021 includes an area 3022 for displaying an e-mail destination designated by the user, an area 3023 for instructing processing to be attached to the e-mail, and an area for displaying the location of information attached to the e-mail. Reference numeral 3024 denotes an area 3025 for inputting contents to be described as the body of the e-mail.

  FIG. 5 is an example of the file structure of the information DB 201.

  The information DB 201 is composed of a plurality of records, and one record is composed of a plurality of data items.

  The data items are “ID” that uniquely identifies the record, “location” where the information is located, “name” that simply indicates the information, “destination” that was sent by e-mail in the past, and e-mail that was sent in the past “Number of times”, the last “time” sent by e-mail in the past, “in charge” as information of the person in charge of registering information, “registration date” as the date information to be registered or registered, and its When the information is attached to the e-mail and sent, the user describes it in the e-mail body, so that the “e-mail body” is configured.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the file structure of the presentation order definition file 202.

  The presentation order definition file 202 is composed of a plurality of records, and one record is composed of a plurality of data items.

  The data item includes “ID”, “presentation condition”, and “presentation method” that uniquely specify the record.

  FIG. 7 is a detailed flowchart of the search processing unit. When the user inputs search conditions and instructs search processing on the initial screen in FIG. 3, this processing is executed.

  The user inputs search conditions and selects an area for instructing search processing. First, in step 10201, the search condition input by the user is input.

  Next, in step 10202, information that matches the search condition is extracted from the information DB 201. Since a general search method is used for the search processing, the processing method is not particularly described in the present invention.

  In step 10203, the presentation order definition file is read.

  Further, in step 10204, the search result presentation order based on the presentation order of the presentation order definition file is calculated, and the result is output to the display device 3.

  FIG. 8 shows an example of the file structure of the dunning information definition file 203.

  The dunning information definition file 203 is composed of a plurality of records, and one record is composed of a plurality of data items.

  The data item is composed of “ID” that uniquely identifies the record, “reminding condition” that describes the condition for reminding by e-mail, and “reminding content” that describes the contents to be described in the e-mail.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of the file configuration of the information extraction definition file 203.

  The dunning information definition file 203 is composed of a plurality of records, and one record is composed of a plurality of data items.

  A data item is composed of an “ID” that uniquely identifies a record, an “extraction condition” that describes a method for extracting information from an e-mail, and a “processing content” that is performed when information that meets the condition exists. .

  FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of the mail transmission / reception unit. In the initial screen of FIG. 3, the user selects information to be attached and sent by e-mail from the area displaying the search search list according to the search conditions entered by the user, and further inputs the e-mail destination. If an attachment process by e-mail is instructed, the process proceeds to step 10301. If the information DB management unit determines that the information entity is not registered in the location of the information, the process advances to step 10305. If a reply mail is received in response to the reminder mail, the process proceeds to step 10308.

  The user selects information to be attached by e-mail, inputs the address of the e-mail to be sent, and selects an area for instructing mail transmission / reception processing. First, in step 10301, information selected by the user and an e-mail destination are input.

  In step 10302, the e-mail attachment screen shown in FIG. 4 is output to the display device 3.

  In step 10303, an e-mail is sent with the location of the information attached to the body of the e-mail entered by the user. The mail transmission process uses a general electronic mail system, and in particular, the present invention does not describe the process.

  In step 10304, the destination and date / time of the sent e-mail are output to the information DB management unit 101.

  If the information DB management unit determines that the information entity is not registered in the location of the information, the e-mail address of the user to register the information entity is input from the information DB 201 in step 10305.

  In step 10306, the dunning information definition file 202 is read. Next, according to the contents of the dunning information definition file, a dunning mail for information registration is created and sent to the person in charge of information registration.

  When an e-mail reply mail is received from the person in charge of information registration who received the reminder mail, the information extraction definition file 203 is read in step 10308.

  In step 10309, information is extracted from the e-mail according to the contents of the information extraction definition file and output to the information DB management unit.

  FIG. 11 is a reminder mail creation result screen. An e-mail attachment screen example 3031 includes an area 3032 for displaying the address of the person in charge of information registration, an area 3033 for displaying a name indicating the information to be urged, and an e-mail created in accordance with the contents described in the dunning information definition file An area 3034 for displaying the text is included.

  FIG. 12 is a detailed flowchart of the information DB management unit 101. In step 10304 in the mail transmission / reception unit 103, information indicating that the destination of the email, the location of the information, and the content of the text of the email and the location of the information have been transmitted is input.

  Next, it is confirmed whether or not the information entity is registered at the location of the information. If the information entity is registered, the process proceeds to step 10101. If the information entity is not registered, the process proceeds to step 10102. Note that when there is no HTML file that is the entity of the information in the URL indicating the location of the information on the WWW, the WWW server has a function of notifying that the file does not exist. A method for determining whether or not it is registered will not be described.

  In step 10101, the information DB 201 stores the e-mail destination, the transmission date and time, and the mail contents.

  In step 10102, the address of the person in charge of information registration is output to the mail transmitting / receiving unit 103.

  If information extracted from the e-mail is input at step 10309 in the mail transmitting / receiving unit 103, the information is stored in the information DB 201 at step 1013.

  The present invention can be used, for example, when retrieving information from a device connected to a network.

System configuration diagram of information retrieval device Overall flow chart of information retrieval device Example of initial screen of information retrieval device E-mail attachment screen of information retrieval device File structure diagram of information DB File structure diagram of presentation order definition file Flowchart diagram of search processing unit File structure of Dunning information definition file File structure of the information extraction definition file Flowchart diagram of the mail sending / receiving unit Example screen for creating a dunning email Flowchart diagram of the information DB management unit

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processing apparatus of information retrieval apparatus 2 Storage apparatus 3 Display apparatus 4 Input apparatus 101 Information DB management part 102 Search processing part 103 Mail transmission / reception part 201 Information DB
202 Presentation order definition file 203 Dunning information definition file 204 Information extraction definition file 1001 Information retrieval device 1002 WWW server 1003 Internet 1004 Client machine

Claims (15)

The location of the digitized information existing in a device connected to the network, and the combination of the attribute of the information and the character string included in the information are stored in a storage device, and are included in the attribute of the information and the information In the information search device that searches the storage device using a character string to be displayed and presents the location of the information that matches the search condition specified by the user according to the degree that matches the search condition,
Transmitting means for referring to the attribute specified by the user and the destination specified by the user and transmitting the location of the information stored in the storage device to the destination;
Storage means for storing the number of transmissions of the location of the information transmitted by the transmission unit in the storage device in association with the location of the information;
An information search apparatus comprising: a calculation unit that refers to the number of transmissions of the storage device and calculates a presentation order of the location of the information from the number of transmissions. The information search device according to claim 1,
The storage means stores in the storage device a presentation order condition file that describes conditions for changing the location presentation order of the information according to the number of transmissions.
The information search device, wherein the calculating means calculates the presentation order reflecting the number of transmissions with reference to the number of transmissions and the presentation order condition file in the storage device. The information search device according to claim 1,
The transmission means attaches the location of the information to an email and transmits it to the destination,
The storage means stores the text of the e-mail attached with the location of the information in the storage device in association with the location of the information,
The calculation means searches the content described in the text of the electronic mail in the storage device, and calculates the presentation order from the degree of matching with the search condition for the text of the electronic mail. . The information search device according to claim 3,
The storage means stores in the storage device a presentation order condition file describing conditions for changing the presentation order according to the degree of matching with the search conditions,
The calculation means refers to the degree of matching with the search condition for the body of the email and the presentation order condition file, and calculates the presentation order reflecting the degree of matching with the search condition. Search device. The information search device according to claim 1,
An extraction means for extracting the destination from the destination of the registered email of the user using the user information identified by login authentication;
The storage means stores the destination that transmitted the location of the information in the storage device in association with the location of the information,
The information search apparatus, wherein the calculation unit lowers the presentation order of information in which a destination where the location of the information is transmitted and a destination of the user's e-mail match. The information search device according to claim 5,
The storage means stores, in the storage device, a presentation order condition file that describes a condition for changing the presentation order in accordance with the degree of coincidence between the destination of the user's email and the destination that transmitted the location of the information. ,
The calculation means refers to the degree of coincidence between the destination of the user's email in the storage device and the destination that transmitted the location of the information and the presentation order condition file, and the destination of the user's email An information search apparatus that calculates the presentation order reflecting the degree of coincidence of destinations that transmitted the location of the information. The information search device according to claim 1,
The storage means stores, in the storage device, transmission time information that transmits the location of the information, and a presentation order condition file that describes conditions for changing the presentation order according to the transmission time,
The information search device, wherein the calculation means calculates the presentation order reflecting the transmission time with reference to the transmission time and the presentation order condition file in the storage device. The information search device according to claim 1,
Determining means for determining whether or not an entity of the information is registered at the location of the information;
Determining means for determining whether information of a person in charge who should register the location of the information is registered in the storage device;
An electronic device that creates an e-mail stating that the information is not registered when the entity of the information is not registered at the location of the information, and transmits the e-mail to the person in charge to be registered An information retrieval apparatus comprising a mail transmission / reception means. The information search device according to claim 8, wherein
The storage means stores in the storage device a dunning information definition file that defines the contents to be described in the e-mail when dunning information registration.
The information search device, wherein the mail transmission / reception means refers to the dunning information definition file in the storage device, writes the content for dunning the information registration in the e-mail, and transmits the e-mail. The information search device according to claim 8, wherein
The storage means stores a dunning information transmission time definition file that defines a time to create and send an e-mail describing the dunning contents of information registration when the information entity is not registered at the location of the information. Stored in
The mail transmitting / receiving means refers to the dunning information transmission time definition file in the storage device and transmits the contents for dunning the information registration in the e-mail. The information search device according to claim 9, wherein
A registration unit that extracts the correspondence between the location of the information and the entity of the information from the content described in the electronic mail and the information attached to the electronic mail, and registers the information in the storage device;
When the user who has received the e-mail describing the contents of the reminder for registration of information replied with the substance of the information attached to the e-mail, the e-mail transmission / reception means transmits the information from the replied e-mail. The information retrieval apparatus is characterized in that an entity is extracted and information is stored at the location of the information. The information search device according to claim 11,
The storage means includes an e-mail extraction information definition file defining an attribute item to be registered in the storage device and an extraction method of the item from the contents described in the e-mail and information attached to the e-mail. Stored in a storage device,
When the registration means receives an email returned from the person in charge to register, the registration means refers to the email extraction information definition file in the storage device, and identifies the entity of the information of the specified information An information retrieval apparatus that registers in a location and re-registers the attribute of the information in the storage device. An information search device according to any one of claims 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, or 12,
An information search apparatus comprising an input unit that allows a user to define the presentation order condition file via an input apparatus. In the information retrieval method by computer,
The storage means of the computer stores in the storage device the location of the digitized information present in the device connected to the network, and the combination of the attribute of the information and the character string included in the information;
A function for the search means of the computer to search the storage device using an attribute of the information and a character string included in the information;
The presenting means of the computer presenting the location of the information that matches the search condition according to the degree of matching the search condition;
A step of transmitting the location of the information stored in the storage device to the destination by referring to the attribute that specifies the information specified by the user and the destination specified by the user;
The storage means of the computer stores the number of transmissions of the location of the information transmitted by the transmission means in the storage device in association with the location of the information;
And a calculating unit of the computer that refers to the number of transmissions of the storage device and calculates a presentation order of the location of the information from the number of transmissions. A function of storing in a storage device a location of electronic information existing in a device connected to a network and a combination of an attribute of the information and a character string included in the information;
A function of searching the storage device using an attribute of the information and a character string included in the information;
A function of presenting the location of the information that matches the search condition according to the degree of matching the search condition;
A function for referring to the attribute specified by the user and the destination specified by the user and transmitting the location of the information stored in the storage device to the destination;
A function of storing the number of transmissions of the location of the information transmitted by the function of transmitting in the storage device in association with the location of the information;
A program realizing a function of calculating a presentation order of the location of the information from the number of transmissions with reference to the number of transmissions of the storage device.

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