JPWO2011036763A1 - Information providing system, information providing mediation server, and information providing server - Google Patents

Abstract

When an information providing server 30A or the like that provides information to an area searches and provides information in the area to the terminal device (20) that requests processing such as an information search service in the area, Get information such as related advertisements in the area. The terminal device (20) designates using the search term TB storing the search term and the index (ID) assigned to the search term and the area information TB storing the area deeply related to the search term in association with the index. The index is identified from the searched terms, the related area is determined, the advertisement information associated with the search term is obtained from the information providing server of the related area, and the terminal device (20) is obtained from the other area together with the search result. Provide advertisement information.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing system capable of simultaneously acquiring and providing information such as related advertisements in another area when searching for information in a predetermined area and displaying a search result. Information provision that provides information to an area in an information provision system in which there is a system that includes an information provision server that provides an information search service in each area. When a server searches and provides information in the area to a terminal device that requests processing such as an information search service in the area, information such as related advertisements in other areas is acquired at the same time. It relates to an information provision system that is provided.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, systems that provide information such as advertisements to terminal devices that access a server via a mobile terminal device or a network are known. For example, on WWW (World wide Web), a system that provides advertisement information to a terminal device such as a personal computer that accesses the web, or advertisement information provided in a specific area is moved into the area. When a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone or a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone registers its location with a communication base station, the communication base for the mobile phone A system for providing advertisement information prepared in a station is known.

  In such an advertisement information providing system, an advertisement information is provided to an unspecified number of terminal devices regardless of the user's intention, and the result of the user performing some operation using the terminal device, Some of them extract user interests and provide related advertisement information. In addition, the advertisement information is provided to a terminal device and a terminal device that are located in the area, and the advertisement information is provided to an unspecified number of users and terminal devices regardless of the area. There is something to do. Also, an advertisement information providing system combining these is considered.

  For example, the following Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-287296) discloses an invention of an advertisement distribution system that selectively distributes detailed information to consumers who are interested in advertisements. The advertisement distribution system includes a distribution processing unit that distributes an advertisement to a portable user terminal having a communication function, a stay detection unit, and a stay purpose determination unit, and the stay detection unit is installed on a street. When the stay detecting unit detects the stay of the user, the stay purpose determining unit detects that the user is staying in the browsable area where the advertisement medium such as poster can be browsed. To determine whether the user is staying in the viewable area for browsing or staying in the viewable area for other purposes. When it is determined that the user is staying in a viewable area for browsing the advertisement medium, detailed information regarding the advertisement medium is distributed to the user.

  Also, the following Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-163621) discloses an invention of an advertisement distribution system that selectively transmits advertisement information of the own store to a user who is interested in the own store. This advertisement distribution system sends a hash value, which is store identification information, to a communication service area in the vicinity of the store on a weak radio wave, and the advertisement receiving terminal stores the hash value of the store of interest on the WWW server. Obtained in advance from the store's homepage, and when the advertisement receiving terminal enters the communication service area, the hash value sent by the advertisement distribution device is received, and if that is the hash value of the store of interest, that hash value To the advertisement distribution device, and the advertisement distribution device is configured to transmit the store advertisement information to the receiving terminal when the returned hash value is the same as the transmitted hash value.

  Furthermore, the following Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-348241) provides timely relevant information that matches the user's interest that can change from moment to moment as the user accesses an arbitrary page. An invention of such an information providing method is disclosed.

  The invention of the information providing method disclosed in Patent Document 3 extracts partial information that the user is interested in from the content displayed on the terminal device, transmits it to the information processing server, and relates to this partial information. By retrieving the information (advertisement information) and sending it back to the browser of the terminal, information related to the information that the user seems to be interested in is presented to the user in a timely manner. Specifically, the invention of the information providing method includes a procedure for extracting Web content information noted by a user from a display area of a browser of a terminal device, a procedure for generating a search key from the extracted information, and the search key. Based on the second information (advertisement information) to be provided to the browser, and a procedure for displaying the search result of the second information (advertisement information) together with the web content of the browser.

JP 2004-287296 A JP 2007-163621 A JP 2004-348241 A

  The advertisement providing system disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 is an advertisement related to a case where a terminal device accesses an information distribution server that has prepared advertisement information provided by an advertiser solicited in advance and performs some operation. Information is provided, or advertisement information is provided to a terminal device existing in the service providing area of the information distribution server, and is closed to a unique service system constructed by the information distribution server. The information distribution server is a search server having an information search engine, an exchange connection server in a mobile phone system, a route search server that provides route search and route guidance, or a server that provides various services. It may be.

  By the way, when information such as advertisement information is distributed by such a closed system, a normal system is constructed in consideration of an area for providing a service. For example, a specific country area (area) is constructed as a service providing area, or the service providing area is small, but a specific region or a specific tourist area or a specific shopping street is served. It is constructed as a provision area.

  In a system in which a terminal device requests various services from a server through the Internet, the information distribution server can acquire information from another server or WWW web that can be connected through the Internet. The apparatus is a user in a specific country or region, and information provided to the user and a procedure for providing the information are designed in advance so as to be suitable for the range of the assumed user. For example, a server that assumes Japan as a service providing area is assumed to be searched using Japanese, and information to be provided is also assumed to be information written in Japanese. When providing information written in English, which is a common language in the world, it is necessary to prepare titles and summaries in Japanese for search.

  The interest of users of terminal devices is spreading globally, and when processing is requested to an information distribution server that intends to acquire information on a specific country or region and that service region is that country or region, processing is performed. It is preferable that the requested information distribution server can provide related information regarding other countries and regions together.

  However, the systems disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 cannot be linked with other systems and cannot provide such convenience.

  In modern times, it is possible to search for information by connecting to various servers that exist worldwide using the Internet. However, even in this case, the user must search in consideration of the country and language to be searched. I must. For example, a user in Japan can search for information by connecting to a server in the United States using a terminal device, but in that case, the term (keyword) used for the search does not use English, Search results that satisfy the user cannot be obtained. Of course, the terminal device to be used must have a function to support English. Although it is not a big problem as long as it is in the range of English, which is a common language, in order to obtain information from servers around the world, it is impossible to obtain satisfactory information unless a search using the language of each country is possible. Occurs.

  On the other hand, for advertisers who want to distribute advertisements to an unspecified number of people worldwide, for users who access the server in a variety of languages, prepare advertisement information created in each language, There is also the inconvenience that it must be stored in other servers.

  As a result of various studies to solve the above problems, the inventor of the present application, in particular, has a country or region as an area, and a system including an information providing server that provides an information search service in the area for each area When an information providing server that provides information to a certain area retrieves and provides information in the area to a terminal device that requests processing such as an information retrieval service in the area. In addition to identifying areas that are closely related from the search terms, the search terms are converted so that they can be used for searching in the related areas, and sent to the information providing server that has other areas as service providing areas, and related advertisements. The present invention has been completed by conceiving that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by acquiring information such as such information and providing it to the terminal device at the same time. It is.

  That is, the present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides an information provision in which there is a system including an information providing server that provides an information search service in each area, with the country or region as an area. In the system, when an information providing server that provides information to an area searches and provides information in the area to a terminal device that requests processing such as an information search service in the area, An object of the present invention is to realize an information providing system capable of acquiring and providing information such as related advertisements.

In order to solve the above problems, the first invention of the present application is:
In the information providing system configured to connect the information providing mediation server, a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device via a network,
Each information report providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term, and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and is unique to the search term. An index is given,
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in an area where the information providing server provides the service, and uses the search term as the information. Send to the mediation server to request mediation of related information in other areas,
The information providing mediation server refers to the area information table based on the search term received from the information providing server, extracts area information related to the search term, and sets the extracted area as a service providing area. A search term or a corresponding index is transmitted to the information providing server to request a search for related information, and a search result received from the other information providing server is transmitted to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information. It is characterized by that.

  Further, according to one aspect of the first invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the first invention, whether or not each related information stored in the related information database by each information providing server can be provided to another area. The distribution-related information indicating the distribution information is included, and the distribution-related information of the related information searched based on the search request from the information providing mediation server is referred to. The information is distributed to the information providing mediation server.

  Further, according to one aspect of the first invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the first invention, when the information providing mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information providing server, the information providing mediation server Referring to the search term table, the search term is converted into a search term suitable for use by the information providing server that transmits the search request and transmitted, and if the conversion cannot be performed, the search is performed. It is characterized by being converted into an index corresponding to a term and transmitted.

  Further, according to one aspect of the first invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the first invention, when the search request received from the information providing mediation server does not include a search term and includes an index, the information providing server The index is converted into a search term suitable for the information providing server to use for searching by referring to a search term table, and the related information is searched.

  Moreover, one aspect of the first invention of the present application is the information providing system according to the first invention, wherein the related information is advertisement information.

The second invention of the present application is
An information providing mediation server, an information providing mediation server constituting an information providing system in which a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device are connected via a network,
Each information providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and the search term has a unique index. When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in the area where the service provides the service, and the search A term is transmitted to the information providing mediation server to request mediation of provision of related information in other areas;
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and based on the search term received from the information providing server, refers to the area information table, extracts area information related to the search term, and uses the extracted area as a service providing area. Sending a search term or a corresponding index to a providing server to request a search for related information, and sending a search result received from the other information providing server to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information It is characterized by.

  Further, according to one aspect of the second invention of the present application, in the information provision mediation server according to the second invention, whether or not each related information stored in the related information database by each information providing server can be provided to another area. Only when the information is distributable information by referring to the distribution availability information of the related information searched based on the search request from the information providing mediation server. Is connected to the information providing server that distributes the information to the information providing mediation server.

  Further, according to one aspect of the second invention of the present application, in the information providing mediation server according to the second invention, when the information providing mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information providing server, Referring to the search term table, the search term is converted into a search term suitable for use by the information providing server that transmits the search request and is transmitted. It is characterized by being converted into an index corresponding to a search term and transmitted.

  Further, according to one aspect of the second invention of the present application, in the information provision mediation server according to the second invention, when the search request received from the information provision mediation server does not include a search term and the index is included, The index is converted to a search term suitable for the information providing server to use for searching by referring to the search term table, and connected to the information providing server for searching the related information. To do.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the information providing mediation server according to the second aspect, the related information is advertisement information.

The third invention of the present application is
An information providing server constituting an information providing system in which an information providing intermediary server, a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device are connected via a network,
Each information providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and the search term has a unique index. Is granted,
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and based on the search term received from the information providing server, refers to the area information table, extracts area information related to the search term, and uses the extracted area as a service providing area. A search term or a corresponding index is transmitted to the providing server to request a search for related information, and a search result received from the other information providing server is transmitted to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information. Composed of
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in an area where the information providing server provides the service, and uses the search term as the information. It is transmitted to the providing server, and mediation of providing related information in other areas is requested.

  In addition, according to one aspect of the third invention of the present application, in the information providing server according to the third invention, each of the related information accumulated in the related information database by the information providing server can be provided to other areas. The distribution related information shown is included, the distribution related information of the related information searched based on the search request from the information providing mediation server is referred to, and the searched related information is only displayed when the information is distributable. It is distributed to an information providing mediation server.

  Further, according to one aspect of the third invention of the present application, in the information providing server according to the third invention, when the information providing mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information providing server, the information providing mediation server Referring to the search term table, the search term is converted into a search term suitable for use by the information providing server that transmits the search request and transmitted, and if the conversion cannot be performed, the search is performed. It is connected to an information providing mediation server that converts to an index corresponding to a term and transmits it.

  Further, according to one aspect of the third invention of the present application, in the information providing server according to the third invention, when the search request received from the information providing mediation server does not include a search term and the index is included, the information providing server The index is converted into a search term suitable for the information providing server to use for searching by referring to a search term table, and the related information is searched.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information providing server according to the third aspect, the related information is advertisement information.

The fourth invention of the present application is
In an information providing system in which a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area and a terminal device are configured to be connectable via a network,
Each search term is assigned a unique index, and each information report providing server stores an information database storing information in the service providing area searched by the search term and related information related to the search term. A related information database, a search term table that stores synonymous search terms in association with each index, an area information table that stores area information for identifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index, and With
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term with reference to an information database in an area where the service provides the service, and receives the information from the terminal device. Based on the search terms, the area information table is referenced to extract area information related to the search terms, and the search terms or corresponding indexes are transmitted to other information providing servers that use the extracted areas as service providing areas. And a search result received from the other information providing server in response to the related information search request is transmitted to the terminal device.

  In addition, according to one aspect of the fourth invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the fourth invention, whether or not each related information stored in the related information database by each information providing server can be provided to another area. The related information that is searched only when the information is distributable information with reference to the distribution enable / disable information of the related information searched based on the search request from the other information providing server. Is distributed to the other information providing server.

  Further, according to one aspect of the fourth invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the fourth invention, when the information providing server transmits a search request including a search term to the other information providing server, the information providing server Referring to the search term table, the search term is converted into a search term suitable for use by the other information providing server that transmits the search request and is transmitted. It is characterized by being converted into an index corresponding to a search term and transmitted.

  In addition, according to one aspect of the fourth invention of the present application, in the information providing system according to the fourth invention, when the search request received from another information providing server does not include a search term, the information providing server includes: The index is converted to a search term suitable for the information providing server to use for searching by referring to the search term table, and the related information is searched.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the information providing system according to the fourth aspect, the related information is advertisement information.

  In the first invention of the present application, information is provided to an area in an information providing system in which there is a system including an information providing server that provides an information search service in each area, with the country or region as an area. When the information providing server searches and provides information in the area to a terminal device that requests processing such as an information search service in the area, information such as related advertisements in other areas is acquired. And related information such as advertisement information in other areas can be provided to unintended users.

  In the second invention of the present application, an information providing mediation server constituting the first invention of the present application can be provided. In the third invention of the present application, services are provided to the respective areas constituting the first invention of the present application. It becomes possible to provide an information providing server that provides Furthermore, in the fourth invention of the present application, it is possible to provide an information providing system capable of providing the same information as in the first invention of the present application without using an information providing mediation server.

It is a system configuration | structure figure which shows the structure of the information provision system using the information provision mediation server concerning the Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the information provision mediation system in FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the data of search term TB (database) which linked | related the index uniquely allocated to the search term, and the term synonymous with a search term. It is a figure which shows an example of the data memorize | stored in the area information table which memorize | stored the area information which shows the area deeply related to a search term using the index allocated to the search term as a key. It is a sequence diagram which shows the procedure of the provision process of the advertisement information in the information provision system using the information provision mediation server concerning the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the reply screen of the search result displayed on a terminal device. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of a map information provision mediation server. It is a system configuration | structure figure which shows the structure of the information provision system concerning the other Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information provision server in the information provision system of FIG. It is a system configuration | structure figure which shows the structure of the information provision system concerning the further another Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information provision server and terminal device in the information provision system of FIG.

  Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples and drawings. However, the embodiments shown below exemplify an information providing system for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and are not intended to identify the present invention as this information providing system. The present invention is equally applicable to the information providing systems of other embodiments included in the claims.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a configuration of an information provision mediation system according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the information provision mediation system includes countries and regions as areas A and areas B1 to BM, and information provision servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM that provide an information search service in each area. There is an information provision system. Each of the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM can be connected to the information providing mediation server 40 via a network such as the Internet. The information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM provide a service for distributing information in the respective areas A and B1 to 3BM.

  A service providing area may be a service area in one country, a service area in multiple countries, or a service area in a specific country. There may be. In FIG. 1, the information providing system searches for and provides various information in response to a request from a terminal device. The information provided to the terminal device is, for example, information on POI (Point of Interest), advertisement information, route information such as railways and buses, map information, or navigation information such as route search and route guidance. The information providing system is configured to provide one or more of these information.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the area A is provided with an information providing server 30A for providing various information. Similarly, the areas B1, B2 to BM include information providing servers 30B1, 30B2 to 30BM. Each is provided. The user terminal device 20 can connect to the information providing server 30A registered for use via the Internet and make a desired service request. The information provision intermediary system and the information provision system in each area will be described below as a system that provides information related to POI (Point of Interest) and advertisement information related thereto. It is not limited to this. For example, in addition to a service that provides POI information and related advertisement information, it may have a navigation function that provides route search and route guidance. In the following, a description will be given of a system having a navigation function after explaining a procedure for providing advertisement information as an example of POI information and related information related thereto.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the information provision mediation system in FIG. Although FIG. 2 representatively shows the information providing server 30A having the area A as the service providing area, the configuration of the information providing systems B1 to BM having the other areas B1 to BM30 as the service providing areas is also shown in FIG. It is the same composition as. In the following description, each constituent element constituting the information providing server 30A and the information providing servers 30B to 30M is represented using the same reference numerals, and when expressing the constituent elements of a specific information providing server, Represented with suffixes A and B1 to BM, respectively. For example, the control unit 301 is represented as 301A, 301B1-301BM, respectively, in each of the information providing servers 30A, 30B1-30MB.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the information providing system in area A includes a terminal device 20 and an information providing server 30 </ b> A connected via a network 12. Further, the information providing server 30A and the terminal device 20 can access the information providing mediation server 40 via the Internet and receive an information providing mediation service as necessary.

  The information providing system for area A is a system that provides detailed information such as the location of POIs (Point of Interest) belonging to various categories and service contents for a specific country or region, but is not limited to POI information. And an information retrieval service for retrieving and providing content and other information such as various images. The information providing server 30A is a POI information DB 305A (search information database) 305A that stores POI information that is an example of search information that covers a service providing area (area A), and an advertisement that stores advertisement information that is an example of related information. A DB (related information database) 304A, search means 303A, and a search term TB 306A for search processing to be described later are provided.

  Although not shown, the control unit 301A is a microprocessor having a RAM, a ROM, and a processor, and controls the operation of each unit by a control program stored in the ROM. The communication unit 302A is a communication interface for transmitting / receiving communication data to / from the information providing mediation server 40 and other servers via the network 12.

  The information providing server 30A is a POI information distribution server (not shown) that provides detailed information such as the location and service contents of various POIs, and various information distribution servers (not shown) that provide contents and other information such as music and various images. ) Can be obtained via the network 12 and added to its own database. Similarly, a search request can be transmitted to the POI information distribution server or another information distribution server to obtain a desired search result.

  The information providing system A according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and the information providing server 30A is a map distribution server that distributes a map of the location of the POI designated from the terminal device 20 together with the navigation service function. It may have a function. In addition, a mobile phone can be used as the terminal device 20, and it may be a portable device such as a PDA, music player, portable game machine, or mobile personal computer (PC).

  The terminal device 20 includes a control unit 201, a communication unit 202, an input unit 203, a display unit 204, and a search request unit 205. Although not shown, the control unit 201 is a microprocessor having a RAM, a ROM, and a processor, and controls the operation of each unit by a control program stored in the ROM. The communication unit 202 is a communication interface for transmitting / receiving communication data to / from the information providing server 30 </ b> A and other servers via the network 12.

  The input unit 203 includes a key, a switch, a dial, and the like. The input unit 203 performs input for operating the terminal device 20, and is also used as a search function (keyword) input function. The display means 204 is composed of a liquid crystal display panel or the like, and is used for displaying POI information that is a search result distributed (transmitted) from the information providing server 30A, a search response screen, and the like. The display unit 204 also displays a menu screen, a search condition setting screen, and the like, operates the terminal device 20, or functions as an input unit for a search request. The search request unit 205 creates a search request including a search term input using the screens of the input unit 203 and the display unit 204, transmits the search request to the information providing server 30A, and makes a search request.

  When the user of the terminal device 20 searches the POI in the area A and obtains desired POI information, the search term (keyword) is set using the search condition setting screen displayed on the input unit 203 or the display unit 204. The search request is transmitted to the information providing server 30A having the area A as the service providing area.

  The information providing server 30A that has received the search request from the terminal device 20 searches the POI information DB (database) 305 in which the POI data in the area A is stored, and provides the terminal device 20 with the POI information corresponding to the search term. However, at the same time, the information providing intermediary server 40 is inquired as to whether or not there is advertising information related to the search term in other areas. If there is related advertising information, the information is sent via the information providing intermediary server 40. Information is acquired and provided to the terminal device 20 in addition to the POI information searched by the information providing server 30A. An advertisement information DB (database) 304A provided in the information providing server 30A or the like is a database for this purpose. When there is a similar advertisement information search request via the information providing server 40 from the information providing server 30B1 or the like in another area, the information providing server 30A searches the corresponding advertisement information with reference to the advertisement information DB 304A. provide.

  The information providing server 30A requests mediation processing from the information providing intermediary server 40, and tries to acquire related information related to the search term set by the terminal device 20 from the information providing server 30B1 or the like that uses another area as the service providing area. In this case, the difference in search terms becomes a problem. For example, language differences or expression differences that express the same thing. Therefore, in this embodiment, a unique index (ID) is assigned to each search term, and search terms of different languages and expressions (hereinafter different languages and expressions, Alternatively, a search term TB (database) 306A in which terms representing the same concept are referred to as synonymous search terms) is provided. The information providing server 30A is configured to replace the search term designated by the terminal device 20 with an index with reference to the search term TB 306A and request the information providing mediation server 40 for mediation.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of data of the search term TB (database) 306A. The search term TB 306A is a database in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with indexes. The search terms stored in association with the index in the search term TB 306A include search terms translated into the languages used in each area in order to absorb language differences.

  That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, a unique index (ID) is assigned to each search term, as shown in FIG. 3, and search terms of different languages and expressions are assigned using the index (ID) as a key. Accumulate and absorb differences (fluctuations) in search terms by country or region. This search term TB 306A is provided in the information provision mediation server 40, and each information provision server 30A, 30B1, etc. transmits the search term upon mediation request, and the information provision mediation server 40 converts the search term into an index. May be. When transmitting the search request based on the search term, the information providing mediation server 40 refers to the search term TB and transmits the search term corresponding to the language used in the area where the information providing server 30B1 etc. provides the service. can do.

  In the example of the search term TB 306A shown in FIG. 3, a unique index “10”, “20”, “30”, “40” is assigned to each search term representing a hotel, curry, hot spring, and grilled meat. In association with, terms expressed in different languages and different expressions are stored. For example, in a term index “10” representing a hotel, English “hotel” and “IN” are stored as synonymous terms. Synonymous terms should be accumulated not only due to language differences but also terms that broadly represent the same concept. For example, it is a term indicating the part of the meat used in the grilled meat, not the difference between the “grilled meat” and “Kalbi” languages. As such a concept, the terms contained in the grilled meat (for example, barbecue) should be accumulated widely. Thus, it is possible to effectively absorb the fluctuation of the term and increase the probability that the related advertisement information can be acquired.

  On the other hand, the information provision mediation server 40 includes a control unit 401, a communication unit 402, an area determination unit 403, a server determination unit 404, and a search request unit 405, and includes a search term TB406 and an area information TB407 that are databases. ing. The search term TB 406 is a database in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with the indexes assigned to the search terms shown in FIG. 3, and the area information TB 407 uses the index assigned to the search terms as a key to search the search terms. This is a database storing area information indicating areas closely related to.

  Although not shown, the control means 401 is a microprocessor having a RAM, a ROM, and a processor, and controls the operation of each unit by a control program stored in the ROM. The communication unit 402 is a communication interface for transmitting / receiving communication data to / from servers such as the information providing server 30A and the information providing server 30B via the network 12. The search request means 405 provides information on other areas when there is a search request for related information related to the search term, in this case, advertisement information, from the information providing server 30A to the information providing server 30BM in each of the areas A to BM. A search request is transmitted to the servers 30A to 30BM and the like. The area and the server that transmit the search request are specified by the area determination unit 403 and the server determination unit 404 with reference to the area information TB407.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of area information stored in the area information TB407. The area information TB407 is a database that stores area information indicating areas deeply related to a search term by associating an index assigned to the search term with a key. The information provision mediation server 40 refers to the area information TB407, and when receiving a mediation request for a search request for advertisement information including a search term or its index from the information provision server 30A, 30B, etc. Deep areas can be extracted.

  That is, in the area information TB407, as shown in FIG. 4, when the search term is “hotel”, the index “10” assigned to the hotel is used as a key, and “Hong Kong” and “Hawaii” are deeply related areas. , “Seoul”, “Las Vegas”, and the like are stored. Similarly, “India” is stored as area information for the search term “curry” (index “20”). Furthermore, Thai and Vietnamese curry dishes are also famous, so not only India but also Thailand and Vietnam are linked and stored as area information. Information indicating areas closely related to the search terms “hot spring” (index “30”) and “grilled meat” (index “40”) is also stored.

  Therefore, when the information providing mediation server 40 is requested by the information providing server 30 in a certain area to mediate search for advertisement information including a search term or an index, the area determination means 403 determines the area based on the index assigned to the search term. By referring to the information TB 407, an area deeply related to the search term can be easily identified. When the area is specified, the server determination unit 404 can determine the information providing server 30B and the like whose service providing area is the area specified by the area determining unit 403. Then, the search request unit 405 transmits a search term or index to the information providing server 30B1 determined by the server determination unit 404 and requests a search for related advertisement information.

  The information providing server 30B1 or the like requested to search for the advertisement information from the information providing mediation server 40 searches the advertisement DB 304B1 for the corresponding advertisement information by the search unit 303B1. Here, the advertisement information stored in the advertisement DB 304A of the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM is created in English, which is a common language, in addition to those created in the language for users in the service providing area. When providing advertisement information to users in other areas, it is preferable that the information is created in English. In addition, even advertisement information created in the native language includes advertisement information intended to be provided outside the area. In this way, it is preferable to store flag information indicating that the advertisement information that can be provided to other areas is intended to be provided outside the area in association with each other. The information providing server 30B1 checks the flag of the advertisement information searched by the search searching unit 303B1, and if the advertisement information can be provided outside the area, sends the advertisement information to the information providing mediation server 40.

  According to the information providing system as in the present embodiment, the advertisement information created for tourists from overseas and tourists from other areas is associated with such a flag so that the user can Even if the user does not intend when accessing the information providing servers 30A, 30B1, etc. in overseas or other areas, even if the user does not intend, such information for overseas or others The relevant advertisement information for the area can be automatically provided, and the user can be motivated to travel to the area from which the advertisement information is provided. In addition, the advertisement information provider can expect an increase in the number of customers, thereby providing the motivation for registering the advertisement information.

  FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure of the advertisement information providing process in the map information providing system using the information providing mediation server 40 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above. In the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 5, there is a POI search request by setting a desired search term from the terminal device 20 to the information providing server 30A in the area A, and the terminal device 20 from the information providing server 30A to the information providing mediation server 40. The case where there exists a search request | requirement which requests the mediation of provision of advertisement information, such as other area B relevant to the set search term, is illustrated. FIG. 5 exemplifies a case where the information providing intermediary server 40 typically determines that the area B1 is a related area and the information providing server 30B1 having the area B1 as a service providing area is determined as an area to be searched. Yes.

  The information provision mediation server 40 includes a search term TB 407 and area information TB 406 (see FIG. 2). When the user of the terminal device 20 searches the POI in the area A and obtains desired POI information, the search term (keyword) is set using the search condition setting screen displayed on the input unit 203 or the display unit 204. Then, a search request is transmitted to information providing server 30A having area A as the service providing area (sequence SQ1).

  The information providing server 30A that has received the search request from the terminal device 20 searches the POI information DB (database) 305A in which the POI data in the area A is stored, and provides the terminal device 20 with information on the POI corresponding to the search term. However, at the same time, the information providing intermediary server 40 is inquired as to whether or not there is relevant advertisement information in another area. In the inquiry, the search term set by the terminal device 20 is added to the mediation request and transmitted to the information provision mediation server 40 (sequence SQ2). At this time, the search term may be converted into an index and added to the mediation request, or the index and the search term may be added as a pair.

  When there is a mediation request including a search term and / or an index from the information provision server 30A, the information provision mediation server 40 first identifies the corresponding index by referring to the search term TB407 from the search term of the received mediation request. . This is not necessary when an index is received from the information providing server 30A. When the index is specified, the area information TB406 is referred to, and an area closely related to the search term (index) is extracted from the area information associated with the index. Here, a case where the area B1 (see FIG. 1) is extracted will be described as an example.

  Based on the extracted area, the information providing intermediary server 40 identifies the information providing server 30B1 having the area as the service providing area, and sets the search term and / or an index assigned to the search term to the information providing server 30B1. A search request for advertisement information to be included is transmitted (sequence SQ3). When sending an index, it is not always necessary to send a search term. If there is no index, only the search term is sent. The meaning of transmitting the index is that the information providing server 30B1 that receives the search request converts the search probability of related advertisement information by converting the language used for the POI search in the area B1 and the search term of different expressions. This is to increase it.

  In addition, since the area B1, the search term, and the corresponding index that request the search for the advertisement information are specified, the information providing mediation server 40 refers to the search term TB407 and converts it into a search term suitable for the area B1, An advertisement information search request may be transmitted to the information providing server 30B1 in the area B1.

  The information providing server 30B1 searches and extracts related advertisement information from the advertisement DB (advertisement information database) based on the search term and / or index included in the search request. When only the index is received, when searching for the advertisement information, the search term TB306B1 is referred to based on the index received from the information providing mediation server 40, and converted into a search term suitable for its own area.

  When the information providing server 30B1 searches the advertisement DB 304B1 which is a related information database and extracts the advertisement information associated with the index or the search term, the advertisement information can be distributed (provided) outside the area B1 (other areas). Whether or not the advertisement information is correct. As described above, the advertisement information that can be provided outside the area B1 (other areas) is, for example, advertisement information created in English as a common language, or an advertisement created with the intention of providing outside the area. It is information, and it is determined whether or not it can be provided outside the area based on the flag information added to the advertisement information.

  When the searched advertisement information can be provided outside the area (other areas), information providing server 30B1 transmits the advertisement information to information providing server 30A (sequence SQ4). The provision of the advertisement information in this sequence SQ4 may be transmitted to the information providing server 30A via the information providing mediation server 40. In the case of passing through the information provision mediation server 40, the information provision server 30B1 transmits the searched advertisement information to the information provision mediation server 40, and the information provision mediation server 40 provides the advertisement information to the information requesting area A of the search request source. The sequence to be transmitted to the server 30A is taken.

  On the other hand, the information providing server 30A in area A, which has requested the information providing mediation server 40 to provide mediation of advertisement information in other areas related to the search terms, is based on the search request received from the terminal device 20 in sequence SQ1. , POI information corresponding to the search term set by the terminal device 20 is searched with reference to the POI information DB 306A, and the result is temporarily stored. When the advertisement information is received from the information providing server 30B1 (or the information providing mediation server 40) in sequence SQ4, the temporarily stored POI information and the advertisement information of the area B1 searched by the information providing server 30B1 are sent to the terminal device 20. Transmit (sequence SQ5). The terminal device 20 displays the POI information and advertisement information received in the sequence SQ5 on the display means 204.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a search result answer screen displayed on the terminal device 20. In this example, a case where the terminal device 20 requests the information providing server 30A in the area A to search for a hotel around the current position of the terminal device 20 by designating the search term “hotel”. In the display area 25a of the display means 25, the result of the information providing server 30A searching for the corresponding POI (hotel) with reference to the POI information DB 305A is displayed. In addition, the display area 25b displays a result of the information providing server 30A searching the corresponding (associated) advertisement information with reference to the advertisement DB 304A based on the search term “hotel”.

  These search results are information search results in the area A desired by the user of the terminal device 20. However, in the present invention, based on the search term “hotel”, advertisement information in other areas not intended by the user is acquired and displayed via the information provision mediation server 40. In the display area 25c, advertisement information acquired from the area B1 (for example, the information providing server 30B1 having Korea as an area) via the information providing mediation server 40 is displayed.

  For example, when the search term is “hotel”, the information providing mediation server 40 refers to the area information TB407, and based on the area information such as “Seoul” in this case, the area including Seoul, for example, the area B1 , The search term “hotel” or the index “10” is transmitted to the information providing server 30B1 in the area B1, and a search for advertisement information is requested, and the advertisement information searched by the information providing server 30B1 is sent to the information providing server 30A. It is possible to view advertisement information in areas not intended by the user. As a result, the user can be motivated to travel to Seoul, and the advertisement provider can expect an increase in users.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure in the information provision mediation server 40 described above. The information provision mediation server 40 receives a search term and / or an index from a first information provision server, for example, the information provision server 30A (step S101). Based on the search term and / or index received from the information providing server 30A, the area determination unit 403 refers to the area information TB407 to determine the related area. When the index is not transmitted and only the search term is transmitted, the information provision mediation server 40 refers to the search term TB 406 and identifies the corresponding index.

  For example, when the search term is “hotel” as in the example of the search response screen of FIG. 6, the index is “10”, and the area determination unit 403 refers to the area information TB407 and associates it with the index “10”. Extracted area information “Hong Kong”, “Hawaii”, “Seoul”, etc. (Step S102). Then, based on the extracted area information, the corresponding service providing area is determined (step S103). Here, a system in which “Hong Kong”, “Hawaii”, “Seoul” and the like are provided as service areas is determined.

  When the area is determined, the server determination unit 404 determines an information providing server, for example, the information providing server 30B1 that uses the area as a service providing area (step S104). Next, the information provision mediation server 40 transmits the search term and / or index received from the information provision server 30A to the information provision server 30B1 determined by the server determination unit 404, and searches for advertisement information related to the search term. (Step 105). When only the search term is transmitted from the information providing server 30A to the information providing intermediary server 40, the information providing intermediary server 40 refers to the search term TB406 to identify the index corresponding to the search term. Then, the information provision mediation server 40 waits for an answer to the search result from the information provision server 30B1 or the like.

  When the information provision mediation server 40 receives advertisement information as a search result from the information provision server 30B1 or the like (step S106), the information provision mediation server 40 transmits the advertisement information to the information provision server 30A of the mediation request source (step S107). For example, if the search term described in FIG. 6 is “hotel”, “Hong Kong”, “Hawaii”, “Seoul”, etc. are determined as areas, and the advertisement information associated with the search term “hotel” in those areas is determined. The information providing server 30 </ b> A can be acquired through the information providing mediation server 40 after being searched. The user of the terminal device 20 is not involved in this mediation request. Accordingly, it is possible to know the advertisement information in another area closely related to the search term as a result of the POI search of the area A without the intention of the user.

  Although the information providing system according to the first embodiment described above uses the information providing mediation server 40, the information providing system according to the present invention is a system that does not intervene the information mediating server 40 as shown in FIG. It can also be configured as. Hereinafter, in description of Example 2, the same component as Example 1 is shown using the same referential mark. The functions of these constituent elements also have the same functions as those described in the first embodiment, and the description of the individual constituent elements is omitted to avoid duplication of explanation.

  That is, in the information providing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, each of the information providing server 30A and the information providing servers 30B1 to 30BM having the service providing area in the area A, the area B1 to the area BM, is connected to the network 12 such as the Internet. It is configured to be able to exchange processing requests and results by connecting to other information providing servers that are required. The terminal device 20 has the same configuration as that of the terminal device 20 in the first embodiment, but the information providing server 30A and the information providing servers 30B1 to 30BM each have components included in the information providing mediation server 40 in the first embodiment. Is different from the first embodiment.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the information providing server 30A includes a POI information DB (database) 305A that stores POI information that covers a service providing area (area A), and an advertisement that stores advertisement information that is an example of related information. In addition to including the DB (database) 304A and the search unit 303A, the information providing intermediary server 40 in the first embodiment corresponds to the area determination unit 403, the server determination unit 404, the search request unit 405, and the area information TB407. An area determination unit 403A, a server determination unit 404A, a search request unit 405A, and area information TB407A are provided. The information providing servers 30B1 to 30BM in other areas have the same configuration.

  When the user of the terminal device 20 searches the POI in the area A and obtains desired POI information, the search term (keyword) is set using the search condition setting screen displayed on the input unit 203 or the display unit 204. The search request is transmitted to the information providing server 30A having the area A as the service providing area.

  The information providing server 30A that has received the search request from the terminal device 20 searches the POI information DB (database) 305A in which the POI data in the area A is stored, and provides the terminal device 20 with information on the POI corresponding to the search term. However, at the same time, the following processing is performed in order to acquire related advertisement information in other areas.

  First, the information providing server 30A refers to the search term TB 306A based on the search term specified by the terminal device 20, and extracts an index (ID) given to the search term (see FIG. 3). Next, the information providing server 30A extracts area information associated with the index with reference to the area information TB407A (see FIG. 4) based on the extracted index. When the area information is extracted, the area determination unit 403A determines an information providing system that uses the area as a service providing area based on the area information. In the following description, a case where the area corresponding to the area information is the area B1 will be described. However, not only one area but also a plurality of areas may be determined. When there are a plurality of areas, the same processing is performed for each area.

  When the area is determined, the server determination unit 404A determines an information providing server that provides a service in the area. In this case, since the area determined from the index is the area B1, it is determined that the corresponding server is the information providing server 30B1 that provides the service in the area B1.

  When the area related to the search term and the information providing server 30B1 that provides the service in the area are determined in this way, the search request unit 405A displays the search request including the search term and / or index (ID) as information. Transmit to the providing server 30B1. When the information providing server 30B1 that has received the search request from the information providing server 30A searches the advertisement DB (advertisement information database) 304B1 and extracts the advertisement information associated with the index or the search term, the advertisement information is outside the area B1. It is determined whether or not the advertisement information can be distributed (provided).

  The advertisement information that can be provided outside the area B1 is, for example, advertisement information created in English as a common language or advertisement information created with the intention of providing outside the area B1, as described in the first embodiment. Then, it is determined whether the information can be provided outside the area based on the flag information added to the advertisement information. When the searched advertisement information can be provided outside the area, the information providing server 30B1 transmits the advertisement information to the information providing server 30A. Such processing of the information providing server 30B1 is the same as the processing when the search request is received from the information providing mediation server 40 in the first embodiment. The processing of the information providing server according to the second embodiment receives the search request from another information providing server (for example, the information providing server 30A) instead of the information providing mediation server 40, and receives the search result as another information providing server. The only difference is that it provides.

  If the information providing system is configured as in the second embodiment, the information providing server that provides information to an area without using the information providing mediation server 40 requests a process such as an information search service in the area. When searching for and providing information in the area to the device, information such as related advertisements in other areas can be acquired and provided. However, in this case, the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM in each area need to be provided with components included in the information providing mediation server 40 (see FIG. 9). Further, in order to unify the accumulated data of the search term TB306 and the area information TB405A, it is preferable to update the accumulated data in synchronization with each other between the information providing servers.

  The examples of the first embodiment and the second embodiment are servers having a function in which the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM in each area search and provide corresponding information based on a search term designated in the terminal device 20. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the server further has another function, for example, a navigation function, and information obtained by searching the terminal device 20 (for example, desired POI). Based on the above, an optimum route to that point may be searched and guided.

  When the server has such a navigation function, when a terminal device searches for a facility in an area and receives route guidance to the facility, desired information is set based on a search term set to search for a POI. Can be retrieved and provided, and related advertisement information in other areas can be acquired and provided. When the user of the terminal device 20 is interested in the provided advertisement information, a route from the area where the user is located to a predetermined position based on the advertisement information of another aria (for example, the location of the store that provided the advertisement information) Search and route guidance can be provided.

  The embodiment of Example 3 in which the information providing system has a navigation function will be described below. However, in the description of the third embodiment, the components of the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM described in the first and second embodiments are omitted to avoid duplication, and only the components and functions required for the navigation function are omitted. Only briefly explained.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the information providing system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 representatively illustrates only area A and area B1, and explains the concept of route search. The information providing server 30A has only map data covering the area A and route search network data, and the information providing server 30B1 has only map data covering the area B1 and route search network data. Yes. Therefore, the information providing server 30A cannot perform a route search using a point in the area B as a departure point or destination, and the information providing server 30B1 cannot perform a route search using a point in the area A as a departure point or destination.

  When the terminal device 20 makes a route search request across the area such that the departure point S is a point in the area A and the destination G is a point in the area B to the information providing server 30A in the area A Then, the information providing server 30A and the information providing server 30B1 in the areas A and B1 cooperate with each other in the following manner to determine the optimum route from the departure point S to the destination G as a recommended route and guide it to the terminal device 20. To do.

  That is, when the destination G is outside the area A and is a point in the area B1, the information providing server 30A searches for the link of the moving means that connects the area A and the area B1, and one or more candidates The contact points P1 to P3 are extracted, and the optimum route search (route having the minimum route cost) from the departure point S to each of the candidate contact points P1, P2, and P3 is searched for as candidate routes SP1, SP2, and SP3, and the required time (Route cost) is obtained.

  The information providing server 30A sends the point information of the destination G, the point information of the candidate contacts P1 to P3, and the time required for the candidate route to the information providing server 30B1 having the area B1 where the destination G is located as the service area. The information providing server 30B1 searches for the optimum route from the candidate contacts P1 to P3 to the destination G based on the point information of the candidate contacts P1 to P3 and the point information of the destination G (the route having the minimum route cost). ) To search for candidate routes P1G, P2G, and P3G.

  The information providing server 30B1 adds the route costs (required times to the candidate contacts P1 to P3) to the candidate routes SP1, SP2, and SP3 searched by the information providing server 30A for the route costs (required times) of the candidate routes P1G, P2G, and P3G. Are combined (added) to determine the optimum route that minimizes the route cost (total time required) from the departure point S to the destination G. Here, the candidate to be combined at the candidate contact point P2 Assuming that the total route cost (required time) of the route SP2 and the candidate route P2G is the minimum, the information providing server 30B1 sets the point data of the candidate contact point P2 and the route data of the candidate route P2G determined as the recommended route (route information) All link data) is transmitted to the information providing server 30 A. The data to be transmitted by the information providing server 30 B 1 to the information providing server 30 A is determined. Is a data relating to the recommended route has, data of the other candidate routes can inhibit data traffic from being sent.

  The information providing server 30A uses the point information of the candidate contact P2 received from the information providing server 30B1, the route data of the candidate route P2G determined as the recommended route (all link data of the route), and the route data of the candidate route SP2. The recommended route reaching the departure point S, candidate route SP2, candidate contact point P2, candidate route P2G, and destination G is specified, and the entire route data is returned to the terminal device 20.

  When receiving the recommended route information from the information providing server 30A, the terminal device 20 requests route guidance based on the recommended route to the information providing server 30A within the area A. The information providing server 30A guides the recommended route to the terminal device 20 based on the map data of the area A for the route section (route SP2) to the candidate contact point P2.

  When the terminal device 20 reaches the candidate contact P2, the terminal device 20 leaves the area A and enters the area B1, and therefore requests a route guidance service from the information providing server 30B1. At this time, since the terminal device 20 stores route data (link data) of a recommended route (candidate route P2G) from the candidate contact point P2 to the destination G, the recommended route data is transmitted to the information providing server 30B1. The route guidance may be requested. The map data provided to the terminal device 20 in response to this route guidance request is held by the information providing server 30B1 having the area B1 as a service area, and therefore does not provide map data outside the area.

  When the information providing server 30B1 extracts candidate contacts PX different from the candidate contacts P1 to P3 extracted by the information providing server 30A based on the point information of the destination G received from the information providing server 30A, the candidate contacts PX Point information is sent to the information providing server 30A, and a request is made to additionally search for the optimum candidate route from the departure point S to the candidate contact point PX, and the time required for the candidate route is obtained from the information providing server 30A to provide information. The final recommended route may be determined in addition to the candidate routes to other candidate contacts at the recommended route in the server 30A.

  Here, the candidate contact point shown in FIG. 10 is shown as a specific point, but when the area A and the area B1 are adjacent to each other by land and the moving means is an automobile or a railroad, the area A and the area The candidate contact point connecting B1 is a point of the area boundary, and one point can be specified as the point information of the candidate contact point as indicated by P1 to P3 in FIG.

  For example, when the moving means between areas is a route using an aircraft or a route using a ship, the node on the area A side and the area B1 side which are nodes at both ends of a link that uses an aircraft or ship connecting the areas as the moving means Node becomes a candidate contact. As shown in FIG. 10, when the departure point S is in the area A and the destination G is in the area B1, the point information of the candidate contact point sent from the information providing server 30A on the area A side to the information providing server 30B1 on the area B1 side is the aircraft link. The point data of the candidate contact point of the information providing server 30A in the area A is the airport serving as the departure side node of the aircraft link. In this case, of course, the time required for the aircraft link is added to the total cost of the recommended route.

  In the information providing server 30A, in order to specify the destination G located within the area B1 where the information providing server 30B1 provides the service, it is necessary to specify the position information of the destination G in the information providing server 30A. There is. In that case, it is not necessary for the information providing server 30A to have the map data of the area B1, and the location information may be acquired by performing a POI search on a city name or a famous facility name within the area B1. . The POI information can be acquired from various servers and stored in the POI information DB (see FIG. 2).

  Since the POI information DB of the information providing server 30A includes information on areas other than area A and foreign POI information such as airports and harbors that are major facilities, the information providing server 30 can specify the designated destination G Airports and ports around can be extracted as candidate contacts. Such a route search system is described in detail in International Patent Application No. PCT / JP2008 / 058182 already filed by the applicant of the present application.

  Here, a configuration related to the navigation function of the information providing servers 30A and 30B1 to 30BM according to the third embodiment will be described. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information providing server and a terminal device in which a predetermined area is a service providing area. In FIG. 11, the illustrated components are related to the navigation function, and the components used in common with the information providing function in the first and second embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals as in FIGS. 2 and 9. .

  The terminal device 20 is a terminal capable of receiving a navigation service, and includes a control unit 201, a communication unit 202, a GPS reception unit 22, a search request unit 23, a recommended route data storage unit 24, a display unit 25, an operation input unit 26, A search request unit 205, a route guidance request unit 28, and the like are provided. The operation input means 26 includes a character input key, a selection key, a cursor key for selecting a setting item on the menu screen displayed on the display screen, and the like.

  The information providing server 30A includes a map DB 34A storing map data, a route search road NW data (road network data) 351A, a route search network DB 35A storing traffic NW data (traffic network data) 352A, the name of POI, A POI information DB 305A for accumulating position information is provided. When the information providing server 30A has a function of searching for a route using walking or public transportation and guiding it to the terminal device 20, the road NW data 351A and the traffic NW data 352A stored in the route search network database 35A are used. Use to search the route.

  The information providing server 30A includes a control unit 301A, a communication unit 302A, a distribution data editing unit 32A, a recommended route determination unit 33A, a candidate contact / candidate route providing unit 37A, a candidate contact extraction unit 371A, a candidate route storage unit 372A, a candidate The route combining unit 373A, the processing request storage unit 38A, the route search unit 39A, and the like are provided.

  When there is a POI search or map distribution request from the terminal device 20, the information providing server 30A temporarily stores the request in the processing request storage unit 38A. When the request is a route search request, the route search means 39A searches the route search network DB 35A for an optimum route or a recommended route (guide route). The searched guide route data is edited into distribution data for the terminal device 20 by the distribution data editing means 32A and distributed to the terminal device 20. Further, map data including the guide route is read from the map DB 34 </ b> A and distributed to the terminal device 20.

  When there is a route search request from the terminal device 20, the information providing server 30A temporarily stores it in the processing request storage unit 38A. Then, the route search unit 39A searches for a plurality of candidate routes from the departure point to the destination with reference to the route search network DB 35A according to the route search condition included in the route search request stored in the processing request storage unit 38A.

  When the route search request is a normal route search request, that is, when the starting point and the destination are points within the service providing area of the information providing server 30A, the route searching means 39A refers to the route searching network DB 35A. A normal route search is performed, and an optimum route and a plurality of candidate routes are searched according to the setting of route search conditions, and the search result is provided to the terminal device 20. As a result, the guidance route data such as the optimum route and the candidate route is transmitted to the terminal device 20 together with the map data read from the map DB 34A. This route search method is the same method as the route search server in a normal navigation system.

  In the route search request from the terminal device 20, the departure place is within the service area of the information providing server 30 </ b> A, for example, as the departure place S in FIG. 10, and the destination is the route search server 30 </ b> A, such as the destination G. When the point is outside the service providing area, the route search and the guidance of the optimum recommended route are performed as described with reference to FIG.

  That is, the candidate contact point extracting unit 371A is configured to connect one or a plurality of candidate contact points (see FIG. 10) connecting the areas where the departure point S (see FIG. 10) is located based on the area where the set destination G (see FIG. 2) is located. For example, P1 to P3) in FIG. 10 are extracted. When the candidate contact point is extracted, the route search means 39A searches for the optimum route connecting the departure point S and each candidate contact point (P1 to P3) to be a candidate route (SP1 to SP3 in FIG. 2), The route storage means 372 stores the data of each candidate route and the required time (link cost).

  When the search for each candidate route is completed, the candidate contact / candidate route providing means 37A sends the candidate contact (P1) to the information providing server 30B1 (see 30B1 in FIG. 10) whose service providing area is the area where the destination G is located. To P3) and the required time of each candidate route are sent, and a search for a candidate route from the candidate contact point to the destination G is requested. Here, the configuration of the information providing server 30B1 is the same as that of the information providing server 30A shown in FIG.

  The information providing server 30B1 (30B1 in FIG. 10) includes the point information of the destination G, the point information of the candidate contacts (P1 to P3), and the time required for the candidate route (SP1 to SP3) from the departure point S to each candidate contact. When the information is received, the route searching means 39B1 searches for the optimum route from each candidate contact point (P1 to P3) to the destination G and sets it as a candidate route (P1G to P3G). Candidate route combining means 373B1 adds the required times of candidate routes SP1 to SP3 to each of candidate routes P1G to P3G, calculates the total required time (link cost) from departure point S to destination G, and calculates each candidate. Join paths. The recommended route determining unit 33B1 compares the cost of each candidate route combined by the candidate route combining unit 373B1, determines the candidate route with the lowest cost as the recommended route, and provides the link data and candidate contact information of the recommended route to the request source information The data is sent to the server 30A (30A in FIG. 10).

  When receiving the recommended route information from the information providing server 30A, the terminal device 20 requests route guidance based on the recommended route to the information providing server 30A within the area A. The information providing server 30A guides the recommended route to the terminal device 20 based on the map data of the area A for the route section to the candidate contact.

  When the terminal device 20 reaches the candidate contact point, the terminal device 20 leaves the area A and enters another service providing area (area B1). Therefore, the route guidance service is provided to the information providing server 30B1 (30B1 in FIG. 10). Request. At this time, since the terminal device 20 stores route data (link data) of the recommended route from the candidate contact point to the destination G, the recommended route data is transmitted to the route search server 30B1 to request route guidance. do it.

  According to such a system configuration, when performing route guidance to a place other than the service providing area that does not hold map data or the like, only contact information with the area to which the destination area outside the service providing area belongs is provided. It is possible to provide seamless route guidance from the departure point of the service providing area to the destination outside the service providing area by sharing only the contact information and using the respective route guidance information. Therefore, a series of route guidance services from the departure point to the destination across the country or region are linked from the system by linking the route guidance systems with map data for each country and region and network data for route search. Smooth transfer to the system will be possible.

  If the information providing servers 30A, 30B1 to 30BM have such a navigation function, the terminal device 20 designates a certain search term to acquire desired information from the information providing server 30A or the like and unintentionally others. If the user is interested in the related advertisement information acquired from the area, the route to the location of the target POI of the advertisement information can be guided.

  As described above in detail, according to the present invention, in an information providing system in which there is a system including an information providing server that provides an information search service in each area, with the country or region as an area, When an information providing server that provides information to an area searches and provides information in the area to a terminal device that requests processing such as an information search service in the area, information related to the other area is related. Information such as advertisements can be acquired and provided, and advertisement information in other areas can be provided to unintended users.

  The present invention is not limited to information about POI (Point of Interest), and can be widely applied to a system for providing route information such as railways and buses, map information, or navigation information such as route search and route guidance. is there.

20. Terminal device 30A ... Information providing servers 30B1-30BM ... Information providing server 40 ... Information providing mediation server 301A ... Control means 302A ... Communication means 303A ...・ Search means 304A ... Advertisement DB
305A ... POI information DB
306A ... Search term TB
401 ··· Control means 402 ··· Communication means 403 ··· Area determination means 404 ··· Server determination means 405 ··· Search request means 406 ··· Search term TB
407 ... Area information TB

Claims (20)

In the information providing system configured to connect the information providing mediation server, a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device via a network,
Each information report providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term, and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and is unique to the search term. An index is given,
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in an area where the information providing server provides the service, and uses the search term as the information. Send to the mediation server to request mediation of related information in other areas,
The information providing mediation server refers to the area information table based on the search term received from the information providing server, extracts area information related to the search term, and sets the extracted area as a service providing area. A search term or a corresponding index is transmitted to the information providing server to request a search for related information, and a search result received from the other information providing server is transmitted to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information. An information providing system characterized by that.   Each of the related information stored in the related information database by each of the information providing servers includes distribution availability information indicating whether the information can be provided to other areas, and based on a search request from the information providing mediation server The related information searched for is distributed to the information providing mediation server only when the information is distributable information by referring to the distribution availability information of the related information searched in the above. Information provision system.   When the information provision mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information provision server, the information provision mediation server refers to the search term table and transmits the search request to the information. The providing server converts the data into a search term suitable for use in the search and transmits it. If the conversion cannot be performed, the server converts the data into an index corresponding to the search term and transmits it. Information providing system according to item.   When the search request received from the information providing mediation server does not include a search term but includes an index, the information providing server refers to the search term table and the information providing server uses the index for the search. The information providing system according to claim 3, wherein the related information is searched after being converted into a search term suitable for the user.   The information providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the related information is advertisement information. An information providing mediation server, an information providing mediation server constituting an information providing system in which a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device are connected via a network,
Each information providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and the search term has a unique index. When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in the area where the service provides the service, and the search A term is transmitted to the information providing mediation server to request mediation of provision of related information in other areas;
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and based on the search term received from the information providing server, refers to the area information table, extracts area information related to the search term, and uses the extracted area as a service providing area. Sending a search term or a corresponding index to a providing server to request a search for related information, and sending a search result received from the other information providing server to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information An information providing intermediary server characterized by   Each of the related information stored in the related information database by each of the information providing servers includes distribution availability information indicating whether the information can be provided to other areas, and based on a search request from the information providing mediation server It is connected to the information providing server that distributes the searched related information to the information providing mediation server only when the information is distributable information with reference to the distribution availability information of the related information searched in The information provision mediation server according to claim 6.   When the information provision mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information provision server, the information provision mediation server refers to the search term table and transmits the search request to the information. The providing server converts the data into a search term suitable for use in the search and transmits it, and if the conversion is not possible, converts the data into an index corresponding to the search term and transmits the converted data. Information providing mediation server described in the section.   When the search request received from the information providing mediation server does not include a search term but includes an index, the information providing server refers to the search term table and the information providing server uses the index for the search. 9. The information provision mediation server according to claim 8, wherein the information provision mediation server is connected to the information provision server that retrieves the related information by converting into a search term suitable for the information.   The information provision mediation server according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the related information is advertisement information. An information providing server constituting an information providing system in which an information providing intermediary server, a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area, and a terminal device are connected via a network,
Each information providing server includes an information database storing information in a service providing area searched by a search term and a related information database storing related information related to the search term, and the search term has a unique index. Is granted,
The information providing intermediary server includes a search term table in which synonymous search terms are stored in association with each index, and area information in which area information for specifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index is stored. A table, and based on the search term received from the information providing server, refers to the area information table, extracts area information related to the search term, and uses the extracted area as a service providing area. A search term or a corresponding index is transmitted to the providing server to request a search for related information, and a search result received from the other information providing server is transmitted to the information providing server in response to the search request for the related information. Composed of
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term by referring to an information database in an area where the information providing server provides the service, and uses the search term as the information. An information providing server, which transmits to a providing server and requests mediation of providing related information in another area.   Each related information stored in the related information database by each information providing server includes distribution availability information indicating whether the information can be provided to other areas, and based on a search request from the information providing mediation server 12. The searched related information is referred to, and only when the information is distributable, the searched related information is distributed to the information providing mediation server. Information service server.   When the information provision mediation server transmits a search request including a search term to the information provision server, the information provision mediation server refers to the search term table and transmits the search request to the information. The providing server converts to a search term suitable for use in the search and transmits it. If the conversion is not possible, the server is connected to an information providing mediation server that converts to an index corresponding to the search term and sends it. 12. The information providing server according to claim 11, wherein the information providing server is characterized in that:   When the search request received from the information providing mediation server does not include a search term but includes an index, the information providing server refers to the search term table and the information providing server uses the index for the search. The information providing server according to claim 13, wherein the related information is searched by converting into a search term suitable for the information.   The information providing server according to any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the related information is advertisement information. In an information providing system in which a plurality of information providing servers each having a predetermined area as a service providing area and a terminal device are configured to be connectable via a network,
Each search term is assigned a unique index, and each information report providing server stores an information database storing information in the service providing area searched by the search term and related information related to the search term. A related information database, a search term table that stores synonymous search terms in association with each index, an area information table that stores area information for identifying areas related to the search terms in association with each index, and With
When the information providing server receives a search request including a search term from the terminal device, the information providing server searches for information corresponding to the search term with reference to an information database in an area where the service provides the service, and receives the information from the terminal device. Based on the search terms, the area information table is referenced to extract area information related to the search terms, and the search terms or corresponding indexes are transmitted to other information providing servers that use the extracted areas as service providing areas. And a search result received from the other information providing server in response to the related information search request is transmitted to the terminal device.   Each related information stored in the related information database by each of the information providing servers includes distribution availability information indicating whether the information can be provided to another area, and in response to a search request from the other information providing server. The related information that is searched based on the distribution availability information of the related information is referred to, and only when the information is distributable, the searched related information is distributed to the other information providing server. Information providing system described in 1.   When the information providing server transmits a search request including a search term to the other information providing server, the information providing server refers to the search term table and transmits the search request to the other search server. The information providing server converts the data into a search term suitable for use in the search and transmits it. If the conversion cannot be performed, the information providing server converts the data into an index corresponding to the search term and transmits it. Item 16. The information providing system according to Item 16.   When the search request received from the other information providing server does not include a search term and an index is included, the information providing server refers to the search term table and uses the index for the search by the information providing server. 19. The information providing system according to claim 18, wherein the related information is searched after being converted into a search term suitable for.   20. The information providing system according to any one of claims 16 to 19, wherein the related information is advertisement information.

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