KR20010016773A - Method for Acquiring Information from Internet and Computer Readable Medium for Storing Program for Carrying out the Method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An information collection method is provided to enable a user to reserve retrievals of various subjects over the internet so that it constructs a customized personal portal site. CONSTITUTION: The method comprises steps of a user setting a search query, setting at least one external host address to perform the search operation, accessing to a communication network, receiving informations searched by the external host, storing the searched informations in a memory, and browsing the stored informations irrespective of a connection to the communication network. The user can set a plurality of subjects in the step of the setting the search query, and a start time of a search operation. Each subject can be set to a specific host address. The subject can be selectively enabled by the user. The information collection method can be controlled by a wireless remote controller with a plurality of function buttons or a computer system.

Description

Method for Acquiring Information from Internet and Computer Readable Medium for Storing Program for Carrying out the Method}

The present invention relates to a method of obtaining information through the Internet, and more particularly, to a method of confirming the contents of a searched information after searching a large amount of information collectively.

With the development of information and communication technology and the spread of computers, the use of the Internet as a means for obtaining information in homes and offices has become commonplace. The Internet is a worldwide computer network that allows anyone and anytime, anywhere to find the information they need, often referred to as the 'sea of information' in light of the vast amount of information it can obtain. In obtaining information from the Internet, a program called a web browser is usually used. A user who wants to search for information browses a web document by directly accessing the web site by inputting a web site address in a URL input box on a web browser.

It is common practice for those who use the Internet to search for various kinds of information in various fields of interest, not just obtaining or verifying a small number of information once the web browser is running. Information frequently used by Internet users includes, for example, news in politics and economics, economic information on stock quotes or economic indicators, cultural information on performances, hobbies or leisure, and especially the user's occupation, personality and age. There is a considerable difference in the specific information to be acquired depending on the. When a user wants to search or view various kinds of information as described above, the user searches for the next information by selecting a hyperlinked string in the HTML document provided in the connected site. If the information of interest is not provided in a single site, after viewing the information in one site, the user moves to the next site to view all or part of the remaining information, and repeats this process as necessary. do.

On the other hand, as the number of Internet users increases, the server of each website, especially the server of a lot of visitors, carries a considerable traffic load. As a result, the connection of the user may not be smooth depending on the site, and even if the connection is made once, the information transmission speed may be considerably slowed. On the other hand, the development of the Internet backbone network or subscriber network is considerably slower than the increase rate of Internet users and the overall traffic increase, which also has a great influence on the speed of information retrieval and transmission. If the information transmission speed is not fast enough, Internet users often spend a long time in obtaining the desired information. In particular, when the operation speed of the connected web server is slow or the bandwidth of the line used for the connection is small, the user spends a considerable amount of time waiting to receive information from the server. Moreover, the Internet usage pattern of each user may be said to be similar in every connection session, so that the user waits until the transmission is completed in a similar pattern in each connection session.

Search engines are also used to search for information on an unspecified number of sites. The search engine maintains the data collected by the search robot in a database form and provides the user with information corresponding to the search word provided by the user. For this purpose, the data search search robot travels from time to time to collect information for each keyword and provide it to the search engine. However, the information collected by these search robots is not customized to each user's needs, and includes many things that are not necessary for each user. Also, search robots do not search all websites very frequently, for example several times a day, so the information provided by search engines is not always updated with the latest information.

Push technology has been developed and used to alleviate the hassle of having to visit various websites for information collection and to provide up-to-date information that is relatively tailored to the needs of each information user. The push technology refers to a technology in which a push server searches for and stores information of a type selected by each user in advance, and transmits the stored information to the user when the user requests it. According to this push technology, each user does not need to surf several websites to search for information, and the information of the desired field can be uniformly received and stored on the hard disk, and the contents thereof can be checked. Therefore, considerable time can be saved.

However, there is a problem that the type of information that each user can reserve in the push server is limited to some large category which is predefined in the server. Therefore, it is common for the push server to not provide a reservation service for such a topic if the topic desired by the user is not universal and special. In addition, since reservations can be made only at such a comprehensive category level, and information cannot be specifically tailored to each user's needs, each user often has to endure that unnecessary information is transmitted to the user. In this case, the information retrieval and transmission time may be longer than when the push server is not used.

Moreover, it is customary that the information source used by the push server to obtain information is limited to predetermined websites. For example, a push server that provides reservation transmission for 'news' may only obtain news information from one or two newspaper sites that provide Internet news information in Korea. Moreover, such push servers typically do not provide foreign news. For these reasons, push technology is not yet fully used for Internet information retrieval and is only limited to providing on-demand news on a limited basis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for acquiring an information that enables each Internet user to easily search for and specifically search for necessary information on his or her own with respect to various topics. .

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a user computer for implementing the information obtaining method according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart showing the operation of a program according to the present invention;

3 is a view showing an example of an initial screen of a program according to the present invention;

4 is a diagram showing an example of a channel information setting / change screen in a program according to the present invention;

5 is a flow chart showing the 'search and store' step of FIG. 2 in more detail.

6 is a view showing a directory structure of web pages stored in a hard disk.

7A and 7B are flowcharts showing the 'view search results' step of FIG. 2 in more detail.

8A and 8B show examples of screens showing a list of stored web pages.

The information obtaining method of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem is provided with a display and a storage device for storing data, connected to a plurality of external hosts through a communication network to retrieve and receive a document and the received document It is implemented by a program on a computer system capable of displaying on a display.

The program user may selectively activate each of the plurality of channels on the initial screen displayed in the form of a remote controller. In addition, in activating each channel, a search expression for searching a document and at least one external host address for performing a search among the plurality of external hosts may be set. For an activated channel, the program stores the plurality of documents retrieved by searching for documents from the at least one external host using the search formula at a time or at a reserved time while the computer system is connected to the communication network. Save to your device. After the storage is completed, the user can view the contents of the stored plurality of documents regardless of whether the computer system is connected to the communication network.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 shows an embodiment of a user computer performing a function as a hardware platform for implementing the information obtaining method according to the present invention. The user computer includes a system body 10 and a plurality of peripheral devices 36, 38, 40. The system body 10 includes a microprocessor 12 and a number of internal circuits 16-30 that are connected to the microprocessor 12 via a system bus 14. Among the internal circuits, the main memory 18 is connected to the microprocessor 12 through the memory controller 16, and stores data on the system bus 14 in response to control signals from the memory controller 16, or The stored data is output to the system bus 14. The ROM 20 stores Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) code that controls basic hardware operations.

The hard disk 22 and the CD-ROM 24 operate as auxiliary storage devices for storing various programs and data. Meanwhile, the keyboard controller 26 provides a hardware interface to the keyboard 36, the mouse controller 28 provides a hardware interface to the mouse 38, and the video controller 30 is connected to the display device 40. Provides a hardware interface for The modem 42 allows a user computer to be connected to another computer connected to the communication network 44 via a communication network 44 such as the Internet.

In the computer system of FIG. 1, the hard disk 22 stores a reservation retrieval program 54 according to the present invention together with an operating system (OS) 50, a web browser 52, and the like. The operating system 50 is loaded into the main memory 18 when the computer system is booted, and then remains in the main memory 18 as long as the computer system is turned on to perform management and control functions for the system. Meanwhile, the web browser 52 and the reservation retrieval program 54 may be selectively driven by the user. When a user runs these programs according to a general program execution method, the programs are loaded into the main memory 18 and then operated. In this case, when the program is inactive for a long time or the capacity of the main memory 18 is insufficient during operation, a part of the program may be stored in the virtual memory space allocated on the hard disk 22.

The web browser 52 may be a Netscape Navigator provided by America Online (AOL), an Internet Explorer provided by Microsoft, or the like, and other commercially available or appearing in the future. Browsers may be used. Such a web browser 52 allows a user to search a web document and view the retrieved web document while the computer system is connected to an external web server via a modem 42. The user may also view web documents stored on his or her hard disk 22 regardless of whether the communication network is online or offline. The reservation search program 54 searches for information according to the type of information set by the user, reservation time, and the like, and stores the search results in the hard disk 22.

2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the reservation retrieval program according to the present invention.

When the program is driven, the initial screen is first displayed on the display (step 70). An example of the initial screen of the reserved search program is shown in FIG. 3. The initial screen is in the form of a remote controller 58 in which a plurality of buttons are arranged. Buttons disposed on the remote controller 58 are the "view" button 60, the "reservation" button 61, and the "execute" button ( 62), "back" button 63, "home" button 64, "forward" button 65 and a plurality of channel buttons 66a-66i. Each of the channel buttons 66a-66i is provided in relation to one information retrieval topic. The name and search environment of each channel button can be arbitrarily set or changed by the user. In addition, all or some of the channel buttons 66a-66i may be selectively activated by the user. As each user sets up a channel, the number of channel buttons may exceed one page, in which case the user can move pages using the "back" button 63 and the "forward" button 65.

The "reservation" button 61 is used to perform information retrieval and store the retrieved results at the corresponding reservation time for each activated channel. The "execute" button 62 is used to perform an immediate information retrieval for the activated channel and save the retrieved results. The "view" button 60 is used to view the contents of the information stored in the hard disk according to the execution of the "execute" or "reservation" function. Meanwhile, the "home" button 64 is used to access a homepage operated by a program maker or the like to download new channel information or a program.

The user can perform a desired function by arbitrarily clicking the buttons displayed on the initial screen while the initial screen is displayed. To this end, the program continuously determines whether there is an input for a particular button (step 72). If there is no button input for a predetermined time after the program is run, the operation mode of the program is switched to the inactive mode (step 74). In this case, the inactive mode refers to a mode in which the program screen disappears from the display space of the display and waits for a button state on the taskbar of Windows 98.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 72 that there is a button input, it is determined in step 76 to 82 which button is pressed. If the "channel" button for a particular channel is pressed (step 76), it is determined whether the corresponding channel button is clicked once or twice (step 84). If the channel button is clicked once, the channel is activated after the selections are set to the values previously set for the channel or the values set by default for the program. In the present invention, the activated channel has a different color or three-dimensional appearance from the channels in the inactive state, thereby indicating whether each channel is activated. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 84 that the channel button is clicked twice, the channel information for the corresponding channel may be changed (step 88). In FIG. 2, steps 72 and 76 through 82 may be substantially implemented as one step.

4 shows an example of a channel information setting / change screen in a reserved search program. The channel information setting / change screen includes a channel name input window, a plurality of search site input windows, and a search type input window. The channel name input window is used to change the name of each channel button displayed on the initial screen of FIG. 3. Search site input boxes are used to enter the names of sites that the user wishes to search for in relation to the channel. The user can press the arrow next to each search site input window and input the address of the site in a separate input window. The search expression input window is used to input search terms for extracting specific information from each search site. In a preferred embodiment, the site name entered in each search site input window is written in hypertext. Accordingly, during channel setting or change, the user can double-click each site name to access the corresponding site and check whether the address for each site is correctly input.

On the other hand, in downloading and storing the search results using the program according to the present invention, the user may download each web page as a whole or only a title. In the screen of FIG. 4, a search and storage type selection field is used to designate such a web page storage format. Search latency is the latency when there is no response from any site. After the waiting time has elapsed, the program terminates the access to the site and performs a search for another site or terminates the search.

In a preferred embodiment, the search expression can be set separately for each of the plurality of sites. However, in another embodiment of the present invention, the same search expression may be given to several search sites. When executing a search for the given search expression, the program inputs the search expression set for the site in the search box among the search screens provided by the site so that the site server searches and downloads the search results. . If the site does not provide a separate search screen, a search engine, a commonly used search engine, can search for and download a document that satisfies the conditions for the site and creation date. Meanwhile, in a specific search process for each site, other general search methods used by search robots may be used. In step 88, when the channel information is set or changed, the corresponding channel is activated.

Referring back to FIG. 2, if it is determined in step 72 that there is a button input and the pressed button is an "execute" button (step 78), information retrieval starts immediately according to the set channel information (step 90). . The retrieved information is downloaded and stored sequentially in the hard disk. 5 shows the search and storage steps of FIG. 2 in more detail. First, the program searches for and downloads information on activated channels according to a set search condition (step 100). The downloaded web pages are stored on the hard disk (step 102). When the search is completed, the completion message is displayed on the display so that the user can grasp this fact (step 104).

The directory structure of the web pages stored in the hard disk is shown in FIG. As shown, the name of each directory is generated based on the date and time at which storage begins. For example, if the save point is July 05, 00: 00, a subdirectory called "0500" is created under the directory "0709", and web pages are stored in this server directory. If the program is stored twice by the same date, for example, if the storage starts at 05: 00 and 12:30, two subdirectories called "0500" and "1230" are created, and each session is created. Web pages downloaded from are stored in the corresponding subdirectory. On the other hand, the directory structure of Figure 6 is applied to the case of storing each retrieved web page in units of pages, and if only the title for each information, that is, the web page, the titles downloaded during one session as a file Stored.

Referring back to FIG. 2, when it is determined in step 72 that there is a button input and the pressed button is a "reservation" button (step 80), the reservation search is performed according to the set channel information (step 26). . In the present embodiment, after pressing the "reservation" button, the user may input a reservation start time and a search word (step 92). Accordingly, the search using the search word is performed at the set reservation start time. In the reservation search, the channel information mentioned in steps 86 and 88 are used in the same manner as the other setting information except for the reservation start time and the search term item. Meanwhile, in another embodiment of the present invention, a search may be performed using the channel information inputted on the channel information setting / change screen of FIG. 4 without inputting a reservation start time or a search word immediately after the "reservation" button is pressed. have. In particular, data retrieval by reservation may be periodically performed while the computer is turned on. In such a case, it is preferable that an input field for " reservation start time ", " periodic reservation " and " reservation interval " Even in the reserved search, the retrieved information is sequentially stored in the hard disk according to the directory structure shown in FIG. 5 (step 94).

If it is determined in step 72 that there is a button input and the pressed button is the "view" button (step 82), the web pages stored in the hard disk are executed by executing the existing "execute" command or the "reserved" command. Become visible (step 96). 7A and 7B illustrate step 96 of FIG. 2 in more detail, and FIGS. 8A and 8B show examples of screens showing stored web pages.

As can be seen in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the result output screen provides a clear view of the list of multiple web pages identified as a result of the search. For each web page, information such as channel and site names is displayed together with the document title. In addition, as shown in FIG. 8A, when the entire page is not downloaded and only the document title is stored for each web page, whether to save the check box is displayed and at the bottom, a "view now" button and a "save" button are provided. Is displayed. Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 8B, when the entire page is downloaded and stored for each web page, a separate storage check box and a "save" button are not displayed, and only a "view now" button is displayed.

7A and 7B, in response to a user's “view” command, the program determines whether the result list exceeds one screen (step 110). If the result list exceeds one screen, the next page button is activated at the bottom of the display display unit (step 112). On the other hand, if the result list does not exceed one screen, the next page button is not displayed or disabled at the bottom of the display display unit (step 114). In this state, the result list of one screen is displayed on the display (step 116). On the other hand, if the amount of downloaded information is less than one screen, the result list of the amount within one screen is displayed.

In this state of displaying the result list, the user can check the contents of each web page in detail. Double-click on any document in the list or any one of interest, either sequentially or after clicking once, then click the "View Now" button on the bottom of the display, as shown in Figures 8A and 8B. When pressed (step 118), the program determines whether full text is stored for the document (step 120). If full text is stored for the document, full text information is displayed on the screen (step 122). After checking the contents, the user can return to the result list display screen (step 112) by clicking the "previous screen" button provided on the screen (step 124). In operation 120, when the full text is not stored for the document, the user may download and display the document or download and store a plurality of documents including the document (step 126). The user may skip the downloading and storing process and return to the result list display screen.

Steps 128 through 140 show in detail the downloading and storing process. If the user wants to download and view a specific document (step 128), the user may double-click the document or click once and press the "view now" button provided at the bottom of the display display unit as shown in FIG. 8A. In this case, the document is connected to the Internet and the document is displayed on the screen (steps 130 and 132). On the other hand, instead of receiving a single document, the user may download and store a plurality of documents at once and check the contents sequentially. As described above, when a plurality of documents are to be downloaded at the same time, the user may indicate whether to save them in a storage check window provided for each document, and then press the "save" button at the bottom of the display unit. When the "save" button is pressed (step 134), the program checks whether the list of stored files is displayed (step 136) and downloads and stores the documents in the displayed list (step 138). At this time, a new directory for storing the downloaded files is created on the hard disk, and the files are stored in this directory. If the list of stored files is not displayed in step 136, all the documents displayed on the result list display screen are downloaded and stored (step 140). In this case, a message may be provided to the user inquiring whether to download the entire document.

On the other hand, in step 134, when the "save" button is not pressed and another button is pressed, for example, when the "back" button, "forward" button or "upper menu" button (not shown) is pressed, The function is performed. In addition, even in selection steps such as steps 118, 124, and 126 of FIG. 7A, when another button is pressed, a function corresponding to the button is performed.

The above description illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto and may be variously modified. For example, in the above-described preferred embodiment, the reserved retrieval program of the present invention includes a TCP / IP protocol interpreter, so that information can be retrieved and stored according to the TCP / IP protocol directly without running a web browser. It also allows you to view the saved document later using a web browser. However, in another embodiment of the present invention, the program may retrieve data through the web browser by running the web browser in response to the user's settings and commands. In addition, unlike a program for implementing the method of the present invention as described above as an independent entity to the web browser, in another embodiment, the program according to the present invention may be employed as a component in the web browser. have.

In addition, in the above description, a case where a user searches for information using his or her personal computer has been described. However, the program according to the present invention is performed by a web server or a web server operator operated internally by an enterprise, a research institute, or a government agency. It can also be installed on a personal computer. In such a case, the downloaded information is stored on a LAN host so that members of the organization can share it over the LAN. The program of the present invention may also be implemented on an Internet television capable of realizing a web surfing function. In particular, in executing the program according to the present invention, a screen for setting or changing a program operating environment and controlling the execution thereof, for example, the screen of FIG. 3 may be replaced by an actual remote controller having a physical form.

The information acquisition method of the present invention as described above can be said to be critically different from the push technique in that the subject controlling the search process is a user, not a push server. On the other hand, the method according to the present invention in that it defines and organizes the information that the user actively needs compared to the conventionally used search method, that is, the "Pull" method that searches for the information required by the user individually, It might be called the "active pull" approach.

As described above, the present invention allows an Internet user to set a type of a site or information that is regularly or frequently searched, search for and store it at a reserved time in advance, and browse it at a convenient time. Accordingly, the user can download the information he / she wants to obtain at the time of leaving the office or going out by reservation, and then view the retrieved information later. In addition, the present invention also supports a multitasking function that allows a computer user to perform an Internet search while performing other tasks. Therefore, the user does not need to sit in front of the computer for information retrieval, wait until each web page transmission is completed, and then access the next page again, thereby improving time utilization efficiency and increasing absolute Internet use time. In addition, in searching for information on each website, the user does not have to observe the process of searching hierarchically, but only the searched result is checked, thereby reducing the time for the user to be exposed to the banner advertisement. There is no need to waste waiting for the time for the advertisement image to download.

In particular, since the initial screen of the computer program according to the present invention is in the form of a remote control, the user can be familiar with the user and have an advantage of convenience. Accordingly, even the Internet beginners can use the Internet conveniently without receiving a separate education by utilizing the basic channel provided at the time of supplying the program, and through this, the present invention can contribute to the promotion and spread of informatization. Also, within this initial screen, you can freely add or delete the topics you want, such as channels, and customize channels in various fields so that you can build your own space. do. In other words, a user of the program according to the present invention can have the same effect as building his or her own personalized portal site.

In addition, the user can access the program maker's homepage by pressing the "Home" button on the initial screen or by entering an address on a web browser. The user can download a new topic, information or program modification, update the program, or You can also add information. In particular, the program production company according to the present invention can rank each website in each field through a survey for program users, etc., so that each user can retrieve information from the optimal sites. In addition, by including only healthy and popular sites in the base channel provided initially and the recommended channels updated later, each information providing site can be encouraged to improve the quality of information and contribute to the development of healthy sites. have.

Claims (11)

A computer system having a display and a storage device for storing data, the computer system being connected to a plurality of external hosts through a communication network to retrieve and receive a document and display the received document on the display. (a) setting a search expression for searching a document and at least one external host address for performing a search among the plurality of external hosts; (b) while the computer system is connected to the communication network, using the search formula to retrieve a document from the at least one external host to receive through the communication network and to store the received plurality of documents in the storage device; step; And (c) viewing the contents of the stored plurality of documents, whether or not the computer system is connected to the communication network; Information acquisition method comprising a. The method of claim 1, Step (a) further comprises setting a search start time, Accordingly, the information acquisition method of starting the execution of the step (b) at the search start time. The method of claim 1, Step (a) further includes setting a plurality of topics, And the search expression and the at least one external host address are set for each of the plurality of subjects. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein in step (b), corresponding documents are automatically retrieved about at least some of the topics selectively activated by the user. The method of claim 3, wherein step (a) And displaying a selection screen in the form of a remote controller having a plurality of buttons arranged thereon. The plurality of buttons are provided for a button for initiating step (b) and a button for initiating step (c), for each of the plurality of topics, and for each of the plurality of topics, a topic name for the plurality of topics, the search. Information and buttons for setting the at least one external host address. The method of claim 3, wherein the information obtaining method is controlled by a wireless remote controller having a physical form and having a plurality of buttons arranged on an upper surface thereof. The plurality of buttons are provided for a button for initiating step (b) and a button for initiating step (c), for each of the plurality of topics, and for each of the plurality of topics, a topic name for the plurality of topics, the search Information and buttons for setting the at least one external host address. A computer system having a display and a storage device for storing data, the computer system being connected to a plurality of external hosts through a communication network to retrieve and receive a document and display the received document on the display. (a) a search expression for searching a document and a function of setting at least one external host address for performing a search among the plurality of external hosts; (b) a function of retrieving and receiving a document from the at least one external host using the search formula and storing the plurality of received documents in the storage device while the computer system is connected to the communication network; And (c) a function of identifying contents of the plurality of stored documents, regardless of whether the computer system is connected to the communication network; A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon an information acquisition program for realizing the problem. The method of claim 7, wherein The function (a) further includes a function of setting a search start time. Accordingly, the computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon an information acquisition program for starting the execution of the function (b) at the search start time. The method of claim 7, wherein The function (a) further includes a function of setting a plurality of subjects, And the search expression and the at least one external host address are computer readable recording media having recorded thereon an information obtaining program for setting each of the plurality of subjects. 10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 9, wherein in the function (b), an information acquisition program for automatically searching for a corresponding document on at least some of the topics selectively activated by the user can be read by a computer. Recording media. The method of claim 9, wherein the (a) function is And a function of displaying a selection screen in the form of a remote controller having a plurality of buttons arranged thereon. The plurality of buttons are provided with (b) a button for starting to perform a function and (c) a button for starting to perform a function, a subject name for each of the plurality of subjects, A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon an information acquisition program including the search formula and buttons for setting the at least one external host address.