KR20040068746A - Methods for accumulating points supplied by lots of sites in one, apparatus therefor and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and a device for accumulating the points of many sites, and a recording medium are provided to make a server collectively accumulate the points based on a web page visited by a user while the points of many sites are accumulated as a user surfs the web. CONSTITUTION: A server engine(110) receives an HTTP(HyperText Transfer Protocol) request for connecting to the web page confirmed by the URL(Uniform Resource Locator) and provides the web page to the clients. A user database(140) stores the user information. A point database(150) stores the point of each site visited by the user and the currently accumulated points. The client uses the points accumulated by each site in the site proving the point or uses all points in any site. An address/point table(120) stores the information for mapping the point assigned to each web page to a web address transmitted from a client system(200). An address/site table(130) checks the site connected with the client by using the received address extracted from a browser whenever the client receives a new web page.

Description

Method for accumulating points supplied by lots of sites in one, apparatus therefor and recording medium}

The present invention relates to a method and device for accumulating points of several sites as one, and more particularly, to a method for accumulating points of various sites visited by a user while surfing the web. In particular, the points earned in the present invention is provided by the user in the server system based on the web page of the site.

The Internet includes a large network of computers and computer networks interconnected through communication links. Interconnected computers exchange information using services such as the Web (WWW), gophers, and e-mail. Web services allow server systems to send graphical web pages containing information to remote client systems. The remote client system then receives and displays a web page from a server system (eg, a web server).

Resources of the web (eg, web pages) are identified by URL. To view a web page, the client system identifies the URL of the web page that the user requested (eg, an HTTP request), and uses this URL to identify the user's request to a web server (the device that serves the web page, identified by IP). Point to. When the web server receives this request, the web server sends a web page to the client system. The client system receives the web page and displays the web page received from the web server using a browser. The browser is a special purpose program, which is used to request and receive web pages.

Web pages, on the other hand, are defined using HTML. This HTML provides a set of standard tags that define how web pages are displayed. When the client system displays a web page with a browser, the browser sends a request to the server system to send an HTML document defining the web page to the client system. When the client system receives the requested HTML document, the browser displays a web page defined as an HTML document. The HTML document includes various tags that display text, graphics and others. In addition, the HTML document may include a URL (eg, a hyperlink) that makes another web page available to the server system or other server system to which it is connected.

On the other hand, the web is very useful in electronic commerce. In e-commerce, many web servers have been developed for vendors to sell or advertise their products. In particular, portal sites (e.g., Daum, Netch, Nate, etc.) attract various kinds of vendors, or develop various kinds of contents and provide them to users. Vendors lure buyers into portal sites as if they were in department stores. In addition, the portal site may provide various content to buyers or entice buyers through other means.

The reported amount of Korean e-commerce market (2002) is about 176 trillion won. As e-commerce becomes active, the e-commerce rate (the ratio of e-commerce to the total commerce) reaches 12.7%.

As you can see, e-commerce is now being recognized by buyers as a new paradigm, and it has become a catalyst for changing from traditional supplier-oriented commerce to consumer-oriented. In keeping with the trend, the market structure, which was previously priced mainly by suppliers, was transformed into an economic market by a demander-oriented pricing structure. As such, e-commerce is firmly established as a new trading market.

Vendors and portals, meanwhile, are developing a variety of ways to capture buyers' attention in any way. Advertisements that were previously targeted only to the mass media (eg, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc.) have expanded their reach to the Internet in response to the explosion of Internet users. It is also e-commerce that has contributed to this.

The Internet enables a variety of methods (eg, low price, 24-hour purchase, etc.) that were not possible in the conventional media, and in particular, it enables to attract competitive buyers in a 1: 1 manner between seller and buyer.

Among them, points or miles (hereinafter referred to as points) have been variously implemented at various sites as a powerful means of actively attracting buyers. Moving away from the conventional passive method of accumulating points of a purchase price or a purchase price of a buyer as a point, it has now been developed to actively earn points based on what the buyer simply enters and acts on the site.

However, since these points are provided to buyers individually for each site, a problem arises that it is difficult for a buyer to know points earned one by one, and various methods for managing the accumulated points have been developed accordingly. Or, sites are affiliated with each other, so that even if a buyer makes a purchase on a different site, they can use the points system to earn the same points. However, the points earned by this affiliated site are operated only in a very limited place because there is a lot of conflicting interests between operators.

On the other hand, even when a buyer accumulates points in an affiliated site, the same points are not accumulated. Different points are accumulated for each site, and if a buyer subsequently applies for the same method of point exchange, it is operated to reflect the other site. Therefore, a buyer needs to apply for point exchange or exchange points in order to use the accumulated points on another site. In addition, there is a problem to be noted further, the same problem occurs in the exchange of points that the purchaser can not actually remember the points accumulated in each site, which is a problem raised in the conventional point earning method. In other words, buyers need to know the points they are accumulating on the affiliate site when they exchange points.

Further, demanding the buyer's active action is undesirable in commerce. This is especially true in electronic commerce. Buyers, who are the main users of e-commerce, use e-commerce because of the convenience of simply buying a product with the click of a mouse and the ability to purchase at a satisfactory price. However, the above point accumulation makes it appear as if they deceive the buyer by forcing the buyer to collect points for each site.

Accordingly, the present invention was devised to solve the above problems, and the user earns points of various sites visited while surfing the web, and the points earned are based on the webpage of the site visited by the user in the server system. The purpose is to provide a way to accumulate at once.

The following drawings attached to this specification are illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the invention to serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention is a matter described in such drawings It should not be construed as limited to

1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system to which the present invention is applied in an embodiment.

Figure 2 illustrates the process of accumulating points without having to distinguish between the sites to accumulate points of each site based on the fact that the user accesses the site in accordance with the present invention.

3 illustrates a process of transmitting an address of a web page received from a client system to a server system.

4 illustrates a process of identifying a site to which a user is currently connected and a point assigned to the site by using an address received from a client system in the server system.

5 optionally illustrates a process of checking in real time the points accumulated by the user.

* Brief description of the major symbols in the drawings *

100: server system 200: client system

The present invention provided by an aspect of the present invention to achieve the above object, and relates to a method for earning a point by referring to various sites visited by the user in real time, under the control of the client system, identification information of the user Transmitting to the server system; Receiving and displaying a new web page according to a user's request; And transmitting the address of the received web page to a server system; and, under the control of the server system, receiving the address; Confirming a point by mapping the table with the received web page address; And reflecting the new point in points previously accumulated by the user according to the user of the received identification information, wherein the points are those of at least two different sites visited by the user. Earn as one in the system.

Preferably, the present invention comprises the steps of: identifying a site to which a user is currently connected by using an address received from the client system; Extracting points of identified sites; And transmitting the extracted points to the client system.

More preferably, the present invention comprises the steps of extracting all the points accumulated by the current user with the identification information received from the client system; And transmitting the extracted points to the client system.

In another aspect of the present invention, the present invention relates to an apparatus for accumulating points by referring to a site visited by a user in real time using a computer; And a processing device connected with the storage device, wherein the storage device stores a program for controlling the processing device, a table recording the points allocated according to the address of the web page, and the processing device identifies the user. Receive the information, receive the address of the received webpage, map the table with the received webpage address to confirm the point, and according to the user of the identification information received above to the points previously earned by this user Driven by a program that reflects this new point, the point accumulates one of at least two different sites visited by the user.

Preferably, the processing device is operable to identify the site to which the user is currently connected with the received address, extract the point of the identified site, and provide the extracted point to the user.

More preferably, the processing device is operable to extract all points accumulated by the current user with the received identification information and provide the extracted points to the user.

In order to achieve the above characteristics of the present invention, a recording medium is provided which is installed in a client system equipped with a browser and records a program for informing a server system of a user's site connection. Store the identification information of the document, display the received HTML document using the browser, extract the address of the HTML document, and send the extracted address to the server system every time a new HTML document is received with the identification information. To work.

The recording medium is stored on the server system in file format and installed on the client system at the user's request. The program is installed as part of the browser or as an independent module.

Therefore, in the present invention, in earning points of various sites visited by the user while surfing the web, the user can earn points from the fact that the user simply visited the site, and the site is active and active for users who are potential consumers. Marketing can be done.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the specification and claims should not be construed as having a conventional or dictionary meaning, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

In the present invention, the client system 200 is equipped with a new browser 220. The browser 220 stores identification information 210 such as an ID and a password in a file called a 'cookie'. In one embodiment, server system 100 assigns this identification 210 the first time a user connects to server system 100. Thereafter, whenever a new web page of the site is received, the browser 220 includes the identification information and the address of the received web page (eg, a URL) in the message and transmits it to the server system 100 so that the user Notify you that you have moved elsewhere on the site. Thus, the server system 100 can know what particular site of the site the user is doing.

1 illustrates a schematic structure of a computer system with a client / server architecture in one embodiment. This embodiment makes it possible to accumulate points collectively according to a site visited by a user using the web.

The server system 100 is preferably a large-capacity computer designed to process a plurality of tasks at the same time by connecting a storage device including a ROM and RAM and a processing device with a computing power in parallel, the server engine 110 ), An address / point table 120, an address / site table 130, a user database 140, and a point database 150.

The server engine 110 receives an HTTP request for accessing a web page identified by a URL and provides a web page to a plurality of client systems. This HTTP request may be a request for the user to check the accumulated points in real time, or may be for the user to start a service for earning points on the site.

The user database 140 stores information of users who are a number of potential consumers. The information includes the user's name, address, telephone number, shipping address, social security number, e-mail address, past system usage, and the like.

As illustrated in the box 151, the point database 150 stores points for each site the user has visited and points accumulated up to now. This point allows the accumulated points for each site to be used according to the site, or the accumulated points can be used at any site. In addition, as a user request or an optional configuration of a browser, points are transmitted from the server system 100 to the client system 200 in real time, and the accumulated points and the accumulated points of the site to which the user is currently connected are selectively displayed.

The address / point table 120 stores information for mapping a web page address of a site transmitted from the client system 200 to a point allocated to the web page for each site. Here, the web page address of the site helps to identify the web page that the user is currently accessing among the visited sites. Preferably, the present invention uses a URL as a web page address. You can find out what the user is doing on your current site by identifying this web page. For example, whether a user is simply looking at a bulletin board or purchasing a product can be indirectly known through a web page that the user is currently viewing. Also, it is desirable that the points allocated according to the web page vary depending on what the web page is. This can facilitate the user's commerce. For example, a user who views only a bulletin board does not give points, but when a product is selected and a payment is made, the point of the corresponding web page is increased to promote connection or consumption of a potential consumer. .

The address / site table 130 can be used to determine from which address the user is connecting from the received address (which is extracted by the browser each time the user receives a new web page and sent to the server system). do. That is, the server computer that has received the URL can know the site that the user is currently accessing by mapping the table 130 with the domain or IP included in the URL.

Meanwhile, the client system 200 includes identification information 210 for distinguishing the browser 220 from the user. The browser 220 sends an HTTP request to the site, thereby receiving the webpage of the site and displaying the webpage according to the tag. In addition, the address of the web page is extracted from the newly received web page each time, and the address and the identification information are transmitted to the server system 100 in a message. In one embodiment, this identification information is stored in a file called a 'cookie'. This identification is made when the client system 200 is first connected to the server system 100. Thereafter, the client system automatically generates a message including the address of the newly received web page and the identification information and transmits the message to the server system 100 whenever the user views the new web page away from the web page currently being viewed by the user. .

The browser 220 of the present invention is configured to operate as part of a web-only browser such as Microsoft's 'explorer' or 'Netscape' of Netscape, or is configured as an independent module and installed as a program on the client system. It is configured to work together when the browser is driven.

In the configuration of FIG. 1, one computer is configured as if it is operating as the server system 100, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the functionality is more preferably distributed among a plurality of computers. In one example, server system 100 is designed to be distributed, such that the database and each module are organized in separate units.

In FIG. 2, the present invention is described in which points are accumulated without integrating sites in accumulating points of each site based on the fact that the user accesses the site. The user first registers a user in the server system 100 (S110). The server system 100 provides various methods to allow a user to normally register with the server system 100. The server system 100 collects various information for registering in the user database 140 from the user. At this time, the server system 100 provides a user with a web page for registering a user. Alternatively, the same information as described above may be obtained by using a means such as a telephone, a fax, or an e-mail. Furthermore, the server system 100 may be configured to receive the consent of using previously registered user information. have. In this example, the server system 100 may be configured to inform the webpage of the points related to the points earning, and to provide the user with a webpage that can be simply obtained with a mouse click. Preferably, the identification information of the user is stored in the client system 200.

Then, the identification information is transmitted to the server system by the operation of the browser 220 (S120). Preferably, when the client 220 runs the browser 220 to receive and display a new web page, the client system 200 extracts the address of the received web page and identifies the extracted address and the identification in a message. The information is attached and sent to the server system 100.

From this, the server system 100 can know who is doing what at which site. The server system 100 receiving the extracted address and identification information maps the address received from the client system to the address / point table 120. Optionally, the received address is also mapped to the address / site table 130 (S130).

As a result, the site to which the user is currently connected is known, and the point of the site is confirmed (S140). Optionally, this point is set differently depending on the web page of the site. For example, a user may set points differently, such as 10 points for the next main web page, 100 points for the payment confirmation web page, and 50 points for the product description web page.

Checked points are accumulated by reflecting the points previously identified by the user identified by the identification information (S150). In one embodiment, the accumulated points are transmitted to the client system 200 in real time at the request of the user. The transmitted points are transmitted to show the points of all the sites that the user has visited so far, or to show the points of only the sites that the user is currently accessing, or both.

In the client system 200, the browser 220 displays the transmitted real-time point to be displayed on the same screen by different frames from the web page currently viewed by the user. Optionally, the client system 200 receiving the real time point may display a real time point received in the form of a palm-up window by opening a separate window from the browser.

3 illustrates a process of transmitting an address of a web page to a server system when a new web page having a different address is received from a client system. The client system 200 transmits an HTTP request to the web server (S210). The user can generate an HTTP request by clicking on a hyperlink provided on the web page being viewed by the user, or input the domain or IP of the web server in the address bar of the browser to generate the HTTP request.

Then, the web server receives the HTTP request, and transmits a new HTML document to the client system (S220).

The client system 200 receiving the HTML document displays the web page using the browser 220 (S230). The browser 220 imports the necessary resources according to the HTML document based on the URL, and arranges and displays them according to the tag. At the same time, the browser 220 detects the address of the received webpage and sends the message to the server system including the detected address and user identification information stored in the cookie to notify the user that a user is currently accessing the new site. (S240).

Accordingly, the server system 100 calculates the user's points to be accumulated according to the site to which the user is connected based on the received message.

In FIG. 4, the server system 100 receives a message having identification information and an address of a web page from the client system 200 (S310).

The server system 100 extracts an address from this message and starts mapping with the tables 120 and 130 (S320). Each of the tables 120 and 130 records points assigned according to a web page of a site and information about the site. Therefore, the site that the user is currently accessing and the points accumulated in the site are determined.

Next, if a matching site is found according to the address (S330), the server system 100 opens the database 150 of the user's point identified by the identification information, and maps the recorded point in the S320. The record is corrected by reflecting the confirmed points according to step S340.

Figure 5 illustrates the process of checking the points earned on the site that the user is currently accessing. The user requests confirmation of accumulated points in the server system using the client system (S410). The user may send a request to the server system 100 by clicking on a point confirmation 'button' in a window prepared by changing a frame on a web page currently viewed. At this time, the browser 220 is preferably configured to transmit the stored identification information and the address of the web page to the server system 100 as this request.

Then, the server system 100 maps the table 130 with the received address (S420) to check what site the user is currently accessing. Then, the user's point database 150 is opened to extract the points of the identified site and the accumulated points accumulated up to now (S430). Thereafter, the server system 100 transmits the extracted points in real time to the client system (S440).

The client system 200 receiving the points allows the user to view the points received using the browser 220. The browser 220 requests in a frame separate from the frame displaying the web page being viewed. The displayed point (S450). Here, the requested point may be either or both of the summed point and the point of the site currently connected.

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto and is intended by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalents of the claims to be described.

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned problems can be solved. In particular, by earning points simply by the fact that the user visited the site, the user can actively grasp the user's eyes without inducing the user's manual participation. Therefore, it is possible to conduct effective marketing by focusing the eyes of potential users.

Claims (15)

To see how many different sites you've visited in real time, Under the control of a client system, Transmitting identification information of the user to the server system; Receiving and displaying a new web page according to a user's request; And, And transmitting the address of the received web page to the server system. Under the control of the server system, Receiving the address; Confirming a point by mapping the table with the received web page address; And, And reflecting this new point in points previously earned by the user according to the user of the identification information received above. Wherein the point is characterized in that earned at least one of the at least two different sites visited by the user in the server system. The method of claim 1, Identifying a site that the user is currently accessing with an address received from the client system; Extracting points of identified sites; And, Transmitting the extracted points to the client system. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Extracting all points accumulated by the current user from the identification information received from the client system; And, Transmitting the extracted points to the client system. The method of claim 3, Wherein said point is transmitted to a client system in real time at the request of a user. The method of claim 3, The new point depends on the site visited by the user and the webpage of the site. The method of claim 3, And the address of the web page is a URL. A recording medium installed on a client system equipped with a browser that records a program for notifying a server system of a user's site connection. Saves the user's identifying information, Is executed in conjunction with the running of the browser to display the received HTML document using the browser, Extract the address of the HTML document, Recording medium recording a program operative to transmit the extracted address to the server system every time a new HTML document is received as the identification information The method of claim 7, wherein And the recording medium is stored in the server system as a file. The method of claim 7, wherein The address is a recording medium, characterized in that the URL. A device that uses a computer to refer to a site you visit in real time and accumulate points. Memory; And A processing device connected with the storage device, The storage device stores a program for controlling the processing device and a table recording the points allocated according to the address of the web page. The processing device, Receive your identifying information, Receive the address of the received webpage, Check the points by mapping the table with the received webpage address, In accordance with the user of the identification information received above is driven by a program that reflects this new point in points previously earned by this user, The point is a device characterized in that to earn one of at least two different sites visited by the user as one. The method of claim 10, wherein the processing apparatus, The received address identifies the site you are currently accessing, Extract points from verified sites, And provide the extracted points to a user. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the processing apparatus, Extract all the points accumulated by the current user with the received identification information, And provide the extracted points to a user. The method of claim 12, wherein the processing apparatus, And provide the extracted point in real time at the request of the user. The method of claim 12, The point allocated according to the address of the web page is different depending on the site visited by the user and the web page of the site. The method of claim 12, Wherein the address of the web page is a URL.