NL1007461C1 - Internet search system with information broker home page - Google Patents

Abstract

The data is held in various sets (SET1, SET2, SET3) on the internet. The client uses a browser application on his computer to access an Information Broker Home Page (IBHP). The Information Broker Home Page has HTML links to Reference Pages (RP) on each data set. Each line of the reference page carries lines which consist of bullets, relevance indicators and the World Wide Web URLs.

Description

-1-

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to an information system, in particular, but not exclusively, for an IP-oriented computer network.

In general, such an information system comprises a network terminal, for example a PC or NC, which is connected to the network. The network terminal is loaded with interface software, commonly referred to as a browser or client. This makes it possible to contact an information server via the network. The address (URL) of a document available from such a server can be entered via the browser (page). The document received via the browser, usually encoded in HTML code, can contain references (links) to other addresses. A cluster of such pages is called an internet site. The pages may include links to other pages inside or outside the same site. A special place within a site is occupied by the so-called homepage, which gives a global description of the site, and also refers to various underlying, more detailed pages, by means of linking. All pages can contain text and non-text objects such as figures, moving images, sound and also (small) programs such as JAVA or ACTIVE-X applets.

The browser can be directly addressed by the user with the URL of a particular homepage or other page, but can also use a server loaded with a "search engine". The search engine home page includes an input field where the user can enter one or more search terms. The search engine then searches its database with references of search terms to URLs. The URLs that match the entered search terms are transferred by the search engine to the client, the browser, after which the user can select from those presented URLs.

The use of such a search system usually leads to a large amount of information (large "recall"), which can again be a problem, since many of the documents found etc.

substantively do not match the information desired by the user (low "precision"). Moreover, if the choice has to be made on the basis of all 1 0 07 46 1 -2-, the more difficult the amount of information becomes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention aims to obviate said drawbacks by providing an information system comprising an information server containing a collection of electronic documents, called pages, containing references, referred to as links, to other pages, which information system further includes at least one with client software loaded terminal for requesting 10 pages from the server via a medium. According to the invention, the server comprises reference pages, each dedicated to a specific topic, each of which contains links to pages relevant to that topic, with a relevance code added per link, the value of which is a measure of the relevance of that link for that topic. The said reference pages have a "counter function" and serve as a targeted reference to the most relevant pages within the context of the subject of the reference page. The said relevance codes are preferably provided by an "information editor" or "subject reference". In some cases, (co-) use can be made of indexing-20 software, which calculates relevance codes on the basis of the content of the various gel ink pages; a mechanism that is also used with "search engines". However, the information editor determines the final relevance codes himself.

The relevance codes can be shown to the client user, allowing the user to see which links are the most relevant and which are less relevant, however, the relevance codes can also remain invisible to the user, but influence the presentation form of the links, for example by font size , color, etc. In that case, provision can be made for when the information editor 30 "edits" the reference pages, the relevance codes are converted into a form corresponding to the relevance. This therefore requires an adjustment to the editing software on the side of the "information broker". Alternatively, the client software may also be adapted to present the links in a form depending on the value of the relevancy codes assigned to the links.

All this will be explained in more detail below in an implementation example.

1007461 -3-

IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES

Figure 1 shows a number of client terminals 1 connecting either via a communication network 2, such as the public telephone or ISDN network, and an internet access server 3, or directly, via an IP-5 oriented network 5, the internet or an intranet. can make with host servers 4. In practice, the number of terminals 1 and host servers 4 that can communicate with each other in this way is very large. Users use their terminal (PC) 1, loaded with client software, to exchange information with the servers 4 10. According to the invention, information is inputted on at least one of those servers 4 in such a way that when information is requested from the server, the information requested by a user is relevant. To this end, the information is classified into server and gel ink is shown in a manner schematically shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 shows a collection of information stored in a server 4 in the form of HTML documents. Each document includes one or more pages, each of which can include text, images and other information elements. Each document has a URL; each page within the same 20 document has a sub-URL. In order to make the documents accessible subject-wise, the URLs of the various documents are included as links in subject-oriented reference homepages, represented by RP in figure 2. Each RP contains links to a number of more or less relevant documents, represented in the figure by SET 1, SET 2 and 25 SET 3. The different RPs can be accessed by the client via the homepage of an "information broker", in the figure presented by IBHP. The different documents to which the RPs refer may be more or less relevant in the context of the subject of the RP. The way in which this is processed is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 shows one of the RPs in more detail. The main part of the RP is a collection of links to relevant pages, represented in figure 2 by SET 1. An information editor or subject reference, employed by the IB, has entered a relevance code in the RP per link, in figure 3 represented by (a) ____ (c). In this example, therefore, www.links 1, 4 and 8 are considered to be the most relevant in the context of the subject and purpose of the RP shown. the www.links 3 and 5 are considered less relevant (code b) and the 1C 07 46 1 -4- www.links 2 and 9 of even less (code c). The information editor thus enters the codes a .... c (and any further codes) by means of an "editor" not shown. Using these codes, the 5 relevance codes can be converted into (HTML) presentation attributes, either by the (modified) editor or by the (modified) browser, so that the different www.links depend on their relevance code in different colors or sizes shown by the client software. This allows the client user to immediately see which www.links are considered most relevant. In the figure, 10 those different presentation forms are represented by the different "bullets".

1007461

Claims (3)

Information system, comprising an information server containing a collection of electronic documents, hereinafter called pages, containing references, hereinafter referred to as links, to other 5 pages, which information system further comprises at least one terminal loaded with client software for the medium via the server retrieval of pages, characterized in that the server comprises reference pages (RP), each devoted to a specific subject, each comprising links (www.link #) to 10 pages relevant to that subject, with a relevance code (a, b per link) (c) the value of which is a measure of the relevance of that link to the subject of that information page. Information system according to claim 1, characterized in that the client software comprises means for presenting the 15 different links in a form corresponding to the value of the relevance code assigned to the link. Information system according to claim 1, characterized in that the relevance codes are added to the links in the reference pages by means which also provide the links with presentation attributes readable by the client software corresponding to the value of the relevance codes. 1007461