JP4009342B2 - Information providing request method, storage medium storing information providing request program, and server computer - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
(table of contents)
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Conventional technology
Problems to be solved by the invention
Means for solving the problem (FIG. 1)
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (FIGS. 2 to 19)
The invention's effect
[0002]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an information providing system for providing an information providing service from a host to a terminal, comprising a host (server) that holds various types of information and an intelligent terminal that makes an information provision request to the host via a network.
[0003]
[Prior art]
In recent years, with the low price and high performance of computers, the improvement of ease of use, the spread of network technology, and the spread of the Internet based on these, information providing services such as WWW (World Wide Web) It is rapidly becoming common.
As a result, the amount of information to be provided has greatly increased, and technology for navigation of information as well as individual information to be provided has become important.
[0004]
As information navigation methods in the conventional information providing system, for example, there are methods described in the following items (1) and (2).
(1) A method of automatically navigating information by making a fixed association between information in advance and browsing the information by the user of the information providing service following the association.
[0005]
(2) Information is provided by associating information on the host side in response to a request from a user of the information providing service, and dynamically determining information related to certain information according to the user's situation, etc. A method for navigation.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the method of item (1) described above, the load on the host is relatively small and responsiveness is good, but since the association between information is fixed, when a large amount of information is held, It is difficult to perform navigation of information flexibly according to the situation.
[0007]
On the other hand, in the method of item (2) described above, since information is dynamically associated on the host, information navigation can be performed according to the situation when a large amount of information is held. It can be done on a case-by-case basis.
However, since the association between information is dynamically performed for each terminal that has requested the provision of information, the load on the host becomes extremely large and the responsiveness also decreases. Even if the load due to the information association processing for each terminal is not so large, there is a large number of users in a system that provides a general information providing service such as the WWW, and thus the load cannot be ignored.
[0008]
Also, in an environment where data is cached in the middle of a transmission path such as a WWW service (an environment where a proxy server or the like exists), if information is dynamically generated, the cache does not operate effectively and is transmitted. There are also problems such as an increased load on the road.
The present invention was devised in view of such problems, and can provide a large amount of information while performing flexible navigation according to the situation by dynamically changing the association of provided information on the user terminal side. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information providing system that realizes reduction of load on a host, improvement of responsiveness, and reduction of load on a transmission line.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Therefore, the information provision request method of the present invention includes a service start request transmission step in which a computer transmits an information provision service start request to a server computer that provides information to be held statically connected via a network. Information transmitted from the server computer in response to the information provision service start request transmitted in the service start request transmission step, and an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information Receiving the related information including the field and the keyword belonging to the field, associating the article information and the related information received in the receiving step based on the keyword, the field and the identifier An output step of outputting the association information of, and the association information output in the output step Based on the selection input from the user with respect to, is characterized by performing substantially the information requesting step of sending the information providing request including an identifier of the association information is the selected on the server computer, the.
At this time, the article information received in the receiving step further includes date information of each information, and the output step stores an access time or network between the computer and the server computer stored in the time-lapse information table. Based on the correspondence setting information between at least one of the traffic information and the information search range, the access time from the information provision service start request transmission in the service start request transmission step to the reception of information in the reception step for the server computer, Alternatively, the article information on the date corresponding to the information search range corresponding to the network traffic information at the access date and time may be associated with the related information based on the keyword, and the association information between the field and the identifier may be output. Good. The output step stores the relevant information received in the receiving step and the article information in the field corresponding to the information of the field in which the user is interested, stored in the user information table, and the keyword. The association information between the field and the identifier may be output.
The storage medium storing the information provision request program of the present invention includes a service start request transmission step of transmitting an information provision service start request to a server computer that provides information to be held statically to the computer, and the service Article information including an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information transmitted from the server computer in response to the information provision service start request transmitted in the start request transmission step, A receiving step of receiving related information including a keyword belonging to the field; associating the article information received in the receiving step with the related information based on the keyword; and associating information of the field with the identifier An output step for outputting, and a profit for the association information output in the output step. Receiving a selection input from the user, it is characterized in that to execute a real information requesting step of transmitting the information providing request including an identifier of the association information is the selected on the server computer, the.
Further, the server computer of the present invention, according to a service start request receiving means for receiving an information provision service start request from a terminal connected via a network, and the information provision service start request received by the service start request receiving means, Article information including an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information, and related information including a field and a keyword belonging to the field are transmitted to the terminal that has transmitted the information provision service start request. A transmission means for transmitting, the article information based on a selection input from a user with respect to association information between the field and the identifier associated with the article information and the related information transmitted by the transmission means based on the keyword; An information provision request including an identifier of the selected association information transmitted from a terminal that is a transmission destination of the related information is received. Is characterized by comprising an information providing request receiving unit that, the.
  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, an information providing system 1 according to the present invention includes a host 2 that holds various information statically to perform an information providing service, and a network 4. The terminal 3 is configured to make a request for providing information to the host 2.
[0010]
When the host 2 in the information providing system 1 according to the present invention starts an information providing service in response to an information providing request from the terminal 3, an identifier (ID) and an identifier (ID) are provided for each information providing unit to be provided to the terminal 3. A first table 5 that holds data items related to information, and a second table 6 that defines the relationship between each data item and a higher-level item having a concept higher than that data item are sent to the terminal 3.
[0011]
  Then, the terminal 3 in the information providing system 1 of the present invention associates the upper item with the identifier based on the first table 5 and the second table 6 from the host 2 and then uses the result of the association. The host 2 is requested to provide substantial information by the identifier.
  With the above-described configuration, information association processing conventionally performed on the host can be executed on the terminal 3 side based on the first table 5 and the second table 6 from the host 2. Accordingly, the association of provided information can be dynamically changed on the terminal 3 side, and a large amount of information can be provided from the host 2 to each terminal 3 while performing flexible navigation according to the situation.The
[0012]
  At this time, the terminal 3 may extract the identifier of the information suitable for the user by associating the personal information related to the user of the terminal 3 with the higher-level item. Information (information navigation) according to the information)The
  In addition, the terminal 3 may determine the amount of information requested to the host 2 according to the situation accompanying the time-dependent change in the host 2 or the network 4. Information can be related (information navigation)The
[0013]
  Furthermore, the terminal 3 may detect the access time from the start of browsing of information in the host 2 to the reception of the first table 5 and the second table 6 as a situation with the change with time, in this case, On the terminal 3 side, the communication status of the network 4 that changes over time can be easily detected as the access time, and the communication status can be easily reflected in information association, that is, information navigation.The
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information providing system as an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the information providing system 11 of this embodiment provides an information providing service on, for example, the WWW. A server (which may be referred to as a host) 11 that statically holds various types of information and a client (which may be referred to as a user terminal) 13 that makes an information provision request to the server 12 via the network 14 are configured. Has been.
[0015]
On the server 11 side, an article database 21, related information database 22, article information database 23 and other information database 24 are provided, while on the client 13 side, a user information database 25 and other information database 26 are provided. Is provided.
The article database 21 statically stores article data (information necessary for generating an article page) provided to the client 13 such as a substantial newspaper article.
[0016]
In the related information database 22, a relationship that defines a relationship between a keyword (data item) in article data to be provided to the client 13 and a field to which each keyword belongs (a higher item having a higher concept than the data item). An information table (second table) R is stored.
The related information table R has a format as shown in FIG. 4, for example, and in the related information table R shown in FIG. 4, a keyword group R [1 belonging to each of the fields R [1] to R [x]. ] To R [x] are stored in association with each other.
[0017]
For example, for the field R [1], a keyword group R [1] = {keyword R [1] [1], keyword R [1] [2],..., Keyword R [1] [p]} is stored, For the field R [2], the keyword group R [2] = {keyword R [2] [1], keyword R [2] [2], ..., keyword R [1] [q]} is stored, and the field R For [x], a keyword group R [x] = {keyword R [x] [1], keyword R [x] [2],..., keyword R [x] [r]} is stored.
[0018]
The article information database 23 stores an article ID table (article identifier), a date (data item) of each article data, and a keyword (data item) related to each article data for each article data provision unit (first item). 1 table) A is stored.
The article information table A has a format as shown in FIG. 5, for example. In the article information table A shown in FIG. 5, an article ID [ ID [1] -ID [y]], the date [1] -date [y] of the article data, and the keyword group A [1] -A [y] characterizing the contents of the article data are stored. Yes.
[0019]
For example, for the article data of ID [1], the date [1] and the keyword group A [1] = {keyword A [1] [1], keyword A [1] [2], ..., keyword A [1] [ s]}, and for the article data with ID [2], the date [2] and the keyword group A [2] = {keyword A [2] [1], keyword A [2] [2], ..., Keyword A [2] [t]} is stored, and for the article data of ID [y], the date [y] and the keyword group A [y] = {keyword A [y] [1], keyword A [y] [2],..., Keywords A [y] [u]} are stored.
[0020]
The user information database 25 stores a user information table U that holds personal information (profile) of the user in the client 13. The user information table U has a format as shown in FIG. 3, for example, and fields in which the user is interested are stored as fields U [1] to U [n]. In the following description, a user may be described as a user.
[0021]
In the databases 24 and 26, for example, a time information table T for determining the number of days to be searched (how many days before the current date should be searched for article data) is stored as other information.
In the information providing system 11 of the present embodiment, on the client 13 side, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 8, the access time from the time when the server 12 is instructed to start browsing information to the acquisition of channel data (tables R and A) And the number of days of retrieval of article data according to the access time is determined by the time-lapse information table T in the database 26.
[0022]
The access time described above corresponds to a load condition of the server 12 and a situation accompanied by a change with time such as traffic of the network 4, and by reflecting the access time in the search days in this way, the load condition of the server 12 and the network The amount of information to be requested to the server 12 (the amount of article data) is determined according to the situation of traffic 4 or the like.
[0023]
The time information table T has a format as shown in FIG. 6, for example, and the number of search days corresponding to the access time range is set. For example, when the access time is in the range of 0 to access time [1], the number of search days is set to [1], and the access time is in the range of access time [1] to access time [2]. In this case, the number of days [2] is set as the number of search days, and the number of days [z] is set as the number of search days when the access time is equal to or longer than the access time [z]. However, while access time [1] <access time [2] <... <access time [z], days [1]> days [2]> ...> days [z].
[0024]
When the server 12 receives an information provision request (browsing start request) from the client 13, the server 12 sends channel data necessary for generating a list of article data that can be browsed to the client 13 as a response. To do. As the channel data, in the present embodiment, the related information table R and the article information table A described above are sent.
[0025]
The client 13 that has acquired the channel data (related information table R and article information table A) determines the number of search days according to the access time until the channel data is acquired from the time-dependent information table T, and then determines the channel data and user. Based on the information table U, as will be described later with reference to FIG. 8, after associating a field that matches the user's interest with the article ID, the server 12 is substantially substantiated by the article ID using the result of the association. Request information.
[0026]
Next, the operation of the client 13 in the information providing system 11 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the state transition diagram shown in FIG.
When the client 13 starts up, the initial state S1 is first entered. When the client 13 in the initial state S1 receives an instruction to start browsing by the user and requests the initial channel data from the server 12, the client 13 transitions to a channel data reception waiting state S2.
[0027]
When the client 13 in the channel data reception waiting state S2 receives the channel data from the server 12 and generates, saves and displays the channel page, the client 13 transitions to the user operation waiting state S3.
When the client 13 in the user operation waiting state S3 receives a channel selection instruction from the user and requests the server 12 for channel data corresponding to the instruction, the client 13 again transitions to the channel data reception waiting state S2, while the user 13 When the channel data corresponding to the instruction is requested from the server 12, the state transitions to the article data reception waiting state S 4.
[0028]
When the client 13 in the article data reception waiting state S4 receives the article data from the server 12 and generates and displays the article page, the client 13 transitions to the user operation waiting state S5.
The client 13 in the user operation waiting state S5 receives an instruction to read the next article by the user and requests article data corresponding to the instruction from the server 12, or receives an instruction to read the previous article from the user. When the article data corresponding to the instruction is requested to the server 12, the channel is again transferred to the article data reception waiting state S4, while receiving the instruction to return to the channel page by the user and stored. When the page is displayed, the state transitions again to the channel data reception waiting state S2.
[0029]
Next, with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 (steps A1 to A18), operations in the client 13 according to the present embodiment from an instruction to start browsing by the user until a channel page is displayed will be described. In the figure, “table” may be described as “table”.
When the client 13 receives a browsing start instruction from the user, the client 13 holds the current time (current time) as the start time (step A1), then requests the initial channel data from the server 12, and is the channel data. The related information table R and the article information table A are acquired (step A2), and the difference between the time (current time) at the time of channel data acquisition and the start time held in step A1 is calculated as the access time (step A3). .
[0030]
Then, the search time of the article data according to the access time is determined by searching the time-lapse information table T in the database 26 using the access time calculated in step A3 within the access time range as a search condition. (Step A4).
Next, the user information table U and the related information table R are joined to create a new table X (step A5), and the table X and the article information table A are joined to create a new table Y. Create (step A6).
[0031]
When merging, the same processing as in relational database merging is performed, and in the table to be merged, the rows whose join key items satisfy the join condition are obtained from each table, and these rows are joined to create a new table. create.
In step A5, a new table X is created in which the user information table U and the related information table R are combined using the field (upper item) as a join key and matching the field as a join condition. Thereby, the field in which the user is interested and the keyword group belonging to the field are extracted as the table X.
[0032]
In step A6, a new table Y is created by combining the table X and the article information table A with the keyword group as a combination key and the keywords belonging to the keyword group partially matching. In this table Y, the ID of article data belonging to the field in which the user is interested is held together with the date.
[0033]
Thereafter, the display Y created in step A6 is searched using the number of search days obtained in step A4 (step A7). That is, using the date of table Y as a search key and searching the table Y with the difference between the date and the current time being within the search days obtained in step A4 as a search condition, The information (ID etc.) about the article data having the date is extracted from the table Y, and a new table Z is created. In this table Z, IDs that specify article data belonging to the field of interest of the user and having a date within the search days are held.
[0034]
Then, in accordance with an instruction from the user or the like, it is determined whether browsing is performed based on the field or based on the date (step A8). When browsing based on the field, the ID in the table Z is determined. First, an article ID string arranged in the order of fields and in the order of dates in each field is generated (step A9). On the other hand, when browsing based on the date, articles in which the IDs in the table Z are arranged in the order of date are generated. An ID string is generated (step A10).
[0035]
The article ID string generated as described above is stored in the global area of the memory (step A11), and an empty character string is set in the article list HTML (HyperText Markup Language: WWW language) (step A12). Each element of the article ID column is sequentially read from the first to the last element number (ID number) to generate an article list HTML (steps A13 to A16), and the generated article list HTML is stored in the global area of the memory. (Step A17) and displayed on the display of the client 13 as a channel page (step A18).
[0036]
The user instructs the client 13 to select / display desired article data with reference to the article list HTML displayed as described above. Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 10 (steps B1 to B5), the client 13 according to the present embodiment displays the article page from the article browsing instruction by the user referring to the article list HTML. The processing operation will be described.
[0037]
  First, the client 13 sends an article I instructed by the user.DArticle sent to server 12IDArticle data corresponding to is acquired (step B1). Further, the article ID immediately before the current article ID is acquired from the article ID string (step B2), and the article ID next to the current article ID is acquired from the article ID string (step B3).
[0038]
Then, an article HTML including the article data acquired in step B1, the previous article ID and the next article ID is generated (step B4), and the article HTML is displayed on the display of the client 13 as an article page (step B5). ).
As described above, the client 13 displays the channel page and the article data selected from the channel page.
[0039]
In addition, since it is optimized according to the situation at the mounting level, the processing as described above is not actually implemented as it is, (1) processing related to access time, and (2) user information. Processing, (3) processing related to related information, and (4) processing related to other information (time-dependent information) are selected and implemented as necessary.
[0040]
By the way, in the example described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10, the processing target is abstractly displayed. Therefore, an example in which the information providing system 11 of the present embodiment is applied to a more specific processing target is illustrated in FIG. 11. Description will be made with reference to FIG.
1. The server 12 prepares data D to be added to each piece of information (article data) I (see FIG. 11). The data items in the additional data D include the date and time of creation of the information and keywords that characterize the content of the information.
For example, as shown in FIG. 11, “Copyright” is the keyword for articles related to copyright, “China” is the keyword for articles related to China, and “Yen depreciation” is the keyword for articles related to the weak yen. Selected. The additional data D is actually held in the article information database 23 in the format of the article information table A shown in FIG. Information I is stored in the article database 21.
[0041]
2. The server 12 prepares a related information table R (see FIG. 12) that defines the relationship between data items and information. Table items of the table R include keywords corresponding to a certain field. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the keyword group “copyright, patent,...” For the field “intellectual property”, and the keyword group “USA, China,. The keyword group “high yen, weak yen, stock price,...” Is set in advance.
[0042]
3. Information about individual users (users) is prepared as a user information table U as shown in FIG. 13, for example. The data items of the table U include user ID, age, sex, job type, and field of interest. This user information is held on the user terminal 13 side if the user terminal (client) 13 is occupied by an individual, and on the host (server) 12 side if shared.
[0043]
4). If necessary, information (time-dependent information) T with time change as shown in FIG. 14, for example, is prepared on the user terminal 13 side, the host 12 side, or both. In the example described above with reference to FIGS. 2 to 10, the case where the time information table T for determining the number of search days according to the access time is provided has been described. However, as illustrated in FIG. 14, as shown in FIG. ), And the network traffic information such as the average response time for each time zone and the average transfer rate for each time zone is stored as a time-dependent information table T, and the average response time and average transfer rate at the access date and time are stored from the time-lapse information table T. A search may be performed, and a data transfer amount from the host 12 to the terminal 13 (a table transfer amount, a transfer number of article data as a search result, or the like) may be determined according to the time-lapse information.
[0044]
5. As shown in FIG. 15, when there is an access to the information providing service from the user terminal 13 side, a part or all of the additional data D (article information table A) and the related information table R are transferred to the host 12 depending on the situation. To the terminal 13. At this time, the transfer amount and items of the additional data D and the related information table R may be controlled by using the information T with time change.
[0045]
6). On the user terminal 13 side, the association is performed using the additional data D (article information table A) and the related information table R and presented to the user. At this time, as shown in FIG. 16, the user information U and the related information R are associated with each other, and a field of interest of the user is extracted, and then a keyword group and additional data D (article information) about the extracted field are extracted. The association with the keyword group in Table A) is performed. At this time, the article data is selected in consideration of the information T accompanying the time change. That is, when the transfer speed or response time is slow, the old information is ignored and new information is selected from the information group obtained as a result of the association and displayed. At the time of the display, display based on the field (navigation by field) or time-series display based on the date (navigation by date) is performed. The display state of such an association result corresponds to the display state of the channel page described above.
[0046]
7. When the user wishes to follow the relationship with reference to the channel page presented on the terminal 13 and select and display actual article data, as shown in FIG. Thus, only the ID for the article data selected by the user is transferred, and a request for transferring substantial article data (static information) having that ID is made. Thereafter, the process returns to item 5 or item 6 described above, and the same processing is performed.
[0047]
Here, with reference to FIG. 18A and FIG. 18B, the operation when caching is performed in the middle of the transmission path (network 14), that is, when the proxy server 15 exists will be described.
As shown in FIG. 18A, when the information requested from the user terminal 13 is not stored in the proxy server (cache) 15, first, the user terminal 13 sends information to the proxy server 15. (2) The proxy server 15 issues an information acquisition request to the host 12 as a proxy for the user terminal 13. (3) When the host 12 returns the requested information to the proxy server 15, the proxy server 15 returns (4) the requested information to the user terminal 13 and stores the information in the cache.
[0048]
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 18B, when the information requested from the user terminal 13 is stored in the proxy server (cache) 15, first, the user terminal 13 is When the information acquisition request is issued, the proxy server 15 returns information stored in the cache to the user terminal 13.
Thus, even in an environment where data is cached in the middle of a transmission path, that is, in an environment where a proxy server 15 such as a provider exists, the information providing system 11 of this embodiment receives information from the host 12. Since the information that is not dynamically generated and provided from the host 12 to the terminal 13 is all static, the cache in the proxy server 15 operates effectively, and the load on the transmission path does not increase. .
[0049]
Next, another example of the operation of the information providing system 11 of the present embodiment when information as shown in FIG. 19 is held will be described. Here, a specific operation example when the channel page is displayed on the user terminal 13 and the user acquires article data from the host 12 with reference to the display will be described.
Here, as shown in FIG. 19, a newspaper article as information I, a date and keyword as additional data D, a keyword corresponding to a classification and a field by date as related information R, user interest as user information U It is assumed that there is a certain field and unread information, and statistical information regarding access date and time and network traffic is set in advance as time-dependent information T.
[0050]
(i) Sort newspaper articles by date, get the article older than the currently referenced article when you are instructed to refer to the previous article, and refer to it when you are instructed to refer to the next article Get newer than articles.
(ii) Classify newspaper articles by field, classify them by date within the same field, and get an article older than the reference article in the same field when `` Refer to previous article '' is instructed. If not, get the latest articles in another field. Also, when the “next article reference” is instructed, an article newer than the reference article is acquired in the same field, and if there is no new article, the oldest article in another field is acquired.
[0051]
(iii) When the article acquisition display as described in (i), (ii) is performed, as described in item 3 above, by associating with the user information U, the user is interested. Only certain fields may be extracted.
(iv) In (i) to (iii), for example, the portion up to one month before the access date may be extracted uniformly.
[0052]
(v) In (i) to (iii), when the network 14 is free, for example, information for six months is sent from the host 12, and when the network 14 is congested, for example, three months. May be sent.
(vi) In (i) to (iii), when the network 14 is free, for example, information for three months is presented to the user, and when the network 14 is congested, for example, one month Information may be presented.
[0053]
(vii) In (i) and (ii), when the network 14 is free, all fields are presented to the user, and when the network 14 is congested, the user is interested. Only the field may be presented.
(viii) When classifying by date, refer to unread information in user information U, refer only to unread articles, and when classifying by field, present including already read articles. May be.
[0054]
As described above, according to the information providing system 11 as one embodiment of the present invention, the information association processing is performed based on the channel data [related information table R and article information table A (additional data D)] from the host 12. Since it can be executed on the user terminal 13 side, the association of provided information is dynamically changed on the terminal 13 side, and a large amount of information (static information) is sent to the host 12 while performing flexible navigation according to the situation. Can be provided to each terminal 13, the load on the host 12 can be greatly reduced, the responsiveness can be greatly improved, and a transmission path (network 14) as shown in FIGS. 18 (a) and 18 (b). ), The load on the transmission line when caching is performed in the middle can be greatly reduced.
[0055]
At this time, the terminal 13 associates the personal information (profile) related to the user of the terminal 13 with the field, etc., and extracts the ID of the information suitable for the user, so that it corresponds to the user's profile. The optimum information can be associated and the optimum information navigation can be realized.
In addition, the terminal 13 determines the amount of information requested to the host 12 according to the situation accompanying the temporal change in the host 12 and the network 14 (time-dependent information T), thereby responding to the communication status of the network 14 and the like. Optimum information can be associated and information navigation can be further optimized.
[0056]
Further, the terminal 13 detects the access time from the start of browsing of information in the host 12 until receiving the channel data, so that the communication status of the network 14 that changes over time can be detected on the terminal 13 side. And the communication status and the like can be easily reflected in information association, that is, information navigation, and information association processing and information navigation processing can be further optimized.
[0057]
In the above-described embodiment, the case where the information supplied from the host 12 to the terminal 13 is article data such as a newspaper article has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and various information is provided. Is applied to the information providing system for providing the information from the host 12 to the terminal 13 in the same manner as in the above-described embodiment, and the same effect as described above can be obtained.
[0058]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the present invention and its gist.
[0059]
【The invention's effect】
  As detailed above,ClearlyAccording to the information association process from the hostArticle informationWhenRelated informationBecause it can be executed on the user terminal side based on the above, the association of provided information is dynamically changed on the terminal side, and a large amount of information is provided from the host to each terminal while performing flexible navigation according to the situation In addition to greatly reducing the load on the host, the response can be greatly improved, and the load on the transmission line can be greatly reduced when caching is performed in the middle of the transmission line. .
[0060]
  At this time, in the terminal, by associating personal information related to the user of the terminal with the upper item and extracting an identifier of information suitable for the user, the optimum according to the profile (personal information) of the user Information can be associated with each other, and optimal information navigation can be performed.The
  In addition, by determining the amount of information requested from the host in the terminal according to the situation accompanying changes over time in the host and the network, it is possible to perform optimum information association according to the network communication status, etc. Information navigationThe
[0061]
  Furthermore, on the terminal, after browsing the information on the hostArticle informationandRelated informationBy detecting the access time until receiving, the terminal side can easily detect the communication status of the network that changes over time as the access time, and the communication status can be easily associated with information, that is, information navigation Information association processing and information navigation processing can be further optimized.The
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information providing system as an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a user information table of the present embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a related information table (second table) of the present embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an article information table (first table) of the present embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a temporal information table according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing state transition in a terminal (client) according to the present embodiment in order to explain the operation.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining the operation (channel page display processing) of the terminal according to the present embodiment;
FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the operation (channel page display processing) of the terminal according to the present embodiment;
FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation (article page display processing) of the terminal according to the present embodiment;
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of information (newspaper article) held in the host according to the embodiment;
FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a specific example of a related information table (second table) of the present embodiment.
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a specific example of a user information table of the present embodiment.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a specific example of a temporal information table according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram for explaining the operation of this embodiment (table transfer processing at the start of service);
FIG. 16 is a diagram for specifically explaining information association processing performed in the terminal according to the present embodiment;
FIG. 17 is a block diagram for explaining the operation (substantial information provision request processing) of the present embodiment;
FIGS. 18A and 18B are block diagrams for explaining the operation when caching is performed in the middle of a transmission path.
FIG. 19 is a diagram for describing a specific example of information held in the information providing system according to the embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Information provision system
2 Host
3 Terminal
4 network
5 First table
6 Second table
11 Information provision system
12 Server (host)
13 Client (User terminal)
14 network
15 Proxy server (cache)
21 Article database
22 Related information database
23 Article information database
24 Other information database
25 User information database
26 Database for other information
U User information table
R related information table (second table)
A Article information table (first table)
T Time information table

Claims (5)

Computer
  A service start request transmission step of transmitting an information provision service start request to a server computer that provides information to be held statically connected via a network;
  Article information including an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information transmitted from the server computer in response to the information provision service start request transmitted in the service start request transmission step; A receiving step of receiving related information including a field and keywords belonging to the field;
  An output step of associating the article information and the related information received in the receiving step based on the keyword, and outputting association information between the field and the identifier;
  A substantial information requesting step of transmitting an information provision request including an identifier of the selected association information to the server computer based on a selection input from the user for the association information output in the output step;
  The information provision requesting method characterized by performing this. The article information received in the receiving step further includes date information of each information,
  In the output step, the service for the server computer is stored on the basis of correspondence setting information between an access time between the computer and the server computer or at least one of network traffic information and an information search range stored in the time information table. Article information of the date corresponding to the access time from the information provision service start request transmission in the start request transmission step to the reception of information in the reception step, or the information search range corresponding to the network traffic information at the access date and time, Associating the related information with the keyword and outputting the association information between the field and the identifier
  The information provision requesting method according to claim 1, wherein: The output step stores the related information received in the receiving step in the field corresponding to the information of the field in which the user is interested, stored in the user information table, and the article information based on the keyword. Outputs association information between the field and the identifier
  The information provision requesting method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that On the computer,
  A service start request transmitting step for transmitting an information providing service start request to a server computer that provides information to be held statically;
  Article information including an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information transmitted from the server computer in response to the information provision service start request transmitted in the service start request transmission step; A receiving step of receiving related information including a field and keywords belonging to the field;
  An output step of associating the article information and the related information received in the receiving step based on the keyword, and outputting association information between the field and the identifier;
  A substantial information requesting step of receiving a selection input from a user for the association information output in the output step and transmitting an information provision request including an identifier of the selected association information to the server computer;
  A storage medium storing an information provision request program characterized in that the program is executed. Service start request receiving means for receiving an information providing service start request from a terminal connected via a network;
  In response to the information provision service start request received by the service start request receiving means, article information including an identifier for each provision unit of information to be provided and a keyword related to each information, a field, and a keyword belonging to the field Transmission means for transmitting the relevant information to the terminal of the transmission source of the information providing service start request;
  The article information and the related information transmitted by the transmitting means are based on a selection input from a user with respect to association information between the field and the identifier associated with each other based on the keyword. Information providing request receiving means for receiving an information providing request including an identifier of the selected association information transmitted from a terminal to which the event information and the related information are transmitted;
  A server computer comprising:

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