JP4962985B2 - Information providing apparatus and information providing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus and an information providing method for providing advertisement and recommendation information suitable for a user.

  When browsing a Web page by connecting the terminal to the Internet, an advertisement may be displayed together with the displayed Web page. This advertisement is not only used for advertising, but also has the purpose of setting a link at the display location, causing the viewer to click and guiding it to the advertiser's homepage, etc., and contributing to the purchase of goods etc. It is common.

  If the advertisement is not viewed by a user who is interested in the field in which the advertisement is advertised, the advertisement will not be effective and will be a wasteful investment for the advertiser. Therefore, in order to effectively advertise, it is important how to display an advertisement in a field that the user who browses the web page is likely to be interested in.

  Conventionally, based on the genre and theme of the content of the displayed web page, the site targeting (content targeting) that determines the type of advertisement to be displayed, and the profile such as personal information of the user collected in advance are displayed. There are known a method for determining an advertisement to be displayed, a method for simultaneously displaying a recommended product and the like with reference to a browsing record in a Web service registered by a user.

However, since site targeting depends on the content field (for example, cars, games, etc.), it does not always meet the needs of advertisers. Moreover, even if it is the system which refers to a user's profile, the profile does not necessarily represent the user's current interests, interests or situations. For example, when a profile is registered, even if a certain user is interested in purchasing a car or a house, the user does not always have an interest and interest after purchasing. In addition, the user generally investigates a field in which he or she is interested, and the knowledge level gradually increases and the knowledge level generally increases. Therefore, there are many cases where the content of interest at the knowledge level of beginners and the content of interest at the knowledge level of advanced users are different, and in order to make the advertisement more effective, according to the knowledge level of the user It is preferred that an advertisement of content is displayed.
In view of this, an apparatus that appropriately displays the latest and appropriate information for an individual user has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1).

JP 2007-104313 A

[Online], Yahoo! Chiebukuro, [Search January 7, 2009], Internet <URL: http: // chiebukuro. yahoo. co. jp>

In the case of Patent Document 1, when a recorded broadcast program is selected and reproduced, an advertisement related to the reproduction title is displayed. However, since it is unknown how much interest the user has about the playback title, only the same advertisement can be displayed when any user plays it. That is, it is not possible to display an advertisement according to the knowledge level of the playback title that the user has.
About the playback title, the user who happens to play it and the user who has deep interest from the beginning and who has a high level of knowledge about the playback title are interested in different advertisements. Becomes less efficient.

  Further, in Non-Patent Document 1, a web service participant exchanges knowledge by asking questions or answers, and provides a service for storing and searching for them. It does not necessarily correspond to the knowledge level of the user who uses the terminal.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information providing apparatus and an information providing method capable of providing advertisements and recommendation information according to the knowledge level of a user who uses a Web service.

  The present invention provides the following solutions.

  (1) An information providing apparatus that distributes advertisements and recommendation information to user terminals via a communication network, which receives a question from a registered user and receives and displays a response from another registered user, and displays response history information of a Web service The question answer data classification means for classifying the question user information about the registered user who made the question and the answer user information about the registered user who made the answer for each category, and determining the level of the registered user in the category Level classification means, advertisement / recommendation data storage means for storing advertisement data and recommendation data in association with each level in advance, and a user ID that uniquely indicates the registered user who uses the user terminal from the user terminal. An advertisement display request receiving means for receiving an advertisement display request including Based on the user ID and the hierarchical data that is the result of leveling by the level classifying means, the level of the registered user indicated by the user ID is determined, and the advertisement data and recommendation data corresponding to the corresponding level are selected. Data distribution means for reading out advertisement / recommendation data selection means and advertisement data and recommendation data selected by the advertisement / recommendation data selection means from the advertisement / recommendation data storage means and transmitting the advertisement display request to the user terminal Means for providing information.

According to the invention described in (1), the response history information of the Web service that asks and answers between registered users is received, the question user information related to the registered user who asked the question, and the answer user information related to the registered user who made the answer, Are classified for each category, and the level of registered users in the category is determined. And when an advertisement display request is received from the user terminal of the registered user, the level is determined based on the user ID of the registered user who made the advertisement display request and the hierarchical data that is the result of the level division, and the level corresponding to the registered user is determined. An advertisement and recommendation information are transmitted to the user terminal.
Thereby, the advertisement and recommendation information according to the knowledge level of the registered user can be transmitted and displayed on the user terminal.

  (2) The level classification unit determines a question user who has made the question in the Web service and an answer user who has answered the question, and rank unit that ranks the answer user higher than the question user; , Ranking determining means for ranking all registered users who have made the question or answer to the category based on the ranking result performed by the ranking means, and a predetermined number of groups in order from the top of the ranking The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a level determining unit that determines the level for each group divided and grouped.

According to the invention described in (2), in addition to the invention described in (1), in the question user and the answer user, the answer user who answered the question asked by the question user has a higher rank than the question user. And the order of all registered users who have made questions or answers in the category. Then, it is grouped for each predetermined number of people in order from the top in the overall order, and the level is determined for each group.
Thereby, the order of the knowledge level in a certain category is determined for all registered users, and the level can be determined for each group based on this.

  (3) The ranking means counts the number of answers answered by the answer user to the question user for each answer user, and the ranking determination means ranks the ranking based on the number of answers and the ranking result. The information providing apparatus according to (2) to be determined.

According to the invention described in (3), in addition to the invention described in (2), the answer user counts the number of answers answered to the question user, and determines the ranking based on the number of answers and the ranking result. be able to.
Thereby, for example, when the question user and the answer user are the same combination of registered users, it is possible to determine the ranking with the higher number of answers as the highest rank.

  (4) An information providing method for distributing advertisements and recommendation information to user terminals via a communication network, comprising: advertisement / recommendation data storage means for storing advertisement data and recommendation data in advance in association with each level in one category The web server response history information that accepts and displays questions from registered users and receives answers from other registered users and displays the question user information related to the registered users who asked the question and the other registrations that made the answer Classifying answer user information about users for each category, determining the level of the registered user in the category, accepting an advertisement display request including a user ID uniquely indicating the registered user from the user terminal Step, determine user ID and level A step of determining the level of the registered user indicated by the user ID based on the hierarchical data as a result, and selecting advertisement data and recommendation data corresponding to the corresponding level, the selected advertisement data and the recommendation An information providing method comprising: reading data from the advertisement / recommendation data storage means and distributing the data to a user terminal that has received the advertisement display request.

According to the invention described in (4), the response history information of the Web service that asks and answers between registered users is received, the question user information related to the registered user who asked the question, and the answer user information related to the registered user who made the answer, Are classified for each category, and the level of registered users in the category is determined. When an advertisement display request is received from the registered user's user terminal, the level is determined based on the hierarchical data that is the result of determining the user ID and level of the registered user who has requested the advertisement display, and the registered user is in accordance with the level. The advertisement and recommendation information transmitted to the user terminal are transmitted.
Thereby, the advertisement and recommendation information according to the knowledge level of the registered user can be transmitted and displayed on the user terminal.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information provision apparatus and the information provision method which can provide the advertisement and recommendation information according to the knowledge level of the user who utilizes Web service can be provided.

It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, and the function structure of an information provision apparatus. It is a figure which shows the classification | category data table which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hierarchy data table which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the information provision apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention performs. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the information provision apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention performs. It is a flowchart which shows the process which the information provision apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention performs. It is a figure which shows the example of a display displayed in the user terminal which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display displayed in the user terminal which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the information terminal device which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  An overall outline of the system 1 including the information providing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an overview of the system 1 and a functional configuration of the information providing apparatus 10.

  The system 1 includes an information providing device 10, a communication network 40, user terminals 30 a and 30 b that request advertisements and recommendation information from the information providing device 10, and a service providing server 20 that opens a Web site that provides services to the communication network 40. Consists of.

  The information providing apparatus 10 receives response history information about the registered user registered in the service from the service providing server 20, determines the knowledge level of the registered user, and performs level division. Further, when the advertisement display request is received from the registered user's user terminals 30a and 30b, advertisement data and recommendation information corresponding to the registered user's knowledge level are transmitted to the user terminals 30a and 30b that have received the advertisement display request.

  The service providing server 20 is a server that provides some Web service in the communication network 40. In the present embodiment, the service providing server 20 provides a service (hereinafter referred to as “question answer service”) that accepts a question from a registered user or accepts and displays an answer.

  The user terminals 30a and 30b connect to the service providing server 20, transmit the question data and the answer data, and display them. The user terminals 30a and 30b are connected to the service providing server 20 via the communication network 40 and connected to the information providing apparatus 10 to receive advertisement data / recommendation information. The user terminals 30a and 30b are displayed on the display units of the user terminals 30a and 30b. indicate.

  The user terminals 30a and 30b (hereinafter collectively referred to as “user terminals 30”) are devices that can be connected to the communication network 40 such as a so-called personal computer 30a or a mobile terminal 30b including a mobile phone. There is no particular limitation. Moreover, in this specification, although each is shown as a single apparatus, each of the user terminals 30a and 30b may be a plurality of apparatuses.

  Hereinafter, the information providing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a classification data table. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hierarchical data table.

  The information providing apparatus 10 includes a user information reception unit 11, a question answer data classification unit 12, a level division unit 13, an advertisement display request reception unit 14, an advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15, and a data distribution unit 16 as control units. The storage unit includes a registered user storage unit 17, a hierarchical data storage unit 18, and an advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19.

  The user information receiving unit 11 receives response history information from the service providing server 20. The response history information includes at least data indicating which registered user has answered each question made by each registered user regarding the question or answer made in the service providing server 20. Below, the registered user who asked a question is described as a question user, and the user who answered it as a response user.

  In order to identify these registered users, a user ID uniquely indicating the user defined when each user registers in the service providing server 20 is used. The user ID may be, for example, a nickname, number, or any other character string that all registered users individually have. The user ID of the registered user is received by the user information receiving unit 11 from the service providing server 20 and stored in the registered user storage unit 17.

  The question answer data classification unit 12 classifies the question user and the user ID of the answer user for the question from the response history information received by the user information reception unit 11 for each category of question data. By the process performed by the question / answer data classification unit 12, the classification data table shown in FIG. 2 is created, which is classified for each category, from the information included in the response history information.

  The classification data table will be described with reference to FIG. The classification data table is a table created as a result of processing by the question / answer data classification unit 12.

  The classification data table includes a “category” column, a “question No.” column, a “question user” column, and an “answer user” column. The data classified into these items is data included in the response history information received from the service providing server 20.

  The “category” column stores data indicating classification items used in the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20.

  The “question No.” column stores data indicating a number for identifying the question accepted by the service providing server 20. This question No. Is assigned to each category, and in the service providing server 20, the question No. The process of attaching is performed.

  The “question user” field stores the user ID of the question user, and the “answer user” field stores the user ID of the answer user.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the level division unit 13 performs a process of leveling the user's knowledge level for each category. The level division unit 13 includes a ranking unit 131, a ranking determination unit 132, and a level determination unit 133.

The ranking unit 131 performs processing for determining the ranking of the knowledge level of a registered user who has asked or answered a certain category. Here, the ranking of the knowledge level is determined by which registered user has asked a question and which registered user has answered. That is, it is determined that the ranking of the answering user is higher than that of the questioning user regarding a certain question.
At the same time, the number of answers answered to a certain question user is counted. If there are multiple cases where the combination of the user ID of the question user and the answer user is the same as each other, the registered user with the highest number of answers is selected. Judge that the ranking is high.

  For example, according to the classification data table of FIG. 2, there are three questions with the category “horticulture”, and the user IDs of the question user and the answer user are shown, respectively. Here, question no. Although 12456 is described in two lines, this is because there are two answering users for one question.

  Question No. 12345, since the user ID of the question user is “bbb” and the user ID of the answering user is “aaa”, it is determined that the user ID “aaa” has a higher rank than the user ID “bbb” (aaa> bbb). The Question No. In 12347, since the user ID of the question user is “aaa” and the user ID of the answering user is “ccc”, the user ID “ccc” has a higher rank than the user ID “aaa” (ccc> aaa). To be judged.

  Question No. 12397, since the user ID of the question user is “ddd” and the user ID of the answering user is “bbb”, it is determined that the user ID “bbb” has a higher rank than the user ID “ddd” (bbb> ddd). The Therefore, the question no. 12456 is that the user ID of the question user is “aaa” and the user IDs of the answering users are “bbb” and “ccc”, so the user ID “bbb” and the user ID “ccc” are more than the user ID “aaa”. Are also ranked higher (ccc> aaa, bbb> aaa).

  Here, the user ID “aaa” is assigned the question No. In 12345, the user ID “bbb” has already been answered. The number of times that the user ID “aaa” has answered the user ID “bbb” (the number of responses) is one, and the number of times that the user ID “bbb” has answered the user ID “aaa” (the number of responses) is also one. Therefore, at this stage, the user ID “aaa” and the user ID “bbb” are determined to have the same rank (aaa = bbb).

  Question No. In 15543, since the user ID of the question user is “bbb” and the user ID of the answering user is “aaa”, the user ID “aaa” is determined to have a higher rank than the user ID “bbb” (aaa> bbb). The Here, the combination in which the user ID of the question user and the user ID of the answering user are “aaa” and “bbb” is the question No. 12345, 12456, and 15543 three times. Among these, the user ID “aaa” became the answering user twice, and the user ID “bbb” became the answering user once. Therefore, when the number of responses of the user ID “aaa” and the user ID “bbb” is compared, the number of responses of the user ID “aaa” is larger than the number of responses of the user ID “bbb”. It is determined that the higher order (aaa> bbb).

  The ranking determination unit 132 receives the processing in the ranking unit 131 and determines the ranking of registered users in a certain category. In the above example, “aaa”> “bbb”, “ccc”> “aaa”, “bbb”> “ddd”, “ccc”> “aaa”, “aaa”> “bbb”. Accordingly, in the ranking in the category “horticulture”, the first place is the user ID “ccc”, the second place is the user ID “aaa”, the third place is the user ID “bbb”, and the fourth place is the user ID “ddd”.

  The level determination unit 133 receives the process of the ranking determination unit 132, performs grouping by a predetermined number of people from the top of the ranking, and determines the level of the registered user. Further, a storage unit that reads advertisement data / recommendation information to be displayed on the user terminal 30 is designated for each registered user according to the determined level.

  For example, in the above example, it is divided into 3 groups, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the ranking. Is determined to be “under knowledge level”, and the fourth place group is determined to be “low knowledge level”.

  The number of grouping is arbitrary, and the administrator of the information providing apparatus 10 can arbitrarily determine the number. Further, the number of groups may be changed according to the total number of registered users who have asked or answered questions in one category.

  Then, the level determination unit 133 stores the processing result in the hierarchical data storage unit 18 as hierarchical data.

  The advertisement display request receiving unit 14 receives and receives an advertisement display request from the user terminal 30. This advertisement display request includes at least the user ID of a registered user who uses the user terminal 30. Further, the advertisement display request reception unit 14 sends the user ID included in the advertisement display request to the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15.

  When the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 receives the user ID from the advertisement display request reception unit 14, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 refers to the hierarchical data storage unit 18 and acquires the level information of the user ID. Then, based on the acquired level information, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 refers to the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 of the corresponding level, and reads advertisement data and recommendation information to be displayed on the user terminal 30. The read advertisement data and recommendation information are sent to the data distribution unit 16, and the data distribution unit 16 transmits the advertisement display request to the user terminal 30 that has received the advertisement display request.

  The registered user storage unit 17 is a storage unit that stores registration information of registered users registered to use the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20. The registration information includes at least the user ID of the registered user, and is received from the service providing server 20 by the user information receiving unit 11.

  The hierarchical data storage unit 18 is a storage unit that stores the hierarchical data created by the level division unit 13. This hierarchical data is, for example, data indicated by the hierarchical data table shown in FIG.

  Here, the hierarchical data table will be described with reference to FIG. The hierarchical data table is a table created by the level division unit 13.

  This hierarchical data table includes a “user ID” field, a “category” field, a “level” field, and a “reference DB” field.

  In the “user ID” column, data indicating a user ID is stored, and in the “category” column, data indicating a category in which a question or answer is provided in the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20 is stored. .

  In the “level” column, data indicating the level determined by the level determination unit 133 of the level division unit 13 is stored. In the “level” column of FIG. 3, the levels are shown in three levels of high, medium, and low, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the number of levels can be changed as necessary. The administrator of the information providing apparatus 10 can arbitrarily set the five stages, the ten stages, and the like.

  In the “reference DB” column, data indicating the storage unit associated by the level determination unit 133 is stored. This is a storage unit that is referred to when reading advertisement data and recommendation information to be displayed when an advertisement display request is received from the user terminal 30.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 is a storage unit that is referred to when reading advertisement data and recommendation information to be displayed when an advertisement display request is received from the user terminal 30. The advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 is provided with a storage unit for each set level. In this embodiment, a level high storage unit 191, a level medium storage unit 192, and a level low storage unit 193 are provided. Is provided. Then, advertisement data and recommendation information corresponding to each level are stored for each category and read by the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15.

  Processing performed by the information providing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6 are flowcharts showing processing performed by the information providing apparatus 10.

  With reference to FIG. 4, the level classification process of the registered user will be described. This process is a process performed in advance based on the response history information of the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20 in order to display advertisement data and recommendation information corresponding to the knowledge level on the user terminal 30.

  First, in step S <b> 11, the user information receiving unit 11 determines whether response history information has been received from the service providing server 20. When the response history information is received (in the case of YES in this determination), the response history information is sent to the question answer data classification unit 12, and the process proceeds to step S12. Further, the user information receiving unit 11 waits as it is when the response history information is not received from the service providing server 20 (in the case of NO in this determination).

  In step S12, the question answer data classifying unit 12 that has received the response history information from the user information receiving unit 11 classifies the response history information. Specifically, the classification data table of FIG. 2 is created from the response history information. That is, the user IDs of question users and answer users are classified for each category of question data. When this process is completed, the process result is sent to the level division unit 13 and the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S13, the ranking unit 131 of the level division unit 13 that has received the processing result of the question answer data classification unit 12 (data shown as the classification data table) classifies the user. The ranking unit 131 determines the user's superiority or inferiority for each question for all users who have made a question or answer in one category. Details will be described later. When this process ends, the process result is sent to the ranking determination unit 132, and the process proceeds to step S14.

  In step S <b> 14, the ranking determination unit 132 of the level classification unit 13 determines the rankings for all registered users who have made questions or answers in one category based on the processing results performed by the ranking unit 131.

In step S <b> 15, the level determination unit 133 determines the level based on the ranking determined by the ranking determination unit 132. Specifically, the level determination unit 133 performs grouping based on the ranking determined by the ranking determination unit 132, and determines a level for each group. In the grouping, a predetermined number of people are grouped in order from the top of the ranking. The number of people in this group may be the same for all groups, or may be different for each group. For example, the top group may have the smallest number of people and the medium group may have the largest number.
Then, an advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 to be referred to according to the level is associated. The process of step S15 is shown, for example, as a hierarchical data table in FIG. If this process ends, the process moves to step S16.

  In step S16, the level determination unit 133 stores the processing result in step S15 in the hierarchical data storage unit 18 as hierarchical data, and ends the process of this flowchart.

  The registered user ranking process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, in step S21, the ranking unit 131 of the level division unit 13 reads data shown in the classification data table. Specifically, based on the data shown in the classification data table received from the question answer data classification unit 12, one question No. in one category is displayed. The information of the question user and the answer user is read, and the process proceeds to step S22.

  In step S22, the ranking unit 131 sets the question No. For each question user and the user ID of the answer user, the answer user is recognized as being higher in rank than the question user.

  In step S23, the ranking unit 131 determines whether or not there is a combination of IDs of the same user as the question user and the answer user among the data processed in the past. For example, when the question user is “aaa” and the answer user is “bbb”, the question user and the answer user are “aaa” and “bbb”, respectively, and the question user is “bbb” and the answer user is “bbb”. Also includes the case of “aaa”. In such a case, the order will always be inconsistent, so adjustment is necessary. Therefore, when there are a plurality of combinations of the same user ID (when this determination is YES), the process proceeds to step S24, and when there are not a plurality of combinations with the same user ID (when this determination is NO), the process proceeds to step S28.

  In step S24, the ranking unit 131 counts the number of answers of the answering users for each user ID in the same user ID combination, and proceeds to step S25.

  In step S25, the ranking unit 131 determines whether the counted number of answers is the same value for the same combination of user IDs. In the above example, when the user “aaa” and “bbb” are combined and asked multiple times, the number of times the answering user is “aaa” (number of answers) and “bbb” Compare the number of times (number of responses). If the number of answers is the same (YES in this determination), the process proceeds to step S26, and if the number of answers is different (NO in this determination), the process proceeds to step S27.

  In step S26, since the number of answers is the same, the ranking unit 131 identifies that the ranks of the user IDs constituting the combination of the user IDs are in the same column, and proceeds to step S28.

  In step S27, the ranking unit 131 compares the counted number of answers for each user ID constituting the combination of the user IDs, and ranks the user ID having the larger number of answers in the order higher than the user ID having the smaller number of answers. Recognize that there is. If this process ends, the process moves to step S28.

  In step S28, the ranking unit 131 sets all question numbers in one category. It is discriminated whether the question user and the answer user have been ranked. When all the rankings have been performed (in the case of YES in this determination), this flowchart is terminated and the process proceeds to step S14 in FIG. If all the rankings have not been performed (NO in this determination), the process proceeds to step S21.

  The advertisement / recommendation information selection process will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of the advertisement / recommendation information selection process. Further, this process is a process of selecting advertisement / recommendation information to be displayed on the user terminal 30 according to the knowledge level when an advertisement display request is received from the user terminal 30.

  In step S <b> 31, the advertisement display request receiving unit 14 determines whether an advertisement display request is received from the user terminal 30. When the advertisement display request reception unit 14 receives the advertisement display request (YES in this determination), the advertisement display request is sent to the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15, and the process proceeds to step S32. When the advertisement display request receiving unit 14 has not received an advertisement display request (in the case of NO in this determination), the process waits as it is.

  In step S32, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 reads the user ID of the registered user included in the received user terminal 30 from the advertisement display request, and determines the level of the user ID. Specifically, the hierarchical data table is read from the hierarchical data storage unit 18 and the level of the user ID and the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 to be referenced are recognized. For example, if the user ID “aaa” is included in the advertisement display request, the level is “medium” and the reference DB is “medium level (horticulture)” according to the hierarchical data table of FIG. Therefore, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 recognizes when referring to the medium level storage unit 192 in the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19. If this process ends, the process moves to step S33.

  In step S33, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 refers to the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 recognized in step S32 to the user terminal 30 that has received the advertisement display request from the corresponding advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19. The advertisement data / recommendation information to be displayed is read and sent to the data distribution unit 16. In the above example, for example, the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 reads the advertisement data and the recommendation information with reference to the medium level storage unit 192 in the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19, and the data distribution unit 16

  In step S34, the data distribution unit 16 transmits the advertisement data and recommendation information read by the advertisement / recommendation data selection unit 15 to the user terminal 30 that has received the advertisement display request. When this process ends, the process of this flowchart ends.

  A display example on the user terminal 30 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. 7 and 8 are diagrams illustrating display examples displayed on the display unit 50 of the user terminal 30. FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a display example of the user terminal 30 when the user ID is “ddd”. This display example is a display example when the user ID “ddd” is connected to the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20.

  At the top left of the first display example, "Hello, ddd's" user ID is displayed. This indicates that the user ID “ddd” is currently logged in to the question answering service.

  In the title display area 51, the category name of the currently displayed question is shown. Shows that the question about "horticulture" is currently displayed.

  On the left side of the display example, a question display area 52 and an answer display area 53 are provided. The question display area 52 displays a user ID indicating a question user and the content of the question. In the answer display area 53, the user ID indicating the answering user and the contents of the answer are displayed.

An advertisement display area 54 and a recommendation information display area 55 are provided on the right side of the question display area 52 and the answer display area 53.
The advertisement display area 54 displays an advertisement that matches the level of the logged-in user ID. In the display example shown in FIG. 7, according to the hierarchical data table of FIG. 3, since the level is “low” in the “horticultural” category, the advertisement data stored in the low level storage unit 193 is displayed. When the level is “low”, advertisements for beginners who are relatively interested in beginners are displayed.

  In the recommendation information display area 55, recommendation information is displayed. This recommendation information collects information such as the questions and answers referenced by the user indicated by the user ID and the displayed categories, and simultaneously displays related products based on these information. It is. These pieces of information are also read out from the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 and displayed according to the level of the category in the hierarchical data table in the same manner as the advertisement data. In FIG. 7, since the level of the user ID “ddd” is “low”, for example, recommendation information indicating the type of sweet potato is displayed.

  Here, the advertisement data is not particularly limited, but a word included in the currently displayed question data is analyzed, and an advertisement related to the word is automatically selected according to the level. Good. For example, in the example of FIG. 7, the word “sweet potato” is stored in advance as a keyword, and an advertisement related to the keyword “sweet potato” is displayed. That is, a certain word and advertisement data may be stored in association with each other in the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19, and the associated advertisement data may be read when the word is displayed. Thereby, since it is possible to display advertisements by level for contents that are considered to be more interesting, the efficiency of advertisement can be increased. In addition, when there are a plurality of advertisement data associated with a certain word, a so-called bidding system may be used, such as displaying preferentially the one with a high advertising fee from the advertiser.

  FIG. 8 is a display example of the user terminal 30 when the user ID is “ccc”. Similar to FIG. 7, this display example is a display example when the user ID “ccc” is connected to the question answering service provided by the service providing server 20.

  According to the hierarchical data table of FIG. 3, the user ID “ccc” is a user who is in the “horticultural” category and the level is “high”. Therefore, for the displayed advertisement data and recommendation information, the level high storage unit 191 in the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 is referred to, and the content for the level “high” is displayed.

For example, in the referred question data, since “fertilizer” is a topic, an advertisement about fertilizer is displayed in the advertisement display area 54. In addition, in the recommendation information display area 55, in addition to the vegetable making, the information for self-sufficiency and the recommendation information related to the more authentic vegetable making are displayed.
In this way, advertisements and recommendation information according to the level of the user can be displayed, and the efficiency of the advertisement can be increased. The configuration of each area in the display example is the same as that in FIG.

<Hardware configuration>
A hardware configuration of the information providing apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the information providing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The information providing apparatus 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 1 (1010) constituting the control unit 101 (a plurality of CPUs such as CPU 2 (1012) may be added in a multiprocessor configuration), a bus line 1005, a communication I / O F1040, a main memory 1050, a basic input output system (BIOS) 1060, a USB port 1090, an I / O controller 1070, and input means such as a keyboard and mouse 1100 and a display device 1022.

  Storage means such as a tape drive 1072, a hard disk 1074, an optical disk drive 1076, and a semiconductor memory 1078 can be connected to the I / O controller 1070.

  The BIOS 1060 stores a boot program executed by the CPU 1 (1010) when each server is started up, a program depending on the hardware of each server, and the like.

  The hard disk 1074 constituting the storage unit stores various programs for the information providing apparatus 10 to function as a server and programs for executing the functions of the present invention, and various databases (registered user storage unit 17 as necessary). , Hierarchical data storage unit 18, advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19, etc.).

  As the optical disc drive 1076, for example, a DVD-ROM drive, a CD-ROM drive, a DVD-RAM drive, or a CD-RAM drive can be used. In this case, the optical disk 1077 corresponding to each drive is used. A program or data can be read from the optical disk 1077 by the optical disk drive 1076 and provided to the main memory 1050 or the hard disk 1074 via the I / O controller 1070.

  The program provided to the information providing apparatus 10 is provided by being stored in a recording medium such as the hard disk 1074, the optical disk 1077, or a memory card. This program may be read from a recording medium via the I / O controller 1070 or downloaded via the communication I / F 1040 to be installed and executed in the information providing apparatus 10.

  The aforementioned program may be stored in an internal or external storage medium. Here, as a storage medium constituting the storage unit 107, in addition to the hard disk 1074, the optical disk 1077, or the memory card, a magneto-optical recording medium such as an MD or a tape medium can be used. In addition, a storage device such as a hard disk 1074 or an optical disk library provided in a server system connected to a dedicated communication line or the Internet may be used as a recording medium, and the program may be provided to the information providing apparatus 10 via the communication line.

  Here, the display device 1022 displays a screen for accepting data input to the user, or displays a screen of a calculation processing result by the information providing device 10, and includes a cathode ray tube display device (CRT) and a liquid crystal display device. (LCD) and other display devices.

  Here, the input means accepts input by the user, and may be configured by a keyboard, a mouse 1100, and the like.

  The communication I / F 1040 is a network adapter that enables each server to be connected to a terminal via a dedicated network or a public network. The communication I / F 1040 may include a modem, a cable modem, and an Ethernet (registered trademark) adapter.

  Although the above example mainly demonstrated the information provision apparatus 10, each function can also be implement | achieved by installing a program in a computer and making the computer operate | move as a server apparatus. Therefore, the functions realized by the information providing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment can be realized by executing the above-described method by the computer, or by introducing the above-described program into the computer and executing it. .

  The service providing server 20 and the user terminal 30 also have the same configuration as the information providing apparatus 10 described above. In addition, the user terminal 30 has been described as an example realized by a so-called PC (Personal Computer) in the present embodiment. Furthermore, as long as the principle of the present invention can be applied, a mobile phone, PDA (Personal Data Assistant), game It may be realized by various terminals such as a machine.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not restricted to embodiment mentioned above. The effects described in the embodiments of the present invention are only the most preferable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects of the present invention are limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention. is not.

  In the present embodiment, the registered user storage unit 17 and the hierarchical data storage unit 18 and the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 are different storage units, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, each storage area may be formed in the same storage unit, or may be provided outside the information providing apparatus 10 separately. Further, the advertisement / recommendation data storage unit 19 is also provided with a storage unit for each level. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a storage unit for each category is used, and the advertisement data and recommendation information for each level are stored in the storage unit for each category. The storage area may be provided. Furthermore, the storage unit for each level may be provided independently from the information providing apparatus 10 separately, and the information providing apparatus 10 may access the information as necessary.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Information provision apparatus 11 User information reception part 12 Question answer data classification part 13 Level division part 14 Advertisement display request reception part 15 Recommendation data selection part 16 Data distribution part 18 Hierarchical data storage part 19 Recommendation data storage part 20 Service provision server 30a, 30b User terminal 40 Communication network

Claims (3)

An information providing device that distributes advertisements and recommendation information to user terminals via a communication network,
From the response history information of the Web service that receives a question from a registered user and receives and displays an answer from another registered user, the question user information about the registered user who made the question and the answer user information about the registered user who made the answer Question answer data classification means for classifying
Leveling means for determining the level of the registered user in the category;
Advertisement / recommendation data storage means for storing advertisement data and recommendation data in association with each level in advance;
An advertisement display request accepting unit that accepts an advertisement display request including a user ID uniquely indicating the registered user who uses the user terminal from the user terminal;
Advertisement / recommendation data selection means for selecting the advertisement data and the recommendation data according to the level of the registered user indicated by the user ID ;
Data distribution means for reading out the advertisement data and recommendation data selected by the advertisement / recommendation data selection means from the advertisement / recommendation data storage means and transmitting the advertisement display request to the user terminal ,
The level dividing means includes
A ranking means for discriminating a question user who has made the question in the Web service and an answer user who has answered the question, and placing the answer user in a higher rank than the question user;
Based on the ranking results performed by the ranking means, ranking determining means for ranking all registered users who have made the question or the answer to the category;
Grouping a predetermined number of people in order from the top of the ranking, and level determining means for determining the level for each group divided;
An information providing apparatus. The ranking means counts the number of answers answered by the answer user to the question user for each answer user,
The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the ranking determining unit determines the ranking based on the number of answers and the ranking result. An information providing method for delivering advertisements and recommendation information to user terminals via a communication network,
Executed by a computer having advertisement / recommendation data storage means for storing advertisement data and recommendation data in association with each level in one category in advance;
From the response history information of the Web service that accepts questions from registered users and accepts and displays answers from other registered users, the question user information related to the registered users who made the question and the answers related to the other registered users who made the answer Classifying user information for each category,
Determining the level of the registered user in the category;
Receiving an advertisement display request including a user ID uniquely indicating the registered user from the user terminal;
Selecting advertisement data and recommendation data according to the level of the registered user indicated by the user ID ;
Reading the selected advertisement data and the recommendation data from the advertisement / recommendation data storage means, and delivering the advertisement display request to the user terminal that has received the request ,
The step of determining the level comprises:
Discriminating a question user who asked the question in the Web service and an answer user who answered the question, and ranking the answer user as a higher rank than the question user;
Performing ranking for all of the registered users who have made the question or answer to the category based on the ranking results;
Grouping a predetermined number of people in order from the top of the ranking, and determining the level for each group divided;
Information providing method including

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