JP2001318851A - Advertising method with electronic mail as medium, its system and mail server with advertisement adding function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system for adding advertisement information suitable for a subscriber from a plurality of pieces of prepared advertisement information to the electronic mail of the subscriber. SOLUTION: At least one piece of advertisement information to be added in which the same category as a category being the target of interest set at a subscriber related with an electronic mail is set as the standard of the addition of advertisement is added to the mail (142, 162, 170, and 144). At that time, the advertisement information to be added is distributed to the subscriber with a uniform frequency (146, steps 212-220). In this case, any of texts, pictures, and voices can be used as the advertisement information. The advertisement information can be attached to the head and tail of the texts of the mail. Also, a tag or a banner can be included in the advertisement information. In the case of banner, a plurality of advertisements can be attached.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a method and system for adding an advertisement to an electronic mail via a mail server that distributes the electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, as a method for distributing advertisements on the Internet, a method of pasting an advertisement banner or sending direct mail to a homepage affiliated with an advertiser is generally used. When including a banner on a homepage, advertisers try to use a homepage that is as relevant as possible for the advertising content. This is because it is preferable in terms of efficiency to focus the advertisement on prospective prospective customers (subscribers of the mail service) who are interested in the content of the advertisement. At present, it seems that the method of pasting advertisements into e-mails is being practiced in part, but no consideration has been given to distributing advertisements as closely as possible to the interests of subscribers. Also, if the same advertisement frequently appears, the advertisement is ignored from a certain point in time, which may lead to a situation where the effect of the advertisement is drastically reduced.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The present invention provides a method for adding, to a subscriber's e-mail, an advertisement in which a category representing a range of interest of the subscriber and a category that the advertiser considers to be a target range match, a mail server based on this method
And a computer-readable storage medium on which a program for implementing the method is recorded by executing the program on a mail server. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for adding an advertisement to be added at a uniform frequency, a mail server, and a computer-readable storage medium storing a program therefor.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an advertisement method using e-mail as a medium, wherein an e-mail passing through the e-mail server (hereinafter, referred to as "e-mail") provides a subscriber with an e-mail service via a network. , Simply referred to as “mail”) and adding the advertisement information suitable for the subscriber associated with the electronic mail from among a large number of prepared advertisement information to distribute the mail. An advertisement adding step of adding, to the mail, at least one of advertisement information to be added, in which the same category as the object of interest set for the subscriber associated with the mail is set as a guide for adding an advertisement ( 14
2, 162, 170, 144) and a selecting step (146, 146) of sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added such that the advertisement information to be added is distributed to the subscriber at a uniform frequency. Steps 212 to 220). In the advertisement method using e-mail as a medium according to claim 2, the step of adding an advertisement in claim 1 is such that, for each subscriber of the e-mail service, each category of an ordered set of categories prepared by the subscriber is provided. An interest information generating step of generating a field-of-interest information set indicating one-to-one interest in the advertisement information, and, for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, converting the advertisement information into the ordered set of categories. A target information generating step of generating a target field information set indicating whether or not a target to be added to each category on a one-to-one basis, and the corresponding category of the interest field information set and the target field information set being both When a positive value is indicated, a second adding step of adding at least one piece of advertising information to be added to the corresponding category to the mail is provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium, the second adding step in the second aspect adds each category to the category based on the target field information set. A list creating step of creating a list of advertisement information to be provided, and a list pointer for sequentially assigning category numbers to the categories of the ordered set and providing a list pointer having a category number corresponding to information of interest in the set of interest information set as a value A setting step; and a third adding step of adding to the mail from advertisement information of the list for the category indicated by the list pointer. In the advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium according to claim 4, the selecting step in claim 2 selects the advertisement information included in the list one by one, and selects the last advertisement information in the list. Then, a second step of setting the list pointer to a category number corresponding to the next interested information of the interest field information set and selecting from the first advertisement information of the list of the category for the new list pointer value is included. It is characterized by including. An advertisement method using an electronic mail as a medium according to a fifth aspect is characterized in that the advertisement adding step in any one of the first to fourth aspects adds the advertisement information to the beginning or end of the body of the mail. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium, in any one of the first to fifth aspects, the advertisement information includes at least one of a text, an image, and a sound. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium, in any one of the first to sixth aspects, the advertisement information includes a tag. The advertisement method using e-mail as a medium according to claim 8 is the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein
The advertisement information includes a banner. An advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium according to claim 9, wherein in the claim 1, prior to all the steps, a permission determining step of determining whether the subscriber has permitted addition of advertisement information; An execution control step of executing a subsequent step based on a result of the determination and only when permitted. Claim 1
The advertisement method using e-mail as a medium is described in claim 9.
, The permission determination step includes a step of independently performing the determination on a received mail to the subscriber and a transmitted mail from the subscriber.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium, the mail server is included in a LAN server and the e-mail is a received e-mail to a subscriber. In some cases, the advertising information is characterized by including various communications to the subscriber.
A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 12, wherein a plurality of mail servers provided in an e-mail received from a subscriber or an e-mail addressed to the subscriber (hereinafter, simply referred to as "mail") received from a network. Is a mail server having a function of adding advertisement information suitable for the subscriber from among the advertisement information of the above. Advertisement adding means for adding at least one of the advertisement information to be added set as a guide to the mail, and the advertisement information to be added is distributed to the subscriber at a uniform frequency. Selecting means for sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 13, wherein the advertisement adding means according to claim 12 provides, for each subscriber of the electronic mail service, each category of an ordered set of categories prepared by the subscriber. Information generating means for generating a field-of-interest information set indicating the presence / absence of interest in a one-to-one manner, and for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, converting the advertisement information into the ordered set of categories. A target information generating means for generating a target field information set indicating whether a target to be added to each category is one-to-one, and a corresponding category of the interest field information set and the target field information set being both In the case where a positive value is indicated, a second adding means for adding at least one of the advertisement information to be added to the corresponding category to the mail is provided.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the mail server having the advertisement adding function according to the thirteenth aspect, the second adding means adds the category to each category based on the target field information set. List creating means for creating a list of advertisement information to be created, a list provided with a category number in order to the categories of the ordered set, and a list pointer having a category number corresponding to information of interest in the set of interest information as a value Pointer setting means, and third adding means for adding to the mail from advertisement information of the list for the category indicated by the list pointer. According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, in the mail server having the advertisement adding function according to the thirteenth aspect, the selecting unit selects the advertisement information included in the list one by one and selects the last advertisement information in the list. Then, the list pointer is set to the category number corresponding to the next interested information of the set of interest information, and the second means for selecting from the first advertisement information of the list of the category for the new list pointer value is set. It is characterized by including.
A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 16 is the mail server according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the advertisement adding means adds the advertisement information to the beginning or end of the body of the mail. I do. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 17 is characterized in that, in any one of claims 12 to 16, the advertisement information includes at least one of a text, an image, and a sound. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 18 is the mail server according to any of claims 12 to 67, wherein the advertisement information includes a tag. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to a nineteenth aspect is characterized in that, in any one of the twelfth to seventeenth aspects, the advertisement information includes a banner. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 20, wherein the mail server according to claim 12 operates prior to all of the above means, and determines whether the subscriber has permitted addition of advertisement information. Means,
An execution control means for permitting the operation of another means only when permitted based on the result of the determination. According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, in the mail server having the advertisement adding function according to the twentieth aspect, the permission determining unit performs the determination independently on the received mail to the subscriber and the transmitted mail from the subscriber. It is characterized by including means.

[0008] A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 22 is the mail server according to any one of claims 12 to 21.
When the mail server is included in a LAN server and the electronic mail is a received mail to a subscriber, the advertisement information includes various messages to the subscriber. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 23, wherein a mail server that provides an electronic mail service via a network to a subscriber is provided in an electronic mail (hereinafter, simply referred to as “mail”) passing through the mail server. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for adding advertisement information suitable for a subscriber associated with the e-mail from a large number of pieces of advertisement information obtained, wherein the storage medium is associated with the e-mail. An advertisement adding routine for adding to the mail at least one of advertisement information to be added in which the same category as an object of interest set for the attached subscriber is set as a guide for adding an advertisement; So that the advertising information to be added is distributed to the subscriber at a uniform frequency,
And a selection routine (146, steps 212 to 220) for sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added. 24. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 24, wherein the advertisement adding routine is arranged such that, for each subscriber of the e-mail service, each of the ordered sets of categories prepared by the subscriber is assigned to each category. An interest information generation routine for generating a field-of-interest information set indicating the presence / absence of interest in a one-to-one manner, and, for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, converting the advertisement information into each of the ordered sets of categories. A target information generation routine for generating a target field information set indicating whether a target should be added to a category on a one-to-one basis, and the corresponding categories of the interest field information set and the target field information set are both positive. A second addition routine for adding at least one of the advertisement information to be added to the corresponding category to the mail. To.

According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, in the computer readable storage medium according to the twenty-fourth aspect, the second addition routine adds an advertisement to be added to each category based on a target field information set for each category. A list creation routine for creating a list of information, and a list pointer setting routine for sequentially assigning category numbers to the categories of the ordered set and providing a list pointer having a category number corresponding to information of interest in the field-of-interest information set as a value And a third addition routine for adding to the mail from the advertisement information of the list for the category indicated by the list pointer. 27. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 26, wherein after the selection routine selects the advertisement information included in the list one by one and selects the last advertisement information in the list, according to claim 2, , Setting the list pointer to the category number corresponding to the next interesting information of the interest area information set, and selecting from the first advertisement information in the list of the category for the new list pointer value. It is characterized by the following. An advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium according to claim 27 is a method according to claim 1, wherein prior to all the steps, personal information on a predetermined matter of a subscriber and a condition set by an advertiser on the predetermined matter are included. The method further includes a step of preliminarily narrowing down advertisement information to be added to each subscriber. The mail server having the advertisement adding function according to claim 28 operates according to claim 12, and operates prior to all of the above means, and the advertiser sets personal information on predetermined items of the subscriber and the predetermined items. And a means for preliminarily narrowing down advertisement information to be added to each subscriber based on the conditions to be performed. Claim 29
The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 23, wherein the storage medium is executed prior to all of the routines, and is based on personal information on a predetermined item of the subscriber and conditions set by an advertiser on the predetermined item. As shown in the figure, the method further includes a routine for previously narrowing down advertisement information to be added to each subscriber.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings. When the same element is shown in a plurality of drawings, the same reference numeral is given. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a system 10 of a merchant 1 that provides a mailing service according to the present invention includes an Internet 2 and a browser or mailer (email (hereinafter, e-mail), which runs on a computer of a subscriber or a member who uses the system 10 of the present invention. (Hereinafter, simply referred to as “mail”). The system 10 includes a WWW server 100 for publicizing a trader's homepage and a mail server 120 for processing e-mail sent by a subscriber and mail addressed to the subscriber. The WWW server 100 and the mail server 120 may be any microcomputer or workstation having Windows NT (registered trademark) as an OS (Operating System) and having the required speed and memory capacity, for example. Further, the mail server 120 is provided with an IETF (Internet Engineering T).
ask Force) as defined in the official document RFC822
It is preferably based on TP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). On the homepage of the company on the WWW server 100, a page 111 for applying for a mail account for a person who wants a mailing service, and various organizations such as a company who wants to advertise their products, services or messages are recruited. Page 115 for applying for an email advertisement. The "mailing service provider 1" referred to here includes an Internet service provider that provides a connection service to the Internet, and a provider that provides a mailing service without providing a connection service to the Internet.
Note that the WWW server 100 is not essential. Since what is necessary is a mail account application page 111 and a mail advertisement application page 115, by providing a homepage of a company including these on a WWW server (not shown) of another Internet service provider, the WWW server 100 , No longer needed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a (register) page 111 for applying for a mail account. The registration page 111 shows a set 112 of categories classified into several layers (two layers in FIG. 2) in order to grasp the field of interest of the user (interest before each category name). There is a checkbox for inputting the presence or absence of a category), and the user selects a category of interest.
Immediately after each category, the category number is shown in parentheses. In addition, the registration page 111 includes a column 113 for asking whether to permit the user to paste an advertisement with respect to the mail (sent mail) sent by the user and the mail (received mail) received by the user. Columns for inputting personal data of the user, such as 132 and birth date 134, are provided. When the user inputs necessary items on this page 111 and clicks a registration button 114, the input data is sent to the WWW server 100 and further transferred to the mail server 120. In response, mail server 120 adds a record of the subscriber who has performed the registration procedure to the subscriber table as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 based on the received data. Each record of the subscriber table 130 in FIG. 3 is a mail account (mail address), password, name, gender 132, date of birth 134, occupation 1
36, an address 138, an advertisement pasting permission code 140, and a field of interest flag 142 (described later). The advertisement pasting permission code 140 is, for example, a number from 0 to 3 defined as follows based on the input data in the advertisement pasting permission column 113 of the registration page 111. 0: when both transmission and reception are not permitted 1: when only reception is permitted 2: when transmission only is permitted 3: when both transmission and reception are permitted The field of interest flag 142 is, as shown in FIG.
Bits 0, 1,... Corresponding to each of N (29 in the example of FIG. 2) categories shown in FIG. . . , N-1;
For example, if the value of a certain bit is 1, the user is interested in the corresponding category, and if the value is 0, the user is not interested in the corresponding category. For example, the field-of-interest flag 1 shown in FIG.
In the example of 42, "PC body", "mobile", "software", the i-th category, and "others" are interested in each category, and the computer "general", "peripheral equipment", "game machine" , And "stocks / securities".

[0012] On the other hand, companies or various organizations (hereinafter referred to as companies) who want to paste advertisements of their own products, services, or messages into emails of people who are interested in categories closely related to the products, services, or messages (hereinafter referred to as advertisements). ,
The advertiser makes an application from the e-mail advertisement application page 115 shown in FIG. The e-mail advertisement application page 115 includes exactly the same column as the category column 112 shown in FIG. 2, and is made to be selected by the advertiser, for example, as a “field targeted for advertisement”. In addition, the e-mail advertisement application page 115 includes
Gender 132, date of birth 1 in subscriber table 130 of FIG.
As entry items corresponding to the fields of 34, occupation 136, and address 138, entry columns such as “target gender”, “target age group”, “target occupation”, and “target area” are provided. If the corresponding items are unquestioned, these columns are left blank or designated. Further, when the user inputs a text to be distributed by pasting it on an e-mail and attaches and attaches an image file, a music file or both of them, the input data is transferred to the e-mail server 120 as in the case of the e-mail account registration. . Hereinafter, the text, image, music, and the like to be pasted on the mail are referred to as advertisement contents or advertisement information. Upon receiving the registration data from the advertiser, the mail server 120
Stores the advertising content as a message file 180 (FIG. 1) and stores the message file 180 in a message file table 150 as shown in FIGS.
Add a record for. In FIG. 4, each record of the message file table 150 includes a message file name (or ID) 151, a target gender 152, a target age group (target birth date range) 154, and a target occupation 1
56, a target area 158, and a target field flag 162. In the target field flag 162, the bits corresponding to the field of interest flag 142 in FIG. 3 respectively correspond to the same category and have the same structure. In the target field flag 162 of a certain message file 180, a bit having a value of 1 is a subscriber interested in a category corresponding to the bit, that is, a bit value of the bit of the field of interest flag 142 corresponding to the bit is 1. This indicates that the message file 180 should be pasted to such a subscriber's mail. After adding a record for the registered message file 180 to the message file table 150, the file server 120 sets the target field flag 162
, The message file name 151 of the registered message file 180 is added to the list part of the attached file list 180 of the category number corresponding to each bit whose value is 1. For example, if the value of bits 3, 10, and 16 of the target field flag 162 for which the message file name 151 is “ABCDE” is 1, the attached file list 180 of category numbers 3 (mobile), 10 (internet), and 16 (toy) Is added to each list part of the message file.

According to the present invention, the attached file list pointer LP144 and the attached file list pointer F of the mail account (ie, subscriber) shown in FIG.
By P146, the message file 180 to be added to the next outgoing mail or received mail of the subscriber can be specified. For example, if your email account is XX
X @ YYY. ne. Assuming that the values of the attached file list pointer LP144 and the attached file list pointer FP146 of jp are i and j, respectively, XXX
{YYY. ne. The message file to be added to the next outgoing mail from jp or the next received mail to this is the j-th file in the list part of the attached file list 180 of category i. Email account XXX ＠
YYY. ne. When jp is registered, the attached file list pointer LP144 is set to the first bit (bit 1 in the example of FIG. 5, that is, LP = 1) in which the value of the field-of-interest flag 142 is 1, and the attached file The list pointer FP 146 points to the first file name in the list part of the attached file list 170, that is, FP = 1.
Initially set to

The operation of the mail server 100 having the above configuration will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the mail server 120 when a transmission mail is received from the subscriber (that is, in the case of the arrow 42 in FIG. 1). It is assumed that the password of the received outgoing mail is valid. First, at step 202, the subscriber table 13
The ad pasting permission code 140 of the record of the sender 0 is
With two or more (two or more), it is determined whether or not pasting to the outgoing mail is permitted. If the attachment to the outgoing mail is not permitted at 0 or 1, in step 204, the outgoing mail is sent to the destination as it is (arrow 4 in FIG. 1).
4), end the process. When the attachment to the outgoing mail is permitted by two or more, in step 206, the attached file list pointer LP144 (for example, i) and the attached file list pointer FP146 (for example, j).
(Ie, in this example, the attached file list 170 of the category number i)
Of the j-th message file 180) in the list portion of the sent mail and paste it at the beginning of the body of the transmitted mail. The method of processing the message file 180 is based on the above-described RF.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Pro) specified in C822
convert the file to MIME format according to
Then, in step 210-1, the pointer LP1
44 and FP 146 are set to indicate the attached file to be pasted. Specifically, in decision step 212, pointer FP146 is set to (category L
It is determined whether it points to the last file in the list portion (of the attached file list 170 in P144), that is, whether it is equal to the registered number M of the attached file list 170. If not equal, since the last file in the list has not been reached yet, the pointer FP 146 is incremented, and the processing in step 210-1 ends. If YES in decision step 212, FP
146 is initialized to 1. Further, in step 218, the pointer LP144 is incremented, and in decision step 220, it is determined whether or not the value of the bit of the interest field flag 142 indicated by the pointer LP144 is one. If not, return to step 218. If YES in determination step 220, the process of step 210-1 ends.

After step 210-1, step 222
To the attached file list pointer LP144 (for example, i) and the attached file list pointer FP146.
The content of the message file 180 specified by (for example, j + 1) (that is, in this example, the (j + 1) th message file 180 in the list part of the attached file list 170 of the category number i) is pasted at the end of the body of the transmitted mail. . In step 224, the transmission mail to which the attachment has been completed is sent to the destination (arrow 44 in FIG. 1). Finally,
In step 210-2, the pointers LP144 and F
P146 is set to indicate the attached file to be pasted next. Step 210-2 is Step 2
The details are omitted because they are the same as 10-1. In FIG.
Although the example in which the advertisement is pasted on the outgoing mail from the subscriber has been described, the received mail addressed to the subscriber (arrows 32 and 34 in FIG. 1).
The advertisement can also be pasted in the same manner as in FIG.
In the case of the received mail, the difference from FIG.
, It is only necessary to check whether the ad pasting permission code 140 is equal to one. As described above, according to the present invention, the advertisement is pasted to the e-mail of the subscriber who is interested in the field corresponding to the field targeted by the advertiser's advertisement, so that neither the advertiser nor the subscriber can do so. It is convenient. In addition, since the advertisements assigned to be pasted are sequentially pasted for each subscriber, the allocated advertisements are distributed evenly, and the same advertisements appear frequently and are ignored by the subscribers. Things can be avoided. Prior to the generation of the attached file list 170, the gender (132, 152) and the date of birth (1
34, 154), occupation (136, 156) and address (138, 158), the message file 180 to be pasted to each subscriber is narrowed down, and the attached message file 180 is attached to the narrowed message file 180. By generating the list 170,
Advertisements can be pasted on subscriber emails that meet the needs of advertisers. Of course, attached file list 1
70, the message file 180 is narrowed down as described above, and the narrowed message file 18 is narrowed down.
Those that are not included in 0 may be excluded from the attached file list 170.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a LAN server which performs both a connection service to the Internet and a LAN service according to the principle of the present invention. In FIG. 7, 20 is a LAN server, 30 is a LAN transmission path, and 4 is a browser or mailer of a subscriber connected to the LAN transmission path 30. The LAN server 20 uses the WW
It comprises a W server 100, a mail server 120a, a router 122 for connecting to the Internet, and a router 124 for managing a LAN. Such a form is conceivable for a LAN server or the like operated by a company or a local government. In the case of the configuration shown in FIG. 7, focusing on the flow of e-mail, (1) transmission / reception within the LAN, (2) received mail from the external (Internet) 2 to the subscriber 4, and (3) subscriber 4 There are three types of outgoing e-mails to the outside (Internet) 2 from. (3)
The mail-related processing for the mail transmitted from the subscriber 4 to the outside (Internet) 2 is almost the same as in the first embodiment. In this case, the feature is that the advertiser is an administrator of the LAN server 20 or an enterprise in a local government. In the case of (1) transmission / reception inside the LAN and (2) received mail from the outside (Internet) 2 to the subscriber 4, the message to be pasted is not a company advertisement but a business guide or an event. It will be various messages such as notices. Note that the advertisement information described above may include a banner or a tag. In the case of a banner, a plurality of banners can be pasted before and after the body of the mail. The above is merely an example of the embodiment for the description of the present invention. Therefore, it is easy for those skilled in the art to make various changes, modifications, or additions to the above-described embodiment in accordance with the technical idea or principle of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention should not be construed as being limited to the above-described embodiments, but should be construed in accordance with the appended claims.

[0017]

According to the present invention, it is possible to add, to a subscriber's e-mail, an advertisement in which the category indicating the range of interest of the subscriber and the category considered by the advertiser as the target range match. Further, according to the present invention, an advertisement to be added can be added at a uniform frequency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an e-mail account application page 11 in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the first example.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a subscriber table 130 generated based on subscriber registration data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a message file table 150 generated based on data registered on a mail advertisement application page 115 for a message that an advertiser wants to attach to a mail.

5 is a field of interest flag 14 of the mail account of FIG.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing how to specify a message file 180 to be pasted next from the attached file list pointer LP144, the attached file list pointer FP146, and the attached file list 170.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of the mail server 120 when a transmission mail is received from a subscriber.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a LAN server that performs both a connection service to the Internet and a LAN service according to the principles of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Internet 4 Subscriber's browser or mailer 10 Mailing service provider's system 32 Incoming mail 34 Incoming mail with advertisement pasted 42 Outgoing mail 44 Outgoing mail with advertisement pasted 100 WWW server 111 Mail account application page 115 E-mail advertisement application page 120 Mail server 130 130 Subscriber table 150 Message file table 170 Attached file list 180 Message file 190 Message attached program

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04L 12/58 (71) Applicant 500212882 Koji Yamagishi 1-333-14 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo IME A (72) Inventor Katsuyuki Kawakami 1-333-14 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Sunflower Building F-term in IME A (reference) 5B049 BB49 CC02 EE07 FF03 FF04 FF06 GG04 GG07 5B075 KK07 KK20 KK33 KK40 ND03 ND06 ND14 ND20 ND23 ND36 NK54 NR02 NR12 PP10 PP12 PP30 PQ02 PQ04 PQ13 PR08 UU24 5K030 GA19 HA06 HC01 HC14 HD03 JT02 KA06 LE11

Claims (29)

[Claims] 1. A mail server that provides a subscriber with an electronic mail service via a network. An electronic mail (hereinafter, simply referred to as “mail”) passing through the mail server includes a large number of prepared advertisement information. A method of adding advertisement information suitable for a subscriber associated with the e-mail and distributing the e-mail, wherein a category as an object of interest set for the subscriber associated with the e-mail An advertisement adding step (1) of adding at least one piece of advertisement information to be added in which the same category as that of the advertisement is set as a guide for adding an advertisement to the mail.
42, 162, 170, 144) and a selection step (146, 146) for sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added so that the advertisement information to be added is distributed to the subscriber at a uniform frequency. Step 212-
220). An advertising method using e-mail as a medium. 2. The field of interest in which the advertisement adding step indicates, for each subscriber of the electronic mail service, whether or not the subscriber is interested in each category of an ordered set of categories prepared in a one-to-one manner. An interest information generating step of generating an information set; and for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, it is determined whether or not the advertisement information is to be added to each category of the ordered set of categories. A target information generating step of generating a target field information set represented by one-to-one, and when the corresponding categories of the target field information set and the target field information set both indicate a positive value, 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a second adding step of adding at least one piece of advertisement information to be added to the mail. 3. The list adding step of creating, for each category, a list of advertisement information to be added to the category based on the target field information set, A list pointer setting step of sequentially assigning a category number to a category and providing a list pointer having a category number corresponding to the information of interest in the interest field information set as a value, from the advertisement information of the list for the category indicated by the list pointer 3. The advertisement method according to claim 2, further comprising a third adding step of adding to the mail. 4. The selecting step is to select advertisement information included in the list one by one, and after selecting the last advertisement information in the list, move the list pointer next to the interest area information set. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the step of: setting a category number corresponding to the information of interest and selecting from the first advertisement information in the list of the category for the new list pointer value. Advertising method used as a medium. 5. The advertisement method using an electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement adding step adds the advertisement information to a head or an end of a body of the mail. . 6. The advertisement method using an e-mail as a medium according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information includes at least one of a text, an image, and a sound. 7. The advertisement method using an electronic mail as a medium according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information includes a tag. 8. The advertisement method using electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information includes a banner. 9. Prior to all of the above steps, a permission judging step of judging whether or not the subscriber has permitted the addition of advertisement information, and based on the result of the judgment, only when the admission is permitted. ,
The method according to claim 1, further comprising an execution control step of executing a subsequent step. 10. The electronic mail according to claim 9, wherein said permission judging step includes a step of independently performing said judgment on an incoming mail to said subscriber and an outgoing mail from said subscriber. Advertising method using. 11. When the mail server is included in a LAN server and the electronic mail is a received mail to a subscriber, the advertisement information includes various messages to the subscriber. An advertising method using an email as a medium according to any one of 1 to 10. 12. An e-mail received from a subscriber or an e-mail addressed to the subscriber (hereinafter, simply referred to as “mail”) received from a network, includes a plurality of advertisement information prepared for the subscriber. A mail server having a function of adding suitable advertisement information, wherein the mail server has advertisement information to be added in which the same category as the category of interest set for the subscriber is set as a guide for adding advertisement. Advertisement adding means for adding at least one of the above to the mail; and sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added so that the advertisement information to be added is distributed to the subscriber at a uniform frequency. A mail server having an advertisement adding function, comprising: a selection unit. 13. The field of interest in which the advertisement adding means indicates, for each subscriber of the e-mail service, whether or not the subscriber is interested in each category of an ordered set of categories prepared in a one-to-one manner. An interest information generating means for generating an information set; and for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, determine whether or not the advertisement information is to be added to each category of the ordered set of categories. A target information generating means for generating a target field information set represented by one-to-one, and when the corresponding categories of the field of interest information set and the target field information set both indicate a positive value, the corresponding category 13. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 12, further comprising second adding means for adding at least one piece of advertisement information to be added to said mail. 14. A list creation means for creating, for each category, a list of advertisement information to be added to the category based on the target field information set, for each category, List pointer setting means for providing a list pointer having a category number corresponding to the information of interest in the field of interest information set as a category number in order to the category, and from the advertisement information of the list for the category indicated by the list pointer 14. The mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 13, further comprising third adding means for adding to the mail. 15. The selecting means selects advertisement information included in the list one by one, selects the last advertisement information in the list, and sets the list pointer next to the interest field information set. 14. The advertisement adding function according to claim 13, further comprising a second unit for setting the category number corresponding to the information of interest and selecting from the first advertisement information in the list of the category for the new list pointer value. Mail server with. 16. The mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 12, wherein the advertisement adding unit adds the advertisement information to the head or the end of the body of the mail. . 17. The mail server according to claim 12, wherein the advertisement information includes at least one of a text, an image, and a sound. 18. The mail server according to claim 12, wherein the advertisement information includes a tag. 19. The mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 12, wherein the advertisement information includes a banner. 20. Operate prior to all of the above means,
Permission determination means for determining whether or not the subscriber has permitted the addition of the advertising information; based on the result of the determination, only when permitted,
13. The mail server according to claim 12, further comprising an execution control unit for permitting operation of another unit. 21. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said permission judging means includes means for independently performing said judgment on a received mail to said subscriber and an outgoing mail from said subscriber.
A mail server provided with an advertisement adding function described in item 0. 22. When the mail server is included in a LAN server and the electronic mail is a received mail to a subscriber, the advertisement information includes various messages to the subscriber. 22. A mail server having the advertisement adding function according to any one of 12 to 21. 23. A mail server for providing an electronic mail service via a network to a subscriber, wherein a large number of advertisement information prepared in an electronic mail (hereinafter, simply referred to as “mail”) passing through the mail server. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for adding advertisement information suitable for a subscriber associated with the e-mail from the computer, wherein the storage medium is set for the subscriber associated with the e-mail. An advertisement addition routine for adding at least one of the advertisement information to be added, in which the same category as the category of interest as an interest is set as a guide for adding the advertisement, to the mail; A selection routine (146, a scan routine) for sequentially selecting the advertisement information to be added so that the advertisement information is distributed to the users at a uniform frequency. -Up 212 to
220). A computer-readable storage medium comprising: 24. The advertisement adding routine, wherein, for each subscriber of the e-mail service, a field of interest indicating whether or not the subscriber is interested in each category of an ordered set of categories prepared. An interest information generation routine for generating an information set; and for each of the plurality of prepared advertisement information, determine whether or not the advertisement information is to be added to each category of the ordered set of categories. A target information generation routine for generating a target field information set represented by one-to-one, and when the corresponding categories of the target field information set and the target field information set both indicate a positive value, 24. A computer-readable storage medium according to claim 23, further comprising: a second addition routine for adding at least one piece of advertisement information to be added to said mail. . 25. A list creation routine for creating, for each category, a list of advertisement information to be added to each category based on a target field information set; and a category of the ordered set. A list pointer setting routine for providing a list pointer having a category number corresponding to the information of interest in the set of interest information, and a list pointer setting routine for providing a list pointer for the category indicated by the list pointer. 25. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 24, further comprising: a third adding routine for adding to a mail. 26. The selection routine selects advertisement information included in the list one by one, and after selecting the last advertisement information in the list, sets the list pointer next to the interest area information set. 3. The computer readable program of claim 2, further comprising a second routine that sets the category number corresponding to the information of interest and selects from the first advertisement in the list of categories for the new list pointer value. Storage media. 27. Prior to all of the above steps, an advertisement to be added to each subscriber based on personal information on a predetermined item of the subscriber and conditions set by an advertiser on the predetermined item. 2. The advertisement method using e-mail as a medium according to claim 1, further comprising a step of narrowing down information in advance. 28. Operate prior to all of the above means,
Means for preliminarily narrowing down advertisement information to be added to each subscriber based on personal information relating to predetermined items of the subscriber and conditions set by the advertiser regarding the predetermined items. A mail server having an advertisement adding function according to claim 12. 29. The method is executed prior to all of the above-mentioned routines, and is added to each subscriber based on personal information relating to the predetermined items of the subscriber and conditions set by the advertiser regarding the predetermined items. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 23, further comprising a routine for previously narrowing down advertisement information to be performed.