JP2002024220A - Information presenting method, network system, and network managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: A method and system for electronically providing information, communication communities, and electronic commerce opportunities using a network. SOLUTION: Information content is provided to a network system by a plurality of independent issuers. Each independent publisher provides content on microtopics within the general topic area. The network system automatically compiles the information content and stores it in a database system. Next, upon receiving the request, the network publishes the appropriate information content from the database system to the user in a predetermined format in a hardware independent page description language. The process of updating the information content in the database system and then formatting and providing the information content to the user is automated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for providing networked issuance, communication, and electronic commerce information, and a network system and a network management method. The method and system of the present invention provide information via a computer network such as the Internet. Regarding the offer. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for providing an integrated network of publishers, each providing individual websites containing work on detailed information, electronic communities, services, or subtitles within a common general subject area.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The World Wide Web ("Web") is a part of the Internet that uses hypermedia to organize the information contained within documents. Each web document or "web page" contains information in the form of embedded references for text or images, audio and video clips, or other documents. Web users access Internet sites with web pages ("websites") through various computer applications called web browsers. To allow web pages to be read by all types of web browsers, web pages are, for example, hypertext markup languages (HT)
Hardware and browser independent page description languages such as ML) generally specify content and format.

[0003] A gateway program is used to make information available via a web server, for example, to place an external information source, such as data located in a computerized database, on the web. The standard method used in the art to implement such functions is to use a common gateway interface ("CGI") and an active server page ("ASP"), which is a feature of Microsoft Internet Information Server ("IIS"). Including. CGI scripts provide a way to generate HTML-specific pages from non-HTML information and vice versa so that information can be shared between the web and conventional database servers. The ASP script manuscript is the same as the CGI script manuscript,
However, it enables the visual basic programmer to work with familiar tools. O for this purpose
The utility of GI and ASP scripts is known in the art.

[0004] Currently, on the Web, for example, MSNBCTM, ESPNT, consisting of one single website owned and controlled by one single publishing entity
There are wide vertical Internet sites such as M or CNNfn ™ networks. These wide vertical portal websites provide current news and information in the form of web pages on a wide range of topics that fall within the general subject area. (World news, sports, and finances, respectively, associated with the aforementioned commercial websites.) Such sites often publish the original information compiled by the publisher, such as AP feeds, financial market quotes, press releases, and Combined with comprehensive product content, such as sports statistics, these are used for access via the web.
Format to TML. Such portal websites generate revenue, for example, by selling advertising space, selling merchandise relating to the type of information provided, or providing access to premiums (payments) or subscriber services.

[0005] From the point of view of advertising revenue generation, these wide portal sites have what is called a large "reach", ie the ability to reach a large audience. Media buyers, or advertisers, contract with such publishers, even for the public use of these broad portal sites. This kind of portal site has many drawbacks, especially the inability to hire a sufficient number of writers to deal with all the issues that potential customers may be interested in. For details,
These broad portal sites provide detailed information, communication opportunities,
And, it is not possible to provide relevant works in a more personalized subject area, such as a small college sports team or an unlisted small company article.

[0006] Another type of existing Internet website is composed of relatively small individual sites directed to "microaffinity (micro-affinity sites)." Here, “micro-affinity” means the deepest aspect of a particular subject that does not fall within a wide subject range. For example, micro-affinity websites generally include not only sports subject areas or more specific subject areas for professional football, but also specific micro-affinities, such as one single sports team, or "Division I-AA".
CollegeFootball Recruitin
g (Southeast I-AA College Football Scout) "or" Georgia Variety Hi "
gh School Sports ”(Georgia National Team High School Sports). These micro-affinity websites are generally dedicated exclusively to only one single micro-affinity. These (micro-affinity websites) not only provide information, but also provide other services common to the larger wide-gate websites, such as lounges, message boards, work purchase opportunities, and the like.

[0007] The need for providers of detailed information, communities and e-commerce opportunities for this kind of micro-affinity on the web user side has created a market for micro-affinity websites. These websites not only integrate the comprehensive product content from various sources, as do larger portal sites, but also create and edit the ingredients specific to the microaffinity, Shared among the microaffinity sites that are involved but related. Because publishers on these sites are often operated like family-owned businesses, many of their own publishers have created information content (eg, news articles and feature articles) on the subject matter covered by the website. Spending time. In addition, these websites
The business is maintained despite the fact that it is difficult to get any substantial revenue from advertising fees due to its relatively small "reach". Relatively large companies do not like to advertise on micro-affinity websites due to the lack of reach of such sites or the difficulty in leading to "bulk" purchases. Currently, large media buyers (media buyers) are popular with these micro-affinity sites, and even though these sites maintain a reasonable amount of internet traffic, for example, relatively small micro-affinity sites MSNB has a greater reach than the site
Orient the use of broad portal sites like C.
Insufficient advertising revenue from microaffinity sites often means lack of funding to hire article writers or good HTML programmers. In addition, overhead costs are high for these microsites, so that consumer demand for such microaffinity publishing websites remains largely unmet.

[0008] Wesinger. Jr. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,367, issued to U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,367, a system is disclosed that includes a computer network and a database to provide a single website having information content supplied and controlled by network users via the web. ing. The information to be published on the website is accepted by the computer network from the information provided by the individual users. These provided information are collected, categorized and stored in a database so that they can be easily searched and searched via the web for each CGI script. Later, when an electronic request via the web to publish certain information contained in the database is received from a user, for example, a web surfer, the network will query the database and in HTML format Provide information. Thereby, the disclosed computer network executes as a web accessible directory represented in a non-HTML format,
In this case, the web user can find current data about the information providing user, the work of the information providing user, the web page of the information providing user, and the like. However, the disclosed system does not enhance the ability of microaffinity websites to attract business from web advertisers seeking high reach.

US Pat. No. 5,793,966 to Amstein et al. Discloses a computer system for creating, developing, and / or modifying online services in a client / server information system. The disclosed client / server system uses a web server that enables online service creation and maintenance, whereby the client system causes the server to remotely perform the operations required to process the author web page. In the disclosed first embodiment, the web server electronically receives a request for an author operation from a client, and performs the requested author operation. This author information on the server machine,
The server machine allows access to other client systems that can be used without modification to access information, such as when accessed via a web browser by an Internet user. This patent on the prior art, again,
Microaffinity web publishers can't handle the issues they face.

Prior art devices have not been able to mitigate the problems inherent in publishing microaffinity websites containing information, lounges, messages, and services or works over the Internet to date. Although such demands for microaffinity websites by web users have increased, publishers have not been able to provide sufficient revenue to run such sites. The low reach of these sites prevents them from attracting large web advertisers. Further, the need to compile web pages in HTML to add new material adds to the cost of compiling new information and articles, thus increasing the overhead required to operate such microsites.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide independent web publishing of microaffinity information,
It is to provide a method and system that overcomes the above and other shortcomings in communications and e-commerce opportunities.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for providing a micro-affinity web publisher with an automatic mechanism for simply and easily updating the original content provided on a website. is there.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for sharing material between individual but related micro-affinity sites.

Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for making web advertisers seeking large reach interested in paying for advertising space on micro-affinity websites. is there.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention achieves the foregoing objects by using a computer system and method for bridging the gap between a large vertical portal website and a microaffinity site. The present invention provides an independent publishing, micro-affinity website for each of the independently-owned micro-affinity websites while simultaneously and cumulatively providing an overall publishing, communication, and e-commerce network with broad reach for advertisers. Enables groups to provide very in-depth information on micro-subject coverage at low cost.

[0016] The present invention is a more general subject range, such as forming a plurality of web servers and networks without having to create a large number of independent micro-affinity websites on separate web servers without being connected. One supporting database system for hosting a plurality of micro-affinity websites having micro-subject coverages commonly located within. Each server can service any website or all websites simultaneously. The independent website owner or "publisher" provides the actual content for those particular websites, while at the same time, for example, content management, link checking, web server management, database management, hardware Traditional website management functions such as maintenance, networking, and advertiser handling are performed automatically by the system of the present invention.

The present invention further provides that the microaffinity site employs a web expert to author the website in the HTML language, has its own customer service facilities, has its own web server, or Includes co-publishing tools that eliminate the need to seek even their own advertisers In particular, the present invention involves using a database system to store data that is ultimately to be published as one or more web pages on each micro-affinity website. As long as the independent publisher submits the content to the database system via the web in an automated electronic manner, the publishing tool will store this data in the database and create the new web page in HTML. , Automatically combine with other content and ads for each subsequent page.

Each publisher of a micro-affinity site works somewhat the same as the content provider does for a broad portal site, providing information about a particular subject area and its micro-subject area to a larger web network. However, in accordance with the present invention, this larger web network is a network of independent websites, as opposed to a centrally owned and controlled broad portal website.
The issuer of each microsite in accordance with the present invention is essentially an independent, privately owned business entity, such that the issuer controls almost all of the issues issued on its own microsite. Works. However, content is shared between multiple sites, and network-wide features such as search capabilities are shared as well as many features in advertising. Advertising and sponsoring (and e-commerce, in an additional embodiment) revenue may be based on revenue generated by the microsite (eg, distribution rate based on the traffic brought to the publishing network by the microsite) between publishers. Distributed and partly to pay for the publishing network itself. As the new micro-affinity website joins the publishing network by entering those pages into the database, the cost is extended even thinner to the advantage, thereby minimizing overhead per site I do.

Moreover, the microaffinity sites in accordance with embodiments of the present invention are interrelated such that one microsite is directly accessible from another microsite. Each microsite has one or more pull-down menus located on one or more pages through which the microsite is accessed by selecting a new site name or description from a list. In addition, as shown below, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each microaffinity site automatically publishes the content from it to certain associated microaffinity sites on the publishing network (cross-site publishing). And link to it. Therefore,
Traffic at one site on the issuing network facilitates traffic to other networked sites.

A computer network system suitable for an embodiment of the present invention is generally a web that is widely electronically connected together via a local area network and to a wide area network (WAN) such as the web. It has a server system and a database system electronically connected to the server system. The software running on the network system and interacting with the database system is designed to facilitate automatic extraction, updating, and entry of information into the database system by publishers and web clients.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
It should be better understood.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A method and an apparatus according to the present invention will be disclosed with reference to the drawings. The specific embodiments shown hereafter are only examples intended to show the operation of the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention in any way. One skilled in the art will:
It will be appreciated that the embodiments disclosed herein can be modified while remaining within the scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a portal or index website 100, micro-affinity websites 101 to 105, and sub-micro-affinity websites 106 to 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
9 conceptually illustrates the relationship between up to 9. One single network 110 according to the present invention has websites 100-109 that have multiple interrelationships and are created to be available to the Internet, preferably the Web. The network 110 may include information (news articles, feature articles, links to related websites, etc.) or specific micro-subject coverage (Tobik).
Includes micro-affinity websites (or "microsites") 101-105, including services related to (micro-sites, bulletin boards, downloads, product sales, etc.) The micro-subject ranges for each microsite 101-105 are generally interconnected For example, a publishing network with a common general subject area of "College Sports Scout" may be located within, for example, "South East Conference."
"Football Recruiting" (Southeast Regional Sports Federation Football Scout), "UCLA Bas"
ketball Recruiting "(UCLA
Basketball Scout) and “Texas H
high School Athletes Colle
Ge Commitments "(Texas High School Athlete College Commitment).

Each microsite 101-105 according to the publisher network of the present invention is advantageously independently owned and operated by the publisher itself so as to take advantage of fixed cost dilutions. However, it should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that one or more microsites 101-105 are commonly owned or managed. Similarly, as shown in FIG. 1, a single publisher may operate a microsite having several sub-microsites 106-109.
Using the above example, we will continue our discussion, and within the publishing network for the subject range “College Sports Scout”, the microsite “South East Co.”
nreference Football Recruit
ing "(Southeast Regional Sports Federation Football Scout), for example," LSUfootball Re
cruiting "(LUS football scout) and" Florida Gators Footbal "
Websites with related sub-micro topics such as "l Recruiting" can be published as well.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the portal or index website 100 is published simultaneously with the micro-affinity sites 101-105. The site may include, for example, excerpts of articles or editorials permitted from microsites in the network, the subject indexing a tabulation of topics covered in the microsite, microsites, And link to independently generated or authorized articles and advertisements.

FIG. 2 shows an overview of a micro-affinity web site (such as element 103 in FIG. 1) viewed through a web browser on a sample web page 200 for a network in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. This kind of microsite web page contains the U
The RL can be accessed by entering it into a web browser, either directly or through a network website or another microsite on the network using one of the navigation aids described above. The various microsites preferably have similar features in terms of their layout (design) that aid user familiarity with the microsite.

The microsite web page 200 has navigation aids to assist web users in locating material on other microsites that make up the network. These navigation aids are, for example, other microsites 2 that deal with related microtopics.
02, a pull-down menu 203 for selecting other microsites by name or microtopic, and
It may include a direct hyperlink to a search box 205 to search for microsites on the network with search terms. Navigation aids are
Preferably, they are located at approximately the same location on each microsite on the network, such as on the network website and sites with common suitability, and are easy to navigate.

Furthermore, like the portal web page 300 (FIG. 3), the microsite web page 200 can include various advertisements 206. Similarly, these advertisements 206 can be made permanent, semi-permanent, or change with respect to the appearance of each page, as is known in the art of web page design. In a preferred embodiment, the microsite 20
0 may also include independent content 207 licensed from a provider that is not the publisher of the microsite.

The system of the present invention also has a cross-site issuing function. That is, as shown, the microsite 200 also includes content 208 that automatically comes from the associated microaffinity site. This content may be in the form of short commentary articles, where the latest news or information is provided to the network by the publisher and is relevant to the topic to which the latest news pertains, or otherwise. If not, it will be provided to sites that are interested in this type of comment. This cross (mutual) publishing can be accomplished via business rules stored in a database system (ie, one should know which sites are related to each other), or It is possible to manually target the updates entered by a particular site to a particular site.

Each microsite contains various information, articles,
And it is preferable to include a link related to the microtopic of the site. This content may include serials and editorials 201 or interactive media 204, as is common in the art. Interactive media includes, without limitation, discourse, message boards, work sales, and user surveys. This type of interactive media 204 is important in that it encourages repeated visits to the microsite by the same web user, and generally has the effect of increasing Internet traffic to the publishing network.

FIG. 3 is an overview of a sample web page 300 as viewed through a web browser for a portal or index website (eg, element 100 of FIG. 1) of the publishing network according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Is shown. As can be seen by referring to the figure,
The portal website web page 300 is, for example,
Includes publisher content 301 that is frequently updated, such as links to authorized articles or editorials from microsites within the general publishing network. The characteristic publisher content 301 includes a leading article recommendation advertisement 301a and a top story (highest article) 301b in the form of a hyperlink to a selected content web page located at one or more microsites of the publishing network. Is preferred. By clicking any one of these hyperlinks, the user of the site is directly connected to the web page of the microsite that publishes the information.

Further, the portal website 300 preferably includes navigation aids to assist web users in locating material on microsites that make up the publishing network. These navigation aids include a pull-down menu 303 for selecting a microsite by subtopic, name or microtopic handled by the microsite on the network, a search box 305 for searching for a microsite on the network according to the occurrence of an update deadline, And may include a link to a subject index 302 that lists links to frequently visited microsite web pages 304 on the publishing network.

Further, portal website 300 preferably includes advertisement 306. These advertisements can be permanent, semi-permanent with respect to the appearance of each page, or variable as is known in the art of web page design.

In a preferred embodiment, portal website 300 may include independent content 307 licensed from a provider that is not the publisher of the microsite. This independent content 307 is selected to relate to the overall subject area (topic area) for the publishing network,
Authorized by an independent electronic provider service,
For example, it may include sports scores or financial market information. As can be seen from FIG.
0 depicts the issue index in the sports general topic area.

FIG. 4 shows a network system 4 according to the present invention.
1 schematically shows Embodiment 1 of the present invention. Server system 4
02 is electronically connected to a computer network 400, such as a WAN or a web via a network system 401. Server system 402
Includes support electronics commonly used in the art to run the platform for one or more server machines and web servers. For example, suitable platforms are, for example, SunServer or C
ompaq Proliant or Dell Dime
It can be any of a wide variety of platforms, such as UNIX, Linux, or Windows NT, running on commercially available hardware such as Nsion.

The network system 401 of the present invention further includes a database system 404. Database system 404 is designed to store information about publisher microsites, portal or index websites, and advertisers, and is electronically connected to server system 402, for example, via local area network ("LAN") 406. Is done. Database system 404 preferably includes one or more databases 405, each including hardware, custom software, and commercially available database software. Each database 405 may be connected to an external storage medium such as a tape, CD ROM, hard drive, or optical disk that is electronically connected and accessible by a network server hard drive or database system 404, for example. All information can be stored directly. In the preferred embodiment 1 of the present invention, the database 405 includes a publisher database, an advertisement information database, and a publisher content database (these three may be the same database), and a web member database and a message. Includes board database.

In this preferred embodiment 1, the issuer information database should contain administrative information specific to each issuer on the issuing network. This information includes the identity of each microsite publisher, the domain name registered for each microsite,
Statistics on internet traffic to microsites (to help determine the publishing network advertising revenue share), administrative passwords to allow publishers to modify the content of those microsites (procedures are detailed below) Information) can be included.

The advertisement information database in this preferred embodiment 1 of the present invention contains information on advertisers who have paid for the advertisement to be executed at the microsite of the publishing network. (Alternatively, it can be handled by third parties.) This information can be used, for example, to indicate the amount of advertising purchased by a particular advertiser,
View the amount of advertising offered to each advertiser for purchases,
The link to the advertisement file contained on the external Internet accessible server and the advertisement may include the advertisement file in the form of text or graphics.

The publisher content database contains informational articles about each particular microsite submitted by each publisher. This database contains news articles, links, and targeted ads specific to each microsite on the publishing network (as opposed to uniformly targeting all microsites across the publishing network,
Advertisers who want only lease space from a particular microsite), message boards, and so on. Thus, the database updates the microsite content in the form of page requests by both web users (e.g., accessing a web server using an ASP or CGI script) and by the publisher as described below. Is accessed in the form of a request to The database preferably stores data in a dual-byte character set format, for example, so that Asian languages can be supported.

In this preferred embodiment 1 of the present invention, the publisher content database may be shared or "pushed" between one or more microsites (eg, between several sub-microsites). To share generalized news articles).

The web member database in this preferred embodiment 1 of the present invention stores information on all web users registered for use of a lounge, a message board, a premium content service, an e-commerce service, and the like in an arbitrary microsite. May be included. In this manner, the web user preferably needs to register only once for multiple or all microsites on the publishing network to access the lounge, and so on. Moreover, if such information is requested by the web user during the registration procedure, the contents of this database can be used to provide demographic information to potential advertisers.

It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the database structure described above may be modified in many ways without departing from the invention. For example, all publishing network information may optionally be maintained in one combined database or any number of databases. Similarly, certain information, such as, for example, advertising image files or data feeds from independent real-time information providers, can be external to database system 404 and network system 401 and accessed via the Internet by HTTP requests.

The software 403 running in the network system 401 of the present invention acts as an automatic issuing mechanism. Whenever any database in database system 404 is modified, subsequent page views incorporate these modifications either immediately or within a specified time period. In Embodiment 1,
Each time a URL request is received by the server system 402, the software 403 uses HTML based on information currently located in the database system 404.
Create a new web page with code.

Since the standard SQL database is not directly accessible via the web 400, various HTML prefix tools such as, for example, ASP scripts (CGI scripts can be used) are used by the web server software 40.
3 is incorporated. Thus, these prefix tools operate as extensions to the server software 403, where web users request entries in the database system 404, all using a web (or Web-like) graphic user interface, and To add or update. Software 403 and its HTML prefix tool interact with database system 404 data entries via SQL or other suitable data access language and interface.

Thus, the system described above provides a seamless web network to web users using a network of independent publishers that maintain separate micro-affinity websites. Web users "visit" specific microsites on the publishing network
At this time, the web user is remotely provided by the server system 401 with a web page described in a page description language such as HTML. The web user interacts with the page and makes a selection or request as is known in the art. These choices or requests do not appear to the user as such, but are, in effect, web element requests, such as URLs, to access the page or page element directly, or to the ASP or Call a CGI or other script. The result of the selection or request may cause the web page to elicit further selections or requests or provide the required information content.

When the network system 401 has a specific UR
Upon receiving the L request, the server system 402
Search for the appropriate information in the database system 404 via commands sent by the software 403. The software then creates the requested web page in HTML code and displays the relevant content and links provided by the publisher for the microsite, including advertisements, relevant content from other publishers or independent providers, And combined with other non-specific elements such as navigation aids for the publishing network.

The software 403 according to the first embodiment of the present invention can be used to publish a new article, upload an image, or add a new link. Preferably, it also includes an automated management tool that enables the publisher to manage content remotely and independently. The publisher preferably has continuous access to the automatic publishing tool of the software 403 from the web 400 via a web browser.

FIGS. 5, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a and 8b
Are sample web pages 500, 600, 700, 800a, and 800b when viewed through a web browser.
Show the view of. In embodiments of the present invention, publishers can access remote publishing tools via these web pages. FIG. 5 shows a view of a management login web page 500 as a sample. Publishers can access such web pages via the web by entering the appropriate URL using a web browser.

As shown in FIG. 5, a dialog box 501 for the issuer to enter a user name and a dialog box for the issuer to enter a password are provided. The publisher management login subroutine in software 403 reads the username and password and validates them against the corresponding entry in database system 404. If the provided username and password are correct, access to the particular administrative web page for the microsite is provided to the publisher.

FIG. 6 shows a view of the management web page 600 as a sample. Such a web page presents the publisher with various options 601-610, including hyperlinks (eg, 601a) that call a routine to allow the publisher to update its micro-affinity website. . These options include, for example, adding or updating articles 601, uploading media 60 such as image or video files, etc.
2. Organization and positioning of articles in the microsite 603, change of the management password of the publisher 60
4. Changes to the general layout of the microsite 60
5, adding links 606 to other relevant websites, interactive media maintenance 607 such as user polling (Paul), or message board function management. Activating one of these options requires only that the publisher select a link on the administrative web page 600.

FIGS. 7a and 7b show a link 601a from the administrative web page 600 for the publisher to add a new original article to its micro-affinity website.
5 shows a view of a tool web page 700 as a sample after selecting a.

[0052] The tool web page 700 represents the publisher using a web page form, as is known in the art. The publisher issues pull-down menus 701, 70 to input corresponding information in text boxes 705, 706, 707, 708.
In order to select the corresponding selection item from 2,704,
Alternatively, fill out the form using the web browser to select the appropriate checkbox 710, and then press the screen button 709 to submit the form when the entry is complete. As shown, the new article format is a pull-down menu 7 so that publishers can associate images or links with other related articles.
03 and 704 are preferred. Alternatively, a different template may be provided by the user selecting the required template to adjust the appearance of the finished page.

Non-textual content can be obtained from the user in any of a number of different ways. The user can transfer a file including non-original content to the site using a file transfer protocol (FTP) subroutine or the like which is an automatic upload tool accessed from a corresponding link on the management web page 600.

In the embodiment of the present invention having an add process, eg, an automatic publishing tool, the process of adding, removing, and updating content entries is generally automated and can be performed 24 hours a day, 1 day. It can be made available continuously for 365 days a year. Like a publicly accessible bulletin board, the content entered into the database system by the publisher is completely within the publisher's control both at the time the entry is located and at any time thereafter.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the routines implemented by software on the database system are standard C ++ and SQL routines,
Interact with one or more ASP scripts. Instead, the routines may be, for example, CGI, Perl, UNIX shell language, PHP, or Java and Micros
It can be written in other languages, such as one of the emerging Internet computer languages, such as oftTM IISAPI.

Annotations to be co-published between a plurality of related micro-affinity websites use a screen (not shown) very similar to web page 700 shown in FIGS. 7a and 7b, and Created first in a similar manner. In embodiments of the present invention, the publisher can direct the commentary item to his or her micro-affinity site and optionally to the relevant micro-affinity site. (The ability to publish annotations to other publishers' micro-affinity sites is a matter of security by a centrally-issued network administrator,
Preferably, it is first enabled or disabled. FIG. 8 shows that the micro-affinity issuer can choose whether to publish the commentary item (its title is represented by text 801) to other relevant websites where cross-publishing is enabled Shows the annotation web page 800a to be. In a preferred embodiment, after entering the note item information using a web page similar to web page 700, the publisher may click a button 802 or a A request is made to select one of the buttons 803 that do not mutually issue comment items.

When the publisher clicks the button 802,
A website is displayed, such as website 800b in FIG. 8b, for example, where the publisher is via appropriate means 803 (eg, an associated publisher list, a Java enabled active menu system, etc.). , You will be prompted to select one or more related micro-affinity websites that should receive the comment item. After selecting the relevant website using the means 803, the publisher clicks the button 80
Click 4 to complete the cross-issuing process.

According to a further embodiment 1 of the present invention, a method for managing a publishing network of microsites comprises the steps of identifying appropriate microaffinity subject areas (topics) and potential issuers for these subject areas. , And incorporating the potential publisher into the microsite's publishing network.

First, a research is conducted to identify potential publishers from micro-affinity websites, micro-topic publications, and content experts suitable for connecting the publishing network. Suitable candidates include, for example, the need for a publishing network (based on similarities and differences between microtopics already addressed by the publishing network) to address the microtopic in question (subject coverage), potential The selection is based on various factors, such as the quality of the content provided by the publisher and the potential of micro-topics to generate web traffic.

Alternatively, a suitable potential publisher can be recruited by placing information on joining the publishing network on the network website. The potential issuer can then contact the network, for example, via e-mail, regarding the quest for network connectivity.

Whenever a suitable potential issuer is identified, the potential issuer is invited to join the network.

Once agreement has been reached between the potential publisher and the publishing network, the new publisher is trained in using network software, including remote publishing tools. Publishers are willing to participate in other areas, including journalism technology, message board and common room technology, identifying advertisers, working with other micro-affinity publishers on the network, and matters related to Federal Intellectual Property Law. Can be trained.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the methods and apparatus of the present invention are applicable in a number of fields, for example, e-commerce for those skilled in the art. It should be readily understood that the present invention can be used to "publish" an entire web storage device to implement the same. Such a web storage device according to the present invention would include a plurality of micro-affinity web storage devices, each managed by a substantially independent entrepreneur as described above.
Therefore, it should be understood that the present invention applies to various approaches and techniques related to the Internet.
Although the present invention has been described with respect to particular embodiments, many other embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram conceptually showing the interrelationship between a portal, that is, an index website and a micro-affinity website according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a web page as a sample related to a micro-affinity website according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a web page as a sample related to a portal (index) website according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a network system supporting a network according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a sample web page where a micro-affinity issuer can log in to access a remote publishing and management tool according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sample web page where a micro-affinity publisher can choose to perform an action on a micro-affinity website with a remote publishing and management tool according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG.

FIG. 7a illustrates the case where microaffinity publishers can remotely upload new original content to their microaffinity website with remote publishing and management tools according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure showing a web page as a sample.

7a and 7b in which micro-affinity publishers can remotely upload new original content to their micro-affinity website with remote publishing and management tools according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; It is a figure showing a web page as a sample.

FIG. 8a shows a sample web page where the micro-affinity issuer can remotely enter annotation information that is desirably provided to the relevant micro-affinity site.

FIG. 8b shows a sample web page where the micro-affinity issuer can remotely enter annotation information that is desirably provided to the relevant micro-affinity site.

[Description of reference symbols] 100 portal website, 101-105 micro-affinity website, 106-109 sub-micro-affinity website, 110 single network, 200 micro-site web page, 201
Feature articles and editorials, 202 microsites, 20
3 pull-down menu, 205 search box, 20
6 advertisement, 207 independent content, 300 portal website, 301a main article recommendation advertisement, 301b top article, 302 subject index, 402 server system, 403 software, 404 database system, 601 article addition or update, 602 medium upload, 607 Maintain interactive media.

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 13/00 540 G06F 13/00 540F 17/60 ZEC 17/60 ZEC 326 326 (72) Inventor Rob ・Rich United States, Washington, Redmond, One Hundred Forty Sixth Avenue N. 8016 (72) Inventor Mark Beck United States, Washington, Seattle, Seven Sixth Street N. 317 (72) Inventor Bill • Thornsin, USA, Washington, Seattle, Fortisard Avenue West 5465 F-term (reference) 5B075 KK02 ND36 NR03 PQ02 PR06 QM08

Claims (38)

[Claims] 1. A method of providing information using a network, the network comprising: an information providing method capable of receiving information from a plurality of sites, wherein each of the plurality of publishers has at least one site. Accepting the content information submitted by the plurality of publishers; and storing the content information submitted by each publisher in a database so as to be associated with the site with which the publisher is associated. Storing; receiving a request from the client for the content information associated with the requested site of the plurality of sites; and storing the content information associated with the requested site in the database; Predetermined format specific to the site for which the relevant content information was requested Oite, the information providing method comprising the step of transmitting as it is possible to display to the client. 2. The information shared by all of the plurality of sites is transmitted to the client in the predetermined format specific to the content information in the database and the site from which the shared information was requested. 2. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the information is transmitted simultaneously with the related content information to be displayed. 3. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the information to be shared includes a navigation aid for specifying a position of a site on the network. 4. The information providing method according to claim 2, wherein the shared information includes independent contents obtained from the independent issuer by the network. 5. The information providing method according to claim 2, wherein the shared information includes an advertisement. 6. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting step is performed in a hardware independent page description language. 7. The information providing method according to claim 6, wherein the hardware independent page description language is HTML. 8. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the network is electronically connected to a wide area computer network. 9. The wide area computer network comprises:
9. The information providing method according to claim 8, which is the Internet. 10. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein each site of the network issues information relating to a unique topic, and all of the unique topics are located within one single topic range. . 11. The information providing method according to claim 10, wherein the topic range is selected from a group consisting of sports, financial information, world news, local news, women's issues, youth issues, politics, and history. . 12. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the content information in the database associated with each of the plurality of sites can be edited directly by a publisher of each site. 13. The information providing method according to claim 12, wherein the contents of the database can be remotely edited by each of the plurality of publishers via the Internet. 14. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein a substantially independent business entity is included in the issuer. 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the content submitted by each publisher also includes the step of associating the content with at least one other site. 16. The at least one other site is related to the site associated with the publisher by a similarity in subject matter of the content contained in the site.
Information provision method described in. 17. The step of transmitting said content information relating to a requested site in said database such that said relevant content information can be displayed on said client, automatically combining said content with relevant content. The information providing method according to claim 15, further comprising: 18. The information providing method according to claim 17, wherein the related content is automatically combined with an advertisement. 19. A network system for providing information content from a plurality of issuers, comprising a server system, a database system, and software running on the network system, wherein the server system is an external computer Electronically connected to a network, the database system and the server system are electronically connected, the software accepts the information content submitted by a plurality of publishers, Each associated with at least one site, storing the informational content submitted by each publisher in the database system in association with the site to which the publisher is associated; Requests for information related to the site Receiving from the client and transmitting the information content associated with the requested site in the database system such that the relevant content information can be displayed to the client in a predetermined format specific to each of the requested sites. Network system formed as such. 20. The software operates such that information shared by all of the plurality of sites is transmitted simultaneously with the related information content, and the information content in the database system and the shared information are requested. 20. The network system of claim 19, wherein said network system displays to said client in said predetermined format that is specific to each of said sites. 21. The network system according to claim 20, wherein the shared information is stored in the database system. 22. The network system according to claim 19, wherein the shared information is accessed electronically via the external computer network. 23. The network system according to claim 19, wherein said external computer network is the Internet. 24. The network system according to claim 19, wherein the database system includes a publisher content database, a member database, and a publisher information database. 25. The network system according to claim 24, wherein the database system also includes a message board database. 26. The network system according to claim 24, wherein the database system further includes an advertisement information database. 27. The network system according to claim 19, wherein said server system includes one or more Internet web servers. 28. The software further compiles information content from the database system into the predetermined format and, after receiving each of the requests from the client, is formatted into a hardware independent page description language. 20. The network system of claim 19, wherein said network system is configured to transmit said information content. 29. The network system of claim 19, wherein the software is further configured to allow the publisher to edit the information content stored in the database system. 30. The network system of claim 29, wherein the external computer system is the Internet, and wherein the publisher remotely modifies the information content via the Internet by using a web browser. 31. The content submitted by each issuer is:
20. The network system of claim 19, wherein the network system is also associated with at least one other site. 32. The network system according to claim 19, wherein the related content information displayed on the client is automatically combined with the related content. 33. The network system according to claim 32, wherein the related content information is automatically combined with an advertisement. 34. A method for managing a network of microsites, comprising: a) identifying appropriate microaffinity topics and potential issuers for the topics; and b) connecting the issuer to the microsite's publishing network. A network management method comprising the steps of associating; and c) familiarizing the issuer with the use of publishing software including a remote publishing tool. 35. The information providing method according to claim 12, wherein the contents can be mutually issued by a plurality of related sites. 36. The information providing method according to claim 35, wherein the issuer can transmit the content to its own site and optionally another site. 37. The information providing method according to claim 1, wherein the content information is selected from information types in the group consisting of news, electronic commerce, and communication. 38. The network system according to claim 19, wherein the information content is an information type selected from the group consisting of news, electronic commerce, and communication.