JP2003296341A - Database generation method, database generation program, data structure, database generation system, search system, and search method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To present search results based on the latest information and a great variety of information. SOLUTION: Web distributed on the Internet 1 is provided.
A Web robot generation device 21 and a search agent generation device 22 that extract a description related to the position from the description of the tag 81 included in the page 8 and collect the description related to the position and the URL of the Web page in which the description related to the position are collected. An information collection device 2 including at least a database 3 for storing at least a description relating to the extracted position, and correspondence information in which the collected URL is associated with the description,
A database generation system 100 including a proxy page generation device 4 that generates a proxy page that includes a tag that is linked to a Web page on the Internet and has a description of a location, and includes at least a URL of the Web page.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a database generation method and the like for collecting information for retrieving information on facilities (restaurants, etc.) existing around the current position of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Important information in a mobile environment is information related to a position also called POI (Point of Interesting). For example, if you want to search for a "convenience store near the vehicle you are driving," the "convenience store information around your vehicle" is this POI and is the most useful information for the moving driver at the time of search. Can be positioned.

In order to realize such a search, unlike the case where the search is performed in a home or workplace that does not move,
The database to be searched needs to be parameterized by the position information.

A general car navigation system reads a DVD-ROM in which the map information parameterized by the position information is stored, and retrieves necessary information (for example, "convenience store information around the vehicle"). To do. The user can go to any facility (restaurant or the like) stored in the DVD according to the guidance of the car navigation system.

However, the DVD-ROM in which the database to be searched by the car navigation system is stored is a non-rewritable storage medium, and the database is updated unless the DVD itself is rewritten. There was a problem that I could not.
That is, although the facility (restaurant or the like) to be searched is opened or closed every day, this fact is not reflected in the database, and the user cannot obtain the latest information.

The information stored in the DVD-ROM used by the car navigation system is a locally constructed database, and although it is parameterized by position information, the number of information that can be searched and presented and There was a problem that there were few kinds.

The present invention constructs a database parameterized by position information and enables a search based on a large number of latest information, a database generation method, a database generation program, a data structure, a database generation system, A search system and a search method can be provided.

[0007]

The present invention is an invention relating to a database generation method, a database generation program, a data structure, a database generation system, a search system, and a search method from different viewpoints.

1. First, the invention relating to the database will be described. (1) The invention according to claims 1 to 3 according to the first aspect is an invention relating to a database generation method. According to the first aspect of the present invention, Webs distributed and arranged on the Internet
A description about the position is extracted from the description of the tag included in the page, and a description about the position and the URL of the Web page in which the description about the position is described are collected. At least the description about the extracted position and the collected description are collected. There is provided a database generation method for storing correspondence information in which the URL and the corresponding URL are stored. In the present invention, it is preferable that the stored description about the extracted position is a description converted into a predetermined parameter about the position (claim 2). Further, the correspondence information further includes
It is preferable that the content attribute information indicating the attribute of the content forming the web page is associated with the content attribute information (claim 3).

In the present invention, the "Web page" is one of the units of information provided on the WWW (World Wide Web). Other information related to the Web page (URL (Uniform Resource Locat of other Web page
or) and other general information) so that links may be provided. By selecting this link, the Web page or information of the link destination can be acquired, and by following this link, extraction can be performed with reference to the tag description. Also, "tag"
Describes the attributes of the contents (contents) forming the Web page in addition to the information about the position in a predetermined markup language (not limited), and marks them up. The contents and style of the description are not limited.

With respect to this description, "the description regarding the position" is
It is a description showing the position of a search target such as a certain facility or building, and parameters relating to the position can be set arbitrarily. For example, the position may be described by an absolute position based on latitude and longitude, or the position may be described by a relative position based on a predetermined position reference. The identification based on the relative position is, for example, the mesh major number of the digital map, the mesh minor number, the closer order from the predetermined node, the relative position from the predetermined node (distance coordinate), the relative position to the predetermined access road (distance coordinate). The description can be made by specifying other relative positions. In this case, the description regarding the position is preferably a description converted into a predetermined parameter regarding the position. This is because it is possible to quickly search the database for the information in which the description regarding the predetermined position is made, because the description is performed using the predetermined parameter regarding the position.

The "content attribute information" indicating the attribute of the content includes the purpose and purpose of the content forming the Web page (restaurant, library, shopping center), its genre (French cuisine, Italian cuisine),
Refers to business hours, charges, and other information related to usage, including any information that can be a search key for information search.

In the present invention, the description about the position is extracted from the description of the tags included in the Web pages distributed and arranged on the Internet, and the extracted "description about the position" is extracted.
And the “URL” of the Web page in which this description is made, and the correspondence information in which the “description regarding the position” and the “URL” are associated is stored and a database is created.

According to the present invention, since a database can be generated continuously or at predetermined time intervals and many Web pages can be referred to, a database containing the latest information and many information can be generated. can do.

Further, by describing the information regarding the position with a predetermined parameter regarding the position, it is possible to generate a database in which the search processing speed is high with the position as the search key.

Furthermore, since the correspondence information includes the content attribute information, it is possible to generate a database that can be searched using the content attribute information as a search key.

(2) The invention according to claims 4 to 6 according to the second aspect relates to a database generating program. According to the invention described in claim 4, the step of causing the computer to extract the description regarding the position from the description of the tags included in the Web pages distributed on the Internet, the description regarding the position, and the description regarding the position are performed. Collecting the URLs of the web pages, and at least a description about the extracted position,
A database generation program is provided for executing the step of creating correspondence information by associating with the collected URL and the step of storing the created correspondence information. In this invention, it is preferable that the step of creating the correspondence information includes a step of converting the description about the extracted position into a predetermined parameter about the position (Claim 5), and the step of collecting the URL includes: In the step of collecting the content attribute information indicating the attribute of the content forming the Web page together with the URL and creating the correspondence information, it is preferable that the correspondence information further includes the collected content attribute information. Item 6).

"Web page" in these inventions
The meaning of the terms "tag", "position description", "position parameter", and "content attribute information" is defined in claim 1.
Are the same as the inventions described in 3).

According to the invention relating to the database generating program, the same operation and effect as those of the inventions according to claims 1 to 3 can be obtained.

(3) In addition, claims 7 to 7 according to the third aspect.
The inventions up to claim 10 are inventions relating to data. According to the invention described in claim 7, the description regarding the position extracted from the description of the tags included in the web pages distributed on the Internet is associated with the URL of the web page in which the description regarding the position is described. Data having a structured structure is provided. In the present invention, it is preferable that the extracted description regarding the position is a description converted into a predetermined parameter regarding the position (claim 8), and the content attribute indicating the attribute of the content forming the Web page further includes: It is preferred to have an associated structure (claim 9). Further, a database in which these data (claims 7 to 8) are stored is provided (claim 10).

"Web page" in these inventions
The meaning of the terms "tag", "position description", "position parameter", and "content attribute information" is defined in claim 1.
Are the same as the inventions described in 3). Further, the storage means for storing this data may be a memory such as a ROM and a RAM of a computer, or a portable storage medium such as a DVD, MO and a semiconductor memory.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the latest data including a lot of information.

(4) Further, claim 1 according to the fourth aspect.
The inventions 1 to 17 are inventions relating to a database generation system. (4-1) According to the invention described in claim 11, the description regarding the position is extracted from the description of the tags included in the Web pages distributed and arranged on the Internet, and the description regarding the position and the description regarding the position are described. Web page U
There is provided a database generation system that includes an information collection device that collects RLs, and at least a database that readably stores correspondence information that associates the extracted URLs with the collected URLs. It In the present invention, it is preferable that the description about the extracted position is a description converted into a predetermined parameter about the position (claim 12), and the correspondence information is an attribute of a content forming the Web page. It is preferable that the content attribute indicating is further associated (claim 13).

"Web page" in these inventions
The meaning of the terms "tag", "position description", "position parameter", and "content attribute information" is defined in claim 1.
Are the same as the inventions described in 3). Furthermore, the database is
It has at least a storage medium and a writing function. The storage medium may be a memory such as a ROM and a RAM of a computer, or a portable storage medium such as a DVD, MO and a semiconductor memory.

According to the present invention, the information collecting apparatus extracts the description regarding the position from the description of the tag included in the Web page, and outputs this "description regarding the position" and the "URL" of the Web page in which the description regarding the position is described. collect. The database stores the "position description" and the "URL", which are associated with each other, as the association information.

According to the present invention, the database can be generated continuously or at predetermined time intervals, and many Web pages can be referenced. Therefore, a database containing the latest information and many information can be generated. can do.

Further, by describing the information regarding the position with a predetermined parameter regarding the position, it is possible to generate a database in which the search processing speed is high with the position as the search key.

Furthermore, since the correspondence information includes the content attribute information, it is possible to generate a database that can be searched using the content attribute information as a search key.

(4-2) With regard to these inventions, claim 1
According to the invention described in 4, the information collecting apparatus searches the Web page on the Internet, extracts the description regarding the position from the description of the tag included in the Web page, and extracts the description regarding the position and the description regarding the position. W
There is provided a database generation system that is a Web robot generation device that generates a Web robot that collects the URL of an eb page.

According to the fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the information collecting apparatus circulates a dynamically generated Web page on the Internet, and extracts a position description from the tag description included in the Web page. However, it is preferable that the database generation system is a search agent generation device that generates a search agent that collects the description about the position and the URL of the Web page in which the description about the position is described.

The Web robot searches for tags on Web pages. This search is preferably performed automatically, and as the search method, it is preferable to sequentially search the web pages by following the links embedded in the web pages. On the other hand, the search agent crawls the dynamically generated ASP server and directly accesses the database of the ASP server to search for a tag having a description regarding the position. It is preferable that the search agent also sequentially visits the web pages by following the links embedded in the web pages.

The Web robot or search agent
In this way, regarding Web pages on the Internet,
The “location description” and the “URL” of the Web page in which this description is made are collected.

With this, it is possible to automatically collect a wide range and a large amount of information of Web pages distributed and arranged on the Internet.

(4-3) In addition, according to the invention described in claim 16, a tag which is linked to a Web page on the Internet and describes the position, and the Web including the tag. There is provided a database generation system further including a proxy page generation device that generates a proxy page that is a proxy for the Web page and that includes at least the URL of the page. With regard to this invention, the proxy page generation device includes a URL reception unit that receives an input of a URL of the Web page, and the W
A position information reception unit that receives input of information regarding the position of the eb page, and a proxy page that is a proxy for the Web page linked to the Web page corresponding to the URL received by the URL reception unit are created. It is preferable that the proxy page generation unit includes a proxy page generation unit, and the proxy page generation unit describes, in a tag of the proxy page, information about the position of the Web page received by the position information reception unit (claim 1).
7).

The proxy page generation device generates a proxy page acting as a proxy for the Web page. This proxy page includes at least "a tag in which a description regarding a position is made" and "a URL of a Web page" including the tag. Specifically, the proxy page generation device is activated, and "U
Input of “RL” and “information regarding position” is accepted.
A proxy page is generated based on these. The generated proxy page is linked to the web page,
Information about the input position is described in the tag of the generated proxy page. This proxy page may be generated on the same server as the server storing the target Web page, or may be generated on a different server. Further, the parameter of the “description regarding the position” is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to guide the input by the unified parameter.

The proxy page generated in this way is
It is a target for searching or patrol of the information collecting device. For this reason,
Even if the information (description) regarding the position is not added to the Web page, the proxy page is generated, the “description regarding the position” and the “URL” are collected by the information collecting device, and stored in the database. Also, access to the proxy page is redirected to the web page by a link.

As a result, even a Web page that does not include the "description regarding the position" can be a target for searching or patrol of the information collecting apparatus, and the database can be further enhanced.

(5) Next, the invention relating to the search using the database will be described. According to the invention described in claim 18, a database generated by the database generation system according to any one of claims 11 to 17, a position detection device for detecting the current position of the user, and the position detection device based on the database. According to the detected current position of the user, a search system is provided that has a search device that searches a URL of a Web page in which a description about a position around the current position is performed and outputs the URL to the user. In this invention, the search device receives a search condition input by a user, and
It is preferable to search the URL of the Web page according to the received search condition based on the database and output the search result to the user (claim 19).

According to a twentieth aspect of the invention from a different point of view, there is provided a method of searching a URL of a Web page on the Internet using a database generated by the database generation system according to the eleventh to seventeenth aspects. Then, an information search method is provided in which a search condition including at least information about the current position is input, and the URL of the Web page that corresponds to the input search condition is searched based on the database.

The generated database contains at least a description about the position and a Web containing the description about the position.
Correspondence information in which the URL of the page is associated is stored. Therefore, when the current position of the user is detected by the position detection device, the search device extracts a description related to the position corresponding to the current position, and the UR associated with this description.
L can be searched. The user who has acquired the URL corresponding to the current position can refer to the corresponding Web page from this URL.

According to the present invention, since the URL of the Web page having the description regarding the position can use the database associated with the description regarding the position,
The URL of the web page corresponding to the current position can be easily acquired, and the POI information can be acquired at a desired timing without performing a complicated search operation.

[0041]

According to the inventions described in claims 1 to 20, a database generation method and a database, which constructs a database parameterized by position information and enables a search based on the latest and large variety of information, A generation program, a data structure, a database generation system, a search system, and a search method can be provided.

[0042]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a database generation system 100 and a database generation system 1
00 has a search device 6 for searching with reference to the database 3 generated by the user 00, and a user terminal 7 mounted on the vehicle. These are accessible to the Internet 1. Further, a large number of Web pages 8 distributed and arranged on the Internet exist for each URL, and are described in static HTML. Similar to this Web page 8, various data are described, but the description is a dynamic description A
The SP server 9 (Application Service Provider) is also connected via the Internet 1. Furthermore, We
A proxy server 5 that presents a proxy page that is a proxy page of page b 8 is also connected via the Internet 1.

Each structure will be described below. <Database Generation System> The database generation system 100 includes a description regarding a position and a We described in the description.
A proxy for the Web page 8 that includes an information collection device 2 that collects the URL of page b, a database 3 that stores correspondence information that associates the description and the URL with respect to the collected position, and that has no description about the position. Proxy page generation device 4 for generating a proxy page that functions as a page of the proxy page.

Further, the information collecting device 2 is a static HTM.
A web robot generation device 21 for generating a web robot that searches the web page 8 whose information is described by L
And a search agent generation device 22 that generates a search agent that dynamically visits the ASP server. Each configuration of the database generation system 100 will be described below.

Web Robot Generating Device This Web robot generating device searches for distributed Web pages 8 on the Internet 1 by following hyperlinks, and describes the position from the description of the META tag 81 included in the Web page 8. A Web robot for extracting Then, the generated Web robot collects the description about the extracted position and the URL of the Web page 8 in which the description is made. The description regarding the position and the URL are associated with each other and stored in the database 3 as association information. ME on this web page 8
In addition to the description regarding the position, the TA tag 81 collects attribute information indicating the attribute of the Web page 8 and stores it in the correspondence information. In order for this Web robot to collect information, the META tag 81 of the Web page 8 must have at least a description regarding the position. This description is preferably information on the position described by a predetermined parameter. In the present embodiment, some parameters are defined, and a calculation function for converting position information described by these parameters into predetermined parameters is provided.

In order to be a search target of the proxy page generation device Web robot, a description regarding the position must be newly written in the META tag, but such work is complicated for the administrator of the Web page 8. The proxy page generation device 4 responds to such a request. The proxy page generation device 4 is W
The eb page 8 is updated indirectly. That is, the Web
The administrator of the page 8 accesses the proxy page generation site provided by the proxy page generation device 4, and here,
Register the URL of its own Web page 8. By this registration, the requested proxy page is generated on the site provided by the proxy page server 5. The generated proxy page has a description regarding the same position as the web page 8, and in addition, holds a link to the web page with which the proxy page is associated.

The Web robot generated by the Web robot generating device 21 extracts the description about the position by using the generated proxy page as a search target, generates the correspondence information like the Web page 8, and stores it in the database. Note that the actual access to the proxy page is transferred to the parent (original) Web page. This makes it possible to substantially add the description relating to the position to the Web page 8 without performing the edit for adding the description relating to the position to the original Web page. Also,
It is necessary to specify the position when generating the proxy page. Since the proxy page generation site provides map information for specifying the position and parameters relating to the position and provides an interface for assisting the generation of the proxy page, the administrator of the Web page 8 can specify the relatively difficult position. You can do it easily and generate a proxy page.

Search Agent Generation Device Next, the search agent generation device 22 will be described. The search agent generation device 22 handles a site (ASP server 9) having a form of ASP (Application Service Provider) in which the Web page 8 is not described in static HTML. The search agent generation device 22 generates a search agent including the search program itself. Generated search agent 22
Moves to a site to be searched (in this case, the ASP server 9) and collects the description, URL, and attribute regarding the position. This search agent is transmitted to the agent transmitting / receiving means 92 of the ASP server 9. By combining with the program on the ASP server 9 side, the database held by the ASP server 9 is directly accessed to collect the description regarding the position. The database adapter 91 fulfills this function. If the ASP server 9 prepares an interface corresponding to the search agent, the ASP server 9 becomes a target of information collection by the information collection device 2 and is registered in the database 3.

As described above, the database generation system 100 generates the database 3 using the description regarding the position as a key. This database 3 is the information collection device 2
It is periodically updated by the Web robot generation device 21 and the search agent generation device 22. The database generation period can be set arbitrarily, and the database 3 accumulating fresh information can be provided by periodically updating the database every predetermined period.

Database The information collecting device 2 stores the collected data in the database 3. In this database 3, at least a description regarding the position and the UR of the Web page 8 etc. including this description are included.
Correspondence information associated with L is stored.

Here, the "description regarding the position" will be described in detail. FIG. 2 shows a description example of the META tag in which the description regarding the position is made. FIG. 2A shows a description by a description method using longitude and latitude as absolute position information. The position is specified by the META tag a describing the longitude and the META tag b describing the latitude. FIG. 2B shows the description by the description method using the information indicating the relative position with respect to the predetermined reference as the relative information of the position. Digital map mesh major number c, mesh minor number d, nearest node number e,
The position is specified by the access road 1f, the access road 2g, and the relative position (distance coordinate) f, i from the node.
Although not all this relative position information is required, the position can be easily specified by combining one or more pieces of information.

The description regarding this position may be an absolute description or a relative description. However, from the viewpoint of search speed, it is preferable to unify the description with a predetermined description method. On the other hand, if the description method is limited, the information may be biased when the information is collected. Therefore, in this embodiment, after collecting information on several types of description methods,
Before being stored in the database 3, it is converted into a predetermined description method.

Further, this correspondence information further includes a Web
Attribute information indicating the attribute of the information indicated by page 8 or the like is associated. This attribute information is information indicating the target purpose such as whether the information introduced on the Web page 8 is a restaurant, a hotel, a movie theater, an amusement park, or a shopping center, and if it is a restaurant, Italian food,
It is information indicating the content of service such as Chinese food, French food, Japanese food, family restaurant or fast food restaurant. In addition, "attribute information" includes information useful for using the usage charge band, business hours, benefits, and other facilities.

As described above, if the description about the position, the URL of the Web page including the description, and the attribute information of the information indicated by the URL are associated with each other, the position is parameterized based on the corresponding information. You can pull out the information as. That is, by searching the URL of the web page of the facility existing around the position and jumping to this URL by the browser, the content of the web page can be browsed. This searched web
The page is associated with a facility around the user's current location and the user can get the POI for the current location. Furthermore, attribute information can be specified as a search condition, and the search results can be narrowed down according to the purpose and the content of the service. For example, "restaurants" around "current position", "Japanese restaurant",
It is possible to perform a high-order search such as position + attribute 1 + attribute 2 as in. Database 3 is Internet 1
Since it is connected to, the information in the database 3 can be searched using the existing Web browser and the search device 6. The information shown as a result of this search is a detailed description corresponding to each facility and URL. If such a detailed description is stored in a database or a storage medium such as a DVD, the amount of information is too large, and the speed of search processing is reduced. However, in the present embodiment, by using the database including the “correspondence information”,
The amount of information stored in the database 3 can be made compact, and the latest and large amount of information can be acquired in the vehicle.

Further, by referring to the description about the position and the map information, not only is the key current position grasped as a point, but also "a radius within 1 km from the current position", "a current direction from the current direction 1 km", and "current" It can also be understood as a surface or line such as "from the position to the left in the traveling direction".

<User Terminal> The user terminal 7 according to this embodiment is mounted on a vehicle. The user terminal 7 includes at least a vehicle position detection device that detects the position of the vehicle, a computer that can start a web browser that can refer to WWW information on the Internet 1, and a web page 8 that can present information. And display.

The vehicle position detecting device of this embodiment uses a position detecting device (car navigation system) equipped with a positioning system based on GPS (Global Positioning System) using artificial satellites.

<Search Device> The search device 6 is the user terminal 7
The current position information of the vehicle is acquired from the database, and the database 3 is referred to based on the current position to search for the URL of the facility in the area corresponding to the current position. Each of the URL groups as the search result is linked to the main body of the Web page and then sent to the user terminal 7. By clicking a URL with a link, the user can jump to the Web page that is actually presenting the information and acquire substantive information.

Next, the operation will be described. <Operation of Web Robot Generating Device> FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation related to information collection of the Web robot 21, which is an information collecting device.

With the activation of the database generation system 100 (S101), the Web robot generation device 21 is activated (S102). The web robot generation device 21 generates a web robot that collects information. W generated
The eb robot starts with multiple Ws whose URLs are registered.
The search starts from the eb page 8 (S10).
3). If the database 3 is not yet constructed, the search is started from a predetermined large-scale site in advance. We
The robot b accesses the HTTP server of the URL as the starting point by HTTP access, generates a Get command for requesting information, and outputs this (S10).
4), Web page information is acquired (S105). Since the page information is generally obtained in the HTML format, the information is analyzed and the information on the position is extracted from the META tag (S106). In the case of a web page including information about a position, the URL of the web page, attribute information and other information about the web page are collected (S
107). The Web robot registers or updates in the database 3 by associating the URLs of the collected Web pages, the description regarding the position (position information converted into a predetermined position parameter), the attribute information indicating the attribute, and other keywords with each other (S108). The collection of this information is performed every predetermined time, and new information is accumulated in the database 3 as needed.

The Web robot that has completed writing to the database 3 searches the HREF tag in the HTML document to identify the Web page to be searched next. In the next search target Web page 8, H
Get information by Get command of TTP access,
Register / update in the database 3. By repeating such an operation, it is possible to cover all pages having a link relationship on the Internet 1 as search targets. By the way, the web robot generation device 21 and the web robot are C, C ++ (registered trademark) and Java.
(Registered trademark), Perl (registered trademark), and the like are described in a language that enables Socket connection with an HTTP server.

<Operation of Proxy Page Generation Device> FIG. 4
5 is a flow chart illustrating an operation related to proxy page generation of the proxy page generation device 4, and FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a page for creating a proxy page. The operation shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to the creation page of FIG.

The administrator of the Web page 8 accesses the creation page prepared for creating the proxy page (S
202) and register the Web page 8 (S203). W
When the registration of the eb page 8 is accepted, a creation page as shown in FIG. 5 is provided. The proxy page generation measure 4 acquires at least information regarding the position of the web page. In this embodiment, the information on the position on the map, that is, the map information of the target facility is acquired. The map information acquisition unit 41 acquires this map information. The acquisition of this map information is performed on the creation page. Along with the presentation of the creation page, the proxy page generation device 4 downloads the map display means from another server. This map display means is a Java (registered trademark) applet (registered trademark)
It is composed of, and it is possible to scroll the map and change the scale on the browser. The map information acquisition unit 41 is provided with the downloaded map information creation tool including the map display means to the administrator of the Web page 8 (S204). The screen shown in FIG. 5 shows the interface of this map information creation tool.

The administrator scrolls the map e1 displayed by the map display means or changes the scale,
Find the location of the facility on the Web page 8. When the position can be specified, the longitude is input to the input area e2 and the latitude is input to the input area e3. Then, the node and the access road are further specified. Since the map display means shown in e1 displays the map in vector format,
The administrator of page 8 can identify nodes and roads by pointing them. The identified node is the input area e4, and the access road is the input area e4.
In this example, two can be input to and e5. When all the items have been input, map information about the target facility on the Web page 8 is created (S205). Finally, the administrator inputs the URL of the Web page 8 into the input area e7 and submits the created proxy page creation form (S206).

The URL of the Web page 8 to be registered is read from the information submitted by the administrator of the Web page 8, and the HTTP Ge is entered in the Web page 8 of this URL.
It is accessed by the t command (S207), and the information described in the META tag is collected on the Web page 8 of the specified URL. The collected information is the same attribute information as the information collected by the Web robot (S20).
8). A proxy page including at least the registered URL, the information about the position, and the attribute information is generated in the proxy server 5 (S209). This proxy server 5
Is connected to the Internet 1, but a link is set between the proxy page and the Web page, and access to the proxy page is set to automatically jump to the registered URL (S210). For information included in the proxy page, the proxy page generation device 4
However, each time a proxy page is generated, it may be written in the database 3 or a search by the Web robot 21 may be instructed.

Further, the proxy page generation device 4 periodically searches the web page 8 in which the proxy page is registered, and confirms whether the web page itself exists or not.
Check if the tag description is updated. If there is a matter to be updated, the information in the database 3 is updated.

According to the proxy page generated by the proxy page generation device 4, the administrator of the Web page 8
By accessing the created page prepared by the proxy page generation device 4, it is possible to have a web page to which the description (information) regarding the position is added without updating the web page of itself. These pieces of information are also stored in the database 3, and the information presented on the Web page will not be leaked from the search. By the way, since the proxy page generation device 4 has its own site for position identification, HTT such as Apache (registered trademark) is used.
P server is running. In addition, in the creation page of the map information acquisition unit 41, C (registered trademark), Perl (registered trademark)
The CGI program described in 1. is working.

<Operation of Search Agent Generating Device> This search agent generating device 22 is not written in static HTML like the Web page 8, but dynamically W
Information is collected on pages of the APS server that generate eb pages. The pages circulated by the search agent generated by the search agent generation device 22 are constructed in the ASP server 9. This ASP server 9 is J
It is composed of an ava (registered trademark) Servlet (registered trademark), and dynamically generates and provides various pages in response to a user's request. The provided information includes a description (information) about the position, but since it is not described in HTML, it is hard to be a search target of the above-mentioned Web robot, and therefore the search agent circulates to collect the information.

Upon starting (S302), the search agent generation device 22 executes the generated search agent AS
It is arranged on the P server 9. That is, the generated search agent is sent from the agent transmitting / receiving unit 221 and the agent transmitting / receiving unit 92 on the ASP server 9 side accepts the visit of the search agent via the Internet 1 (S303). Search agent is ASP
Via the database adapter 91 of the server 9 (S30
4), not the HTML page dynamically generated according to the input information, but the description (information) about the position, the URL for accessing the information, and the attribute information directly from the database owned by the ASP server 9 And other related information are read (S305, S306). The database adapter 91 is a means for absorbing the difference in the structure of the databases of the respective ASP servers 9 and providing a uniform interface for database search to the search agents. The search agent that has acquired the information stores the acquired information in the database 3 as corresponding information (S307). Incidentally, the search agent is implemented as a Java (registered trademark) agent program, and is connected to the ASP server 9 also described in Java (registered trademark) to access the database.

The search process of such a search agent is performed by the autonomous operation of the search agent. That is, when there is a link from a certain ASP server 9 to another ASP server 9 ′, the search agent automatically creates its own alternation and sends it to another ASP server 9 ′ via the agent transmitting / receiving means 92. Moving. W
While the eb robot continues the search by the centralized management of the Web robot generating device 21, the search agent autonomously crawls the Internet 1 and collects information.

The search by the search agent is performed every predetermined time (S308), and new information is registered or updated in the database 3 each time. As a result, various kinds of fresh information can be collected.

The database 3 thus generated is
It is possible to search for a URL that presents appropriate information according to the current position. Here, the search device 6 that searches the database 3 will be described.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the search device 6. FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the search operation of the search device 6.

As shown in FIG. 7, the search system includes a search device 6 that can access the above-described database 3.
A user terminal 7 that accesses the search device 6 is configured.

The user terminal 7 is equipped with a position detecting device (position detecting means) 72 for detecting the current position of the own vehicle, and a Web browser 71 for referring to information on the WWW.
Further, the search device 6 includes a search condition acquisition unit 61 that acquires a search condition from a user, and a search result generation program generation unit 6
2 and an HTTP server.

The database 3 is a large-scale RDBMS (Relational Database) such as Oracle (registered trademark).
A database built with an e Management System and a relational database management system) that enables searching by SQL. Further, the search device 6 searches the database 3 by the three-layer model.

This search operation will be described with reference to FIG. The user is the WWW Web browser 7 of the user terminal 7.
The search device 7 is accessed by 1 (S402). The search device 7 transmits a form for inputting search conditions to the Web browser 71 of the user terminal 7 (first layer) (S40).
3).

The user inputs search conditions into this form (S405). The search conditions include information according to the purpose of the user's action, such as a restaurant (for meals), a hotel (for lodging), a movie theater, or an amusement park,
In addition to the search conditions indicating the target purpose such as whether it is a shopping center, if it is a restaurant, Italian food, Chinese food, French food, Japanese food, family restaurant or fast food restaurant,
And a search condition indicating the content of the service.
That is, the search condition is preferably information included in the attribute information collected by the information collecting device 2.

Further, although it is possible to include the input area of the information of the current position in the search condition input form, in the present embodiment, the input area of the current position is not included in the search condition input form. . In the present embodiment, a program for automatically acquiring the position automatically detected by the position detection device (car navigation device using the GPS system) 72 included in the user terminal 7 and sending it to the search device 6 displays the current position of the user. Request and obtain automatically (S404).

As a result, the user can obtain the current position and the POI information around the current position only by inputting the search condition without confirming the current position of the user. Here, the form in which the search condition is inquired has been described, but when the user only accesses the search device 6, this is regarded as a request for searching and presenting the POI information, and the present condition is not narrowed down by the search condition (attribute information). When the search condition that can present all the POI information regarding the position is input, the search condition is transmitted to the search device 6 and the search condition acquisition unit 61 acquires the search condition (S40).
5). The search result generation program generation unit 62 generates SQL according to the acquired search condition, and R of the database 3 is generated.
Output to the DBMS 31 (two layers) (S40
6). The RDBMS 31 executes the received SQL to perform a search (three layers) (S407).

The search result is the search result generation program 62.
Will be returned to. The search result generation program 62 generates the search result as presentation information to be presented to the user (S40).
8). The generated presentation information is converted into HTML and sent to the user terminal 7 so that the user terminal 7 can read it (S409).

The user can receive the search result from the user terminal using the position as a parameter on the browser. For example, on a map centering on the current position of your vehicle,
The retrieved POI information is marked so that the attributes can be identified (the restaurant is a circle, the Italian restaurant is a red circle, etc.), and the URL is linked to the identification mark. The presentation form may be such that, by clicking the identification mark, the user can jump to a web page on the Internet and browse the web page serving as the POI information.

The connection functions of the search condition acquisition unit 61 and the search result generation program generation unit 62 to the RDBMS are described in C or Perl (registered trademark).

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to easily obtain the POI information regarding the current position without being aware of the current position. In addition, since the information having the description (information) about the position required for the search is particularly extracted and the extracted information is stored in the database 3, the POI information useful for the user can be searched and the search processing can be performed. It can be done at high speed.

The embodiments described above are described for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and not for limiting the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above-described embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents within the technical scope of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the present embodiment.

2 (a) and 2 (b) are diagrams for explaining a description regarding a position.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram for explaining an operation processing group of information collection and registration update by the Web robot of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an operation process of the proxy page generation device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an information input screen for generating a proxy page.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the collection of information of the search agent according to the present embodiment.
It is a flowchart figure for demonstrating the operation process of registration update.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram for explaining the configuration of the search device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining operation processing of the search device according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 ... Database generation system 1 ... Internet 2 ... Information collection device 21 ... Web robot generator 22 ... Search agent generation device 221 ... Agent transmitting / receiving unit 3 ... Database 31 ... RDBMS 4 ... Proxy page generator 41 ... Map information acquisition unit 5 ... Proxy page 6 ... Search device 61 ... Search condition acquisition unit 62 ... Search result generation program generation unit 63 ... HTTP server 7 ... User terminal 71 ... Web browser 72 ... Position detection device 8 ... Web page 81 ... Tag 9 ... ASP server 91 ... Database adapter 92 ... Agent transmitting / receiving means

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Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A Web distributed over the Internet
The description about the position is extracted from the description of the tag included in the page, and the description about the position and the URL of the Web page that describes the position are collected. At least the description about the extracted position and the collected information are collected. The correspondence information associated with the URL
Database generation method. 2. The database generating method according to claim 1, wherein the description relating to the extracted position to be stored is a description converted into a predetermined parameter relating to the position. 3. The database generation method according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence information is information associated with content attribute information indicating an attribute of content forming a Web page. 4. A step of causing a computer to extract a description regarding a position from descriptions of tags included in web pages distributedly arranged on the Internet, a description regarding the position, and a URL of a web page in which the description regarding the position is described. And a step of creating correspondence information by associating at least the description about the extracted position with the collected URL, and a step of storing the created correspondence information. A database generation program to let you do. 5. The database generation program according to claim 4, wherein the step of creating the correspondence information includes a step of converting the extracted description regarding the position into a predetermined parameter regarding the position. 6. The step of collecting the URL is URL
The content attribute information indicating the attribute of the content forming the web page is collected together with the step of creating the correspondence information, and the correspondence information is further included in association with the collected content attribute information. Database generator. 7. A Web distributed over the Internet
Data having a structure in which the description about the position extracted from the description of the tag included in the page and the URL of the Web page that describes the position are associated with each other. 8. The data according to claim 7, wherein the description regarding the extracted position is a description converted into a predetermined parameter regarding the position. 9. The data according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the content attribute indicating the attribute of the content forming the Web page has a further associated structure. 10. A database in which the data according to claims 7 to 9 is stored. 11. We distributed and arranged on the Internet
An information collecting device that extracts a description about a position from the description of the tag included in the page b and collects the description about the position and the URL of the Web page that describes the position, and at least the description about the extracted position. And a database for readably storing correspondence information in which the collected URLs are associated with each other. 12. The database generation system according to claim 11, wherein the description regarding the extracted position is a description converted into a predetermined parameter regarding the position. 13. The database generation system according to claim 11, wherein the correspondence information is further associated with a content attribute indicating an attribute of a content forming a Web page. 14. The information collecting device searches a Web page on the Internet, extracts a description about a position from a description of a tag included in the Web page, and describes a description about the position and a description about the position at the Web. We that creates a web robot that collects page URLs
The database generation system according to claim 11, which is a robot generation device. 15. The information collecting apparatus circulates a dynamically generated Web page on the Internet, extracts a description about a position from a description of a tag included in the Web page, and describes a description about the position and the position. A search agent generation device that generates a search agent that collects the URL of a described Web page.
The database generation system according to any one of 1 to 13. 16. A proxy acting as a proxy for the Web page, which is linked to a Web page on the Internet and includes at least a tag in which the position is described and a URL of the Web page including the tag. 16. The database generation system according to claim 11, further comprising a proxy page generation device that generates a page. 17. The proxy page generation device receives a URL of a web page, a URL accepting part that accepts an input of a URL, a position information accepting part that accepts an input of information about a position of the web page, and the URL accepting part. A proxy page generation unit that creates a proxy page that is a proxy for the Web page and is linked to the Web page corresponding to the URL, and the proxy page generation unit is accepted by the location information reception unit. The database generation system according to claim 16, wherein the information on the position of the Web page is described in the tag of the proxy page. 18. A database generated by the database generating system according to claim 11, a position detecting device for detecting the current position of the user, and a user's position detected by the position detecting device based on the database. The URL of the Web page that describes the position around the current position according to the current position
And a search device that outputs the search result to the user. 19. The search device receives a search condition input by a user, searches the URL of the Web page according to the received search condition based on the database, and sends the search result to the user. 19. The search system according to claim 18, wherein the search system outputs to the user. 20. A method for searching a URL of a Web page on the Internet using a database generated by the database generating system according to claim 11, wherein a search condition including at least information about a current position is input. An information search method for searching the URL of the Web page according to the input search condition based on the database.