JP2008117160A - Information search server - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information search server that facilitates a search for related sites. <P>SOLUTION: The information search server, which is a server usable as a search site, causes a client accessing the server to function as a webpage display means for displaying a webpage on a display terminal and a character string sending means for sending to the server a character string present in the webpage displayed on the display terminal by the webpage display means which is selected with a pointing device of the client, and when receiving the character string information sent by the character string sending means of the client, searches related sites on the character string information and sends the search results to the client. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for efficiently searching a web page transmitted on the Internet (www) with few procedures.

  Search sites such as Google (registered trademark) and Yahoo (registered trademark) are known as information search sites. These sites are very useful for retrieving information and are widely used. When using these sites, basically, a web site is downloaded using a predetermined browser and browsed to a client display device. Then, a keyword (character information) is input into the browsed web page window. These sites search based on the keywords entered in this way.

  There is a strong demand to provide more attractive search sites by improving the convenience of search. Therefore, for example, in the “media recognition site search method and system” described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-71195 (the following Patent Document 1), “the user terminal 110 searches based on a sample video stored in advance. The condition input tool 111 is executed to create a first media feature quantity (correct feature quantity) 121 that serves as a reference for searching the media recognition site, and the media recognition server 150 recognizes the sample image 119 and recognizes the result. Is transmitted to the user terminal 110. The user terminal 110 compares the correct feature value created in advance with the second media feature value that is the recognition result of the media recognition server 150, and the user desires The media recognition site for performing the recognition process is selected "(summary of the publication).

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-132808 states that “a database in which records are classified and stored in the lowest category of many categories organized by a hierarchical tree structure and received from a accessing user computer. A category search report means for sending a category search report in a predetermined format created by searching the database based on the search term to the user computer, and a category including the search term is extracted and this category search report is used based on the category correspondence table. Related category specifying means for specifying a category related to the category, and the category search report means describes in the category search report the position in the tree structure in the database for each category including the search term and each related category. The search service device ”is disclosed.

However, in any case, when a search is performed using a predetermined website, it is troublesome because a web page must be browsed and a keyword is input to a predetermined window. In addition, for those who are not familiar with the keyboard, such as elderly users, it takes time to enter keywords, so it is not necessarily user-friendly. You can also search without typing a character string by copying and pasting it into a window. However, those unfamiliar with computers not only know the shortcut commands for copy and paste, but also do not know their functions. Therefore, it is not always convenient to input a character string in the window by copy and paste.
JP-A-2005-71195 JP 2002-132808 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information search server that can easily search related sites.

  The present invention is basically based on the knowledge that a character string dragged by a client with a mouse or the like is used as it is for searching, so that it is not necessary to paste the character string into a window or the like to input it. is there.

  More specifically, the present invention is a server that can be used as a search site, a web page display means for displaying a web page on a display terminal for a client accessing the server, and the web page display A character string present on the web page displayed on the display terminal by the means and selected by the client pointing device, functioning as a character string sending means for sending to the server, An information search server that searches related sites based on the character string information and transmits search results to the client when character string information transmitted by the client character string transmission means is input to the server. About.

  When a sentence is displayed on a client monitor, etc., the character string included in the sentence is traced, and the search is performed using the character string traced by the user, so that the user does not need to input the character string one by one. .

  According to the present invention, it is not necessary to input a character string by performing a search using a character string dragged by a client with a mouse or the like, so that it is possible to provide an information search server that can easily search related sites. Become.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below. The “information search server” according to the first aspect of the present invention is a server that can be used as a search site, and displays a web page on a display terminal for a client that has accessed the server. And a character string transmitting means for causing the server to transmit a character string existing on the web page displayed on the display terminal by the web page display means and selected by the pointing device of the client; When the character string information transmitted from the client character string transmission means is input to the server, the related site is searched based on the character string information, and the search result is transmitted to the client. , Information retrieval server.

  The information retrieval server includes a “web page display step for displaying a web page including a window for character string input on a display terminal of the client when a predetermined client accesses a website managed by the server; Is a character string information storage step for storing a character string included in the web page displayed on the display terminal in the web page display step and selected by the client pointing device, and the client is the character string information storage step. A character string information transmission step for transmitting character string information stored by the client to the server, and the server receives the character string information transmitted by the character string information transmission step, and searches related sites according to the character string information. The related site search process and the server A search result transmission step for transmitting information including the search result obtained in step 1 to the client, and a related site where the client receives the information including the search result transmitted in the search result transmission step and displays the information on the display terminal. And an information retrieval method using a client / server system.

  The “server that can be used as a search site” may have a normal search function alone, or may be a server that provides an external program separately from a server that is another search site. . That is, the “server that can be used as a search site” may have a search function in itself or may use a search function of an external search site. Furthermore, a program as will be described later may be provided to appropriately search for information by dragging.

  The client usually means a user's computer, and includes an input device such as a mouse, keyboard, optical pen, digital pen, or other pointing device, or an interface for connecting to the Internet, a printer, a monitor, or the like. The server is connected via the Internet or an intranet, so that information can be exchanged. The client has an input device, an output device, a control device such as a CPU, an arithmetic device, and a storage device such as a memory and a main memory, and each device is connected via a bus or the like and can exchange information appropriately. Has been. When predetermined information is input to the CPU from the input device, the CPU reads a control program stored in the main memory based on the input information, and appropriately stores various information based on commands of the control program. The data is read out from the data, the calculation is performed, and the calculation result is stored in the memory. Then, the calculation result is output from the output device as appropriate. For example, a browser such as Internet Explorer (registered trademark) or Netscape (registered trademark) is installed in the client, and can be displayed as appropriate by downloading a web page from the website.

  An example of information retrieval using this server will be described below. A predetermined client accesses a website managed by the server. This website may be a so-called search site or a site that provides a blog or the like. By introducing the search program of the present invention, it becomes a search server.

  FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing how information including a character string is displayed on a monitor. The example of FIG. 1 shows a state where a certain search site is browsed. As shown in FIG. 1, a display frame (1) including information including a character string is displayed, and the display frame (1) includes a character display unit (2) for displaying information including a character string. Since FIG. 1 shows an example of a search site, a character frame (3) for executing a search is provided. In a normal case, a predetermined keyword is input in the character frame (3) to search for related sites.

  The user drags a character string of interest from the displayed web page, thereby selecting the character string. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a character string is selected on the website of FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 4 indicates the selected character string portion. In this example, “search engine” is selected. For example, the client or server may monitor the dragged process and grasp the dragged range. When dragging starts when the mouse click button is pressed, such as by mouse monitoring means (information input means that inputs information based on the mouse action) that monitors the mouse click button action and drag action Starts reading the character string, reads the character string that is being dragged while the mouse click button is held down, and stops reading the character string when the mouse click button is released. Also good. Also, unlike the normal copy operation, the user was dragged by receiving the information that the cursor indicated by the mouse was moved while receiving the information that the specified button was pressed. A character string may be selected information. In this way, a character string is selected by the character string selection means. For example, as in normal copying, the user may select the area where the left click is stopped by dragging with the mouse while left clicking. For this purpose, there is provided means for receiving information on the presence or absence of a left click and means for receiving character information included in the dragged area. Based on the information that the left click is performed, reading of the character string is started, and left Just keep reading the string until the click is released. Further, the drag speed may be monitored, and a character string selected by the user may be selected within a predetermined range of the maximum drag speed (for example, a period of 10% or less is 0.5 seconds or more). For this purpose, when the user drags a character string, the drag speed calculating means for calculating the drag speed and the drag time calculating means for calculating the drag time are provided. When the drag speed measured by the drag time calculation means falls below a predetermined value (eg, below 10% of the maximum), the dragged area is selected as the selected character string. That's fine. Alternatively, it may be a dragged region by dragging with the mouse or the like and making a right click or left click. Furthermore, as in normal copy and paste, a predetermined area may be dragged to display the drag area, and the area may be selected when the displayed state stands for a predetermined time or longer. Alternatively, the drag area may be displayed and the area may be selected when a predetermined command such as control + C is input.

  When the drag area is determined, the client, for example, receives a command from the control program by the CPU, reads the dragged character string, transmits information about the character string to a temporary storage device such as a DRAM, and the temporary storage device Stores information about character strings.

  Next, in the client, for example, the CPU receives a command from the control program, and transmits the stored character string information to the server. At this time, for example, information related to the client such as the IP address of the client may be transmitted together with the information related to the character string.

  The server receives the character string information transmitted from the client, and searches for related sites according to the character string information. The search method at this time is arbitrary.

  As a search device used for searching such a related site, for example, in a similar character string search device having a function of outputting a character string similar to an input character string described in Japanese Patent No. 3531222, a certain character Character component of the input character string that holds a character replacement table that associates the characters that can be replaced with, a list of characters that constitute the input character string, and information that indicates the appearance position of each character in the input character string If there is a replaceable character in the input character string with reference to the character replacement table in the table, the replacement character and its occurrence are assumed to be the replacement character appearance position in the input character string. A character component table creation unit that creates a character component table to which information indicating a position is added, a dictionary in which various character strings are registered, and a character component table for each character in the character string registered in the dictionary are searched. , Inspection If the searched character exists, the appearance position of the character is extracted, and a character string correspondence table is created that shows a one-to-one correspondence between the character string registered in the dictionary and each character of the input character string. When the table creation unit and each registered character string in the dictionary correspond to the evaluation value of the similarity between the input character string and the registered character string, and all the characters in the input character string and the registered character string correspond as the optimum corresponding characters Based on the value of the character string, by deducting points for characters that do not correspond based on the character string correspondence table, the deduction value when replacing a replacement character should be less than the deduction value when there is a discrepancy Thus, a similar character string search device characterized in that a similarity determination unit for determining the similarity between the input character string and each registered character string in a form reflecting easy-to-occur character replacement may be used. .

  The server transmits information including the search result obtained in the related site search process to the client. Then, information including the search result is displayed on the display terminal of the client. At this time, the server performs processing so that a display screen different from the display screen originally browsed by the client is displayed, and a new web page is browsed by causing the client to download the processed web page. You may let them. Also, another page may be browsed on the screen that the client originally browsed.

  By doing in this way, the website information regarding the character string contained in the web page is displayed on the display terminal of the client.

  FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example in which search results are displayed. As shown in FIG. 3, the search result may be displayed in a separate frame (5). In another frame, for example, there is a link part (6) to the character string used for the search. By clicking the link part (6) of the search character, the search character is used in a normal search site. Related websites may be displayed as if they were searched. Further, in another frame, for example, a hyper ring is attached together with the title of the related site, and the related site may be accessed by using the hyper link. In the example of FIG. 3, for example, the area (7) displayed as Omoro search engine SAGOOOL has a hyperlink, and by clicking on the area, the site is related to the term “search engine”. You can access "Omoro Search Engine SAGOOOL".

  FIG. 4 is an example in which search results are displayed, and is a conceptual diagram showing something different from FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, when a search is performed, the display content in the character display unit (2) may be updated, and the updated information may be downloaded to the client.

  In a preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention, the server that can be used as the search site is a server that provides a blog, and the character string included in the blog included in the web page is used. The server for information selection as described above, which can search related sites related to a column.

  In other words, the blog is a diary published on the Internet, and it is expected to provide a more attractive blog site. If this server system is used, a blog viewer can easily search for a website related to a character string appearing in a blog, so that an attractive blog site can be provided. It should be noted that the server of the present invention is not limited to a blog, and can be used for any type of web page, and can easily provide information on a web site related to the web page.

  A preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention is the information selection server according to any one of the above, in which coloring remains on the dragged character string described above. Such a server only needs to function so as to include means for storing the selected character string portion and means for performing predetermined coloring on the selected character string portion. Such coloring can be easily achieved, for example, by attaching a tag for designating a color. Since the coloring remains, it becomes clear at a glance which character string the user has selected.

  In a preferred embodiment of the first aspect of the present invention, when a repeated character string search is performed in a certain web page, predetermined coloring is performed according to the order of the searched character strings. Specifically, the first search is fluorescent yellow, the second search is fluorescent light blue, and the third search is fluorescent red. Each of these searches may be a separate search or an AND search. The AND search is to display website information related to all terms used in the search.

  A “client / server system” according to a second aspect of the present invention is a client / server system including an information retrieval server and a plurality of clients connected to the server via the Internet or an intranet. A web page display means for displaying the accessed client on a display terminal, and a character string existing in the web page displayed on the display terminal by the web page display means, selected by the client pointing device When the character string information transmitted by the client character string transmission means is input to the server, the server is operated based on the character string information. Search related sites and search results for the client To send to, it is a client-server system.

  In this client / server system, when a predetermined client accesses a website managed by a predetermined server, a web page displaying step of displaying a web page including a character string input window on the display terminal of the client; A first character string information storage step in which the client stores character string information input in the window displayed in the web page display step; and a client in the first character string information storage step. A first character string information transmission step of transmitting the stored character string information to the server; and the server receives the character string information transmitted by the first character string information transmission step, and according to the character string information, A first related site search step of searching for a related site, and the server includes the first related site search process; A first search result transmission step for transmitting the information including the search result obtained in step 1 to the client; and the client receives the information including the search result transmitted in the first search result transmission step and receives the information on the display terminal. A first related site displaying step for displaying, and a client storing a character string selected by the pointing device of the client included in the web page displayed on the display terminal in the first related site displaying step 2 character string information storage step, a second character string information transmission step in which the client transmits character string information stored by the client in the second character string information storage step to the server, and the server includes: A second related site that receives the character string information transmitted in the character string information transmitting step and searches for the related site according to the character string information; A search step, a second search result transmission step in which the server transmits information including the search result obtained in the second related site search step to the client, and the client performs the second search. It can be particularly preferably used in an information search method using a client / server system including a second related site display step of receiving information including a search result transmitted in the result transmission step and displaying the information on a display terminal.

  In other words, it is more convenient to combine the functions of a server that enables searching for related sites by simply tracing the characters described above to a normal search site or search server that allows you to search by entering a character string in a window. High client / server system can be constructed.

  The present invention is a server that can be used as a search site, the client accessing the server displaying a web page on a display terminal, and displaying the web page on the display terminal by the web page display means A character string that exists on the web page selected by the client pointing device and functions as a character string transmitting means for transmitting to the server, the character string transmitting means of the client The computer program for functioning as an information search server that searches related sites based on the character string information and transmits the search result to the client when the character string information transmitted by is input to the server Also provided is a computer-readable information recording medium storing .

  In other words, by pasting the above program on a blog or the like, the user can easily search for and display a website related to the character string included in the blog, so that a highly convenient blog can be provided. It becomes.

  A system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The system includes, for example, a web page search server (external program server) 201 connected to the Internet 101, a web server 202, and a user PC 203.

  The web page search server 201 has a function of outputting a list of web pages that match the input keyword, such as Google (registered trademark) and Yahoo (registered trademark).

  The external program 301 provided by the external program server 201 is described using, for example, a javascript that is a language that can be executed by general web page browsing software, such as a mouse of the user PC 203 as a client. Processing for monitoring the operation of the pointing device (event such as mouseup) may be included.

For example, the following code is embedded in advance in the web page 302 stored in the web server 202 in order to incorporate an external program that is a Java script, for example. <script language = "javascript" charset = "UTF-8"
type = "text / javascript"
src = "http://sagool.jp/img/hareel.js"></script>

  The user PC 203 can be used by installing web page browsing software.

  Next, the flow of the embodiment of the present invention will be described using the overall processing flow of FIG. 6 and the change of the input / output device of the user PC 203 of FIG. Hereinafter, S indicates a step unless otherwise specified.

  First, the user PC 203 browses the web page 302 (S101, S201). When the homepage browsing software program is stored in the memory and the CPU executes the homepage browsing software program stored in the memory, a request for the web page 302 is transmitted from the communication device of the user PC 203 to the web server 202. When the web page 302 data is received from the web server 202, the received web page 302 data is stored in the memory, the CPU analyzes the web page 302 data stored in the memory, and the contents of the web page 302 are determined by the user. The information is displayed on the output device (monitor) of the PC 203.

  In accordance with the external program built-in code described in the web page 302 analyzed in S101, the user PC 203 reads the external program (S102). A request for the external program 301 is transmitted from the communication device to the external program server 201, and data of the external program 301 is received from the external program server 201. The received external program is stored in the memory of the user PC 203, and the CPU executes the external program stored in the memory to start monitoring the operation of the input device (mouse).

  While the operation of the input device of the user PC 203 is monitored in S102, the user selects a range of keywords in the web page 302 by (drag) operation of the input device (mouse) (S103, S202).

  The CPU executes the external program stored in the memory upon detecting that the range of keywords has been selected in S103. The range-selected keywords are stored in the memory. The CPU issues a command to transmit the selected keyword to the web page search server 201, and the client transmits the keyword to the server 201 based on the command (S104). The keyword received by the server 201 is transmitted to the server 202, and the server 202 receives this information. Note that the server 201 has a search function, and the related site may be searched independently. This keyword may be sent to the server 202, and a search for a predetermined related site may be performed by a search engine of the search site.

  The server 201 or the server 202 searches for related sites based on the received keyword (S105). Then, based on the search result, information is collected so that the client can display it, stored in the memory, and the information is transmitted to the client.

  The client receives information including the related site transmitted from the server (S106). The client stores the received information including the related site in a memory or the like.

  The search result data stored in the memory in S106 is displayed on the output device (monitor) (S107, S203). In this way, information such as a website related to the character string dragged by the client is displayed on the display terminal of the client.

  Since the web page search method of the present invention can be incorporated into any web page on the Internet, it can be used in the information industry.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing how information including a character string is displayed on a monitor. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a character string is selected on the website of FIG. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example in which search results are displayed. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example in which search results are displayed. FIG. 5 shows a configuration diagram of a system in which an external program is incorporated into a web page to automatically search for a keyword selected by a mouse drag operation and display the result on a monitor. FIG. 6 shows the overall processing flow of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 shows the change of the input / output device of the user PC when the method of the present invention is used.

Explanation of symbols

101: Internet (www), 201: Web page search server (external program server), 202: Web server, 203: User PC, 301: External program file, 302: Web page

Claims (5)

A server that can be used as a search site,
The client that accessed the server
Web page display means for displaying a web page on a display terminal;
A character string transmitting means for causing the server to transmit a character string existing on the web page displayed on the display terminal by the web page display means, and selected by the pointing device of the client;
To function,
When the character string information transmitted by the character string transmitting means of the client is input to the server, the related site is searched based on the character string information, and the search result is transmitted to the client.
Information retrieval server. The server that can be used as the search site is a server that provides a blog.
Using a character string included in the blog included in the web page, a related site related to the character string can be searched.
The information selection server according to claim 1. A client / server system including an information retrieval server and a plurality of clients connected to the server via the Internet or an intranet,
The client that accessed the server
Web page display means for displaying a web page on a display terminal;
A character string transmitting means for causing the server to transmit a character string existing on the web page displayed on the display terminal by the web page display means, and selected by the pointing device of the client;
To function,
When the character string information transmitted by the character string transmitting means of the client is input to the server, the related site is searched based on the character string information, and the search result is transmitted to the client.
Client / server system. A web page display step of displaying a web page on a display terminal of the client when a predetermined client accesses a website managed by a predetermined server;
A character string information storage step of sensing that the client is included in the web page displayed on the display terminal in the web page display step and selected by the client pointing device, and storing the selected character string;
A character string information transmitting step in which the client transmits character string information stored by the client in the character string information storing step to the server;
The server receives the character string information transmitted by the character string information transmission step, and searches for a related site according to the character string information;
A search result transmission step in which the server transmits information including the search result obtained in the related site search step to the client;
A related site display step in which the client receives information including the search result transmitted in the search result transmission step and displays the information on a display terminal;
including,
Information retrieval method using a client / server system. A web page display step of displaying a web page including a window for character string input on a display terminal of the client when a predetermined client accesses a website managed by a predetermined server;
A first character string information storage step in which the client stores character string information input in the window displayed in the web page display step;
A first character string information transmitting step in which the client transmits character string information stored by the client in the first character string information storing step to the server;
A first related site search step in which the server receives the character string information transmitted in the first character string information transmission step and searches for a related site according to the character string information;
A first search result transmission step in which the server transmits information including the search result obtained in the first related site search step to the client;
A first related site display step in which the client receives information including the search result transmitted in the first search result transmission step and displays the information on a display terminal;
A second character string information storage step in which the client stores a character string included in the web page displayed on the display terminal in the first related site display step and selected by the client pointing device;
A second character string information transmitting step in which the client transmits character string information stored by the client in the second character string information storing step to the server;
A second related site search step in which the server receives the character string information transmitted by the character string information transmission step and searches for a related site according to the character string information;
A second search result transmission step in which the server transmits information including the search result obtained in the second related site search step to the client;
A second related site display step in which the client receives information including the search result transmitted in the second search result transmission step and displays the information on a display terminal;
including,
Information retrieval method using a client / server system.

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