JP2005099964A - Retrieval classifying system, retrieval classifying server, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a retrieval classifying system for easily acquiring information belonging to a popular category. <P>SOLUTION: This retrieval classifying system is configured by connecting a retrieval classifying server having a database in which information classified into categories is stored and managed through a network to a plurality of terminal equipment to extract information corresponding to conditions requested by the terminal equipment from the database, and to output the information to the terminal equipment. At first, the date information when the retrieval request is made is added to the category of the retrieval request inputted by a user or retrieval conditions, and time-sequentially stored as a retrieval log. Then, retrieval words whose frequency is high are extracted as the category from the retrieval log, and the category is selected by the user from categories displayed on the picture of the terminal equipment, and the database is retrieved by using the selected category as the retrieval conditions. This retrieval result is transmitted to the terminal equipment, and displayed on the picture so that the information for the popular category can be easily acquired. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a search classification system, a search classification server, a program, and a recording medium. More specifically, the present invention relates to a search technique that can easily obtain popular information when searching for information existing on a network. It is suitable for use when a search engine dedicated to a WWW site or an intranet is constructed by a group or organization.

  Conventionally, when searching web pages on the WWW (World Wide Web), web pages collected using a search robot are stored in a database. Next, when the user inputs a search condition to the database via the network, the database provides the site where the web page matching the input word is located. Alternatively, web pages collected by a company that provides a search engine are classified, and a desired web page is searched by following the classification tree.

To find out which of these many web pages are popular,
(1) Ask about reputation and evaluation from people who know web pages well,
(2) Depending on the number of times the web page was accessed,
(3) It is possible to know whether it is based on a popularity mark arbitrarily given by the administrator of the web page.

  For example, in Patent Document 1, in a search engine system in which a plurality of homepages are registered, the popularity for each homepage is acquired, the URL for each homepage, the search document, and the popularity are stored in a database. Are retrieved from the search engine user, the web page whose search keyword matches the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or the search document is extracted, and the extracted web page is ordered based on the degree of popularity. By sending the ordered results to search engine users, it is possible for beginners to easily search popular web pages that people often use from web pages with information that they want to know.

Further, in Patent Document 2, the performance score of each document is calculated from the usage information for the document stored in the database, and the portion of the other document having the usage information that includes the usage information for the document for each document. The average performance score of the set is the expected score, and the document score is calculated and stored in the document score database using a combination of the performance score and the expected score weighted by the importance according to the size of the subset. The requested document set is ranked using the document score of each document in the document score database and transmitted to the user. Thereby, it is difficult to be influenced by the bias of the usage information, and the popularity ranking can be performed with high accuracy even for a document with little information.
JP 2001-209601 A JP 2002-342379 A

However, in the conventional techniques as described above, the popularity of individual web pages and documents in the search results can be understood, but the field (classification category) to which the popular web pages and documents belong is popular. There is no guarantee.
Therefore, in the above-described conventional technology, it is impossible to know which field (classification category) is currently popular and which web page or document is popular in that field.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a search classification system, a search classification server, a program, and a recording medium that make it easy to obtain information belonging to a popular category. And

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention of claim 1 is a request for a search classification server having a database for holding and managing information classified into categories and a plurality of terminal devices connected by a network. In the search and classification system for extracting information according to the search condition from the database and outputting the information to the terminal device, the search and classification server extracts a search term having a high frequency as a category from a search log obtained in the past. A word ranking unit, a category selection unit that allows a user to select a category from the categories displayed on the screen of the terminal device, a search unit that searches the database using the selected category as a search condition, and the search And an output unit that transmits the result to the terminal device and displays the result on a screen.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the search classification system according to claim 1, wherein the search log adds the date and time information when the search request is made to the search request category and the search condition input by the user. It is characterized by memorizing in series.

  Further, the invention of claim 3 is the search classification system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the search word ranking unit divides the search log category and search condition into words, and then the high frequency of appearance. It is characterized by extracting words as categories.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the search classification system according to the first, second, or third aspect, when a period is specified for the search log, a search log within the specified period is specified from the search log. The search term ranking unit extracts a category based on the search log extracted by the log range acquisition unit.

  The invention according to claim 5 is connected to a plurality of terminal devices through a network, and extracts information corresponding to conditions required from the terminal devices from a database that holds and manages information classified into categories. In a search classification server that outputs to a device, a search word ranking unit that extracts frequently searched words as a category from a search log obtained in the past, and a user among the categories displayed on the screen of the terminal device A category selection unit that selects a category, a search unit that searches the database using the selected category as a search condition, and an output unit that transmits the search result to the terminal device and displays the result on the screen. And

The invention of claim 6 is a program for causing a computer to function as the search classification system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 or the search classification server according to claim 5.
A seventh aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to the sixth aspect is recorded.

  According to the present invention, a user can know a popular category and can easily obtain information belonging to the category by searching using the category.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment according to the search classification system of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention. In the figure, the search classification system connects a search classification server 1, terminal devices 2 of a plurality of users, and a DB (database) server 3 that provides content via a network 4.

  The search classification server 1 holds a database for managing link information for a plurality of pieces of information held and managed by the DB server 3, and refers to the database for information that matches the search request from the terminal device 2. And return a list of the information. This list includes bibliographic items such as the degree of match, popularity, information location, title, registration date, etc. that match the search request.

  Further, a search request made to the search classification server 1 is stored as a log, and a classification / category having a high appearance frequency (popularity) is extracted from this log. Further, the database is searched based on the extracted classification / category, and an information list of search results is output to the user terminal device 2.

The user terminal device 2 is a computer, PDA (Personal digital Assistant), mobile phone, or the like that can be connected to the network 4 and can be connected to the network 4 and can access the search classification server 1 and the DB server 3. Good. For example, if the client side software of the search classification system that can display the search request instruction and the search result can be operated, or can access the search classification server 1 and the DB server 3 using a WWW browser. Good.
Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, the terminal device 2 will be described as a computer on which a WWW browser operates.

The DB (database) server 3 is a database server that holds and manages contents such as web pages and documents searched by the search classification server 1. The search classification server 1 is a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), category, bibliographic item (title, author, keyword, registration date, document size, summary, etc.) for contents held by a plurality of DB servers 3 existing on the network 4 Maintain and manage the degree as a database.
Further, in the case where the search classification server 1 holds content that is held in the DB server 3 as a database, there may be a configuration without the DB server 3.

The network 4 is a transmission path for connecting the terminal device 2 of these users, the search classification server 1 and the DB server 3 and is generally realized by a cable, and TCP / IP is used as a communication protocol. However, the transmission path is not limited to a cable, but may be wired or wireless as long as the communication protocol between them matches.
As this network 4, for example, an intranet as an in-company network, the Internet, a mobile phone network, a satellite communication network, or the like can be used.

There are the following two methods for searching using the search classification system having such a configuration.
(1) A method of performing a normal search by specifying a category and a search condition.
When the user accesses the search classification server 1 using the WWW browser of the terminal device 2, a search screen as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 100 denotes a field for selecting a category, which is selected from predetermined categories or directly inputs a desired category. When no category is input, nothing is input in the category 100 or “no category” is selected. Reference numeral 101 denotes a field for inputting a search condition as a keyword or a combination of keywords. Reference numeral 102 denotes a radio button or the like for designating a period for evaluating the popularity (explained later). By specifying this period, popular categories can be found and used to search by that category. Reference numeral 103 denotes a search button for requesting the search classification server 1 to execute a search after setting a search condition (100, 101, or 102).

The user selects the category 100 or inputs the search condition 101 and then clicks (presses) the search button 103. Here, both the category and the search condition may be input.
The search classification server 1 searches for information that matches the specified category and search condition, returns the search result to the WWW browser of the terminal device 2, and the WWW browser displays the result. At this time, categories and search conditions designated by the user are accumulated and recorded in the search classification server 1 as a search log.

(2) A method of searching by selecting a popular category.
When the user wants to know what category information is popular and what information is included in the category, when the screen as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed, the popularity is first evaluated. The period is selected with any radio button in the radio button 102 or the like.

  In FIG. 2, it is possible to select no time limit, within the past week, within the past month, or within a specified period (date designation). Here, in the case of date specification, the start date and end date are also entered. If the start date is omitted, all search logs before the end date are targeted, and if the end date is omitted, search from the start date to the current time is performed. Log is targeted.

Next, the search button 103 is clicked (pressed) without inputting the category 100 or the search condition 101.
The search classification server 1 extracts a search log for a specified period, extracts frequently used categories and search conditions, and displays them on the WWW browser of the terminal device 2. (In this embodiment, the degree of popularity is defined as being proportional to the frequency of search requests.)
The user selects an item of interest from the displayed categories and search conditions and transmits it to the search classification server 1.
The search classification server 1 executes a search with the selected category or search condition, returns the search result, and the WWW browser of the terminal device 2 displays the search result. At this time, the selected category and search condition are accumulated and recorded in the search classification server 1 as a search log.

With this configuration, the user can know a popular category, and can easily obtain information belonging to the category by searching using the category.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the search classification server 1 according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, the search classification server 1 includes a control unit 10, a search word ranking unit 20, a category selection unit 30, a search unit 40, an output unit 50, a search log storage unit 70, and a DB (database) 80.

  The search log storage unit 70 accumulates and stores the categories and search conditions requested by the user. As stored contents, as shown in FIG. 4, the date and time when accumulatively storing is added to the category of the search request and the search condition (a single search word or a combination of search terms), and the accumulated memory is stored as a time series based on this date and time. To do.

  The DB (database) 80 stores the following information related to web pages and documents stored in the DB server 3. The items to be stored are the URI indicating the location of the content, the category of the content, the popularity of the content, or the bibliographic items of the content (title, author, keyword, registration) for each content (web page, document, etc.) held by the DB server 3 Day, document size, summary, etc.).

In the present embodiment, the control unit 10 is configured by using a Web server (for example, httpd), data transmission / reception with the terminal device 2, a search word ranking unit 20, a category selection unit 30, a search unit 40, and an output unit. 50 etc. are controlled.
Further, when the user terminal device 2 accesses the search classification server 1 via the WWW browser of the terminal device 2, the control unit 10 transmits a screen for inputting search conditions as shown in FIG.

  Next, if the search request received from the WWW browser of the terminal device 2 is a category or a search condition, the control unit 10 activates the search unit 40 and passes this search request. On the other hand, when the received search request is a request for knowing the degree of popularity, the search word ranking unit 20 is activated to pass this search request.

In addition, when the category selection screen (described later) is passed from the category selection unit 30, the control unit 10 sends the category selection screen to the user terminal device 2, and when the selection result is returned, the category selection unit again 30 is started and the selection result is passed.
Furthermore, when the output format of the search result is passed from the output unit 50, the control unit 10 transmits the search result to the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2.

The search word ranking unit 20 receives a period during which the degree of popularity is evaluated from the control unit 10. In the first embodiment, a case where “no limitation” is selected will be described.
The search word ranking unit 20 reads a search log from the search log storage unit 70 as shown in FIG. 4, and sets a category and a search condition in one search request as a set of character strings (hereinafter referred to as a category). The frequency in the search log storage unit 70 for this character string is calculated to create a frequency table. For example, in the case of the search log in FIG. 4, the frequency table is as shown in FIG.

Next, this frequency table is sorted in descending order of frequency. In the case of FIG. 5, the result is as shown in FIG. From this frequency table, a predetermined number having a high frequency (in this example, three is used, but can be arbitrarily set) is extracted (see FIG. 7). At this time, if there are a plurality of frequencies with the same frequency, the extraction ends when the number of extractions reaches a predetermined number.
The search word ranking unit 20 activates the category selection unit 30 and passes the predetermined number of categories and the like extracted as described above.

  The category selection unit 30 receives the category and the like extracted by the search word ranking unit 20, creates a selection screen of the category and the like as shown in FIG. 8, and the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2 via the control unit 10 Send to. The category selection screen shown in FIG. 8 includes a list (104) in which the previously extracted categories are numbered, a field 105 for inputting a desired number, and a send button.

The user inputs a number assigned to a desired category or the like from the displayed selection screen into the field 105 and clicks (presses) the transmission button 106 to transmit it to the search classification server 1.
Upon receiving the selection result category or the like, the control unit 10 activates the search unit 40 and passes the selection result category or the like.

  The search unit 40 searches for information that matches the bibliographic items and the like of the DB 80 using the category or the like passed from the control unit 10 (for example, “device driver” when “2” is input in FIG. 8) as a search condition. Then, a predetermined number is extracted in descending order of the degree of coincidence and the popularity as information, and the output unit 50 is activated to pass this search result and the number of search results. Here, each piece of information of the search result is a match, popularity, URI, bibliographic item (category, title, author, keyword, registration date, document size, summary, etc.).

Further, the search unit 40 accumulates and writes the category and search condition (category etc.) transmitted from the user terminal device 2 and the write time in the search log storage unit 70 in chronological order.
For example, when “new product” is received as a category or the like for the contents of the search log storage unit 70 in FIG. 4, the writing time (Tue Aug 26 09:18:18 GMT 2003) and this “new product” are set. By writing together, the search logs are accumulated as shown in FIG.

The output unit 50 creates a search result display screen as shown in FIG. 10 from the passed search result, and transmits it to the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2.
In FIG. 10, each piece of information such as the title 107 with a link to the location of information (URI) and the other bibliographic items 108 is displayed in the descending order of the degree of coincidence.
When the user clicks a desired title 107 in the list displayed as shown in FIG. 10, the contents of the link destination information indicated by the URI linked to this title are taken into the WWW browser and displayed.

  By configuring as described above, it is possible to know popular information in the form of a category and obtain a list of information included in the category by regarding a search character string having a high frequency in the search log as a category.

<Embodiment 2>
In the search word ranking unit 20 of the first embodiment, the frequency table is created by interpreting the categories and search conditions for a single search request stored in the search log storage unit 70 as a group of character strings. In the second embodiment, this single character string is divided into a plurality of words, and a frequency table is created for the divided words (hereinafter referred to as search words) in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

Since the functional configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, only the differences will be described.
In the search word ranking unit 20 of the second embodiment, for example, the search request category and the search condition are divided into individual search words for the search log in FIG. Thus, a frequency table as shown in FIG. 11 is created.
Furthermore, when FIG. 11 is sorted in descending order of frequency, a frequency table as shown in FIG. 12 is obtained. Among these, a predetermined number (here, 3) is extracted in order of frequency.
The three search terms extracted as shown in FIG. 13 are regarded as categories with high popularity, and are passed to the category selection unit 30.

The category selection unit 30 creates a category selection screen as shown in FIG. 14 from the three passed categories (search terms) and displays it on the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2 via the control unit 10.
When the user selects “driver” from this category selection screen, this category is regarded as a search character string, the search unit 40 searches the DB 80, and after the matching information is converted into the format shown in FIG. It transmits to the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2 via the control unit 10.

  If comprised as mentioned above, even if the category and search condition of a search log are comprised from several words, the popularity degree about each word can be known. With reference to this popularity, the user can search for information on a word of interest.

<Embodiment 3>
Hereinafter, a case where a period for evaluating popularity (within one week, within one month, date designation) is designated will be described as the third embodiment.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the search classification server 1 according to the third embodiment. In the figure, a search classification server 1 includes a control unit 10, a search word ranking unit 20, a category selection unit 30, a search unit 40, an output unit 50, a log range acquisition unit 60, a search log storage unit 70, and a DB (database) 80. It is made up of.
The same functions as those in the first and second embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and only the differences will be described.

When a search request with a limited period for evaluating the degree of popularity is received from the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2, the control unit 10 activates the log range acquisition unit 60 and passes the specified period.
The log range acquisition unit 60 refers to the writing time of each search log stored in the search log storage unit 70, extracts the search log within the specified period, activates the search term ranking unit 20, Pass this extracted search log.

  For example, when extracting a category with high popularity within the past four days, a date three days before the current time is set as the start date, and today's date is set as the end date for the search log in FIG. Extract search logs. In this case, as shown in FIG. 17, the search logs from August 22 to August 25 are extracted.

The search word ranking unit 20 interprets the extracted search log as a set of character strings (hereinafter referred to as categories, etc.), as in the search word ranking unit 20 in the first embodiment. Create a frequency table for this string. Alternatively, similar to the search word ranking unit 20 in the second embodiment, the group of character strings is divided into a plurality of words, and a frequency table is created for the divided words (hereinafter referred to as search words).
For example, if a frequency table is created for the search log in FIG. 17 as in the first embodiment and sorted in descending order of frequency, a frequency table as shown in FIG. 18 is obtained. Among these, a predetermined number (three in this case) is extracted in order of frequency, and the extracted three categories and the like as shown in FIG.

The category selection unit 30 creates a category selection screen as shown in FIG. 20 from the passed three categories and displays it on the WWW browser of the user terminal device 2 via the control unit 10.
The search unit 40 regards the category selected by the user on the category selection screen as a search character string, searches the DB 80, converts the matched information into a display format by the output unit 50, and then uses the control unit 10 to change the user's information. It transmits to the WWW browser of the terminal device 2.

  By configuring as above, categories are created based on the search logs within the specified period, so you can know the trends in the weekly popularity ranking and monthly popularity ranking as categories, and list the documents included in that category. Can be obtained.

<Other embodiments>
Furthermore, the present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiments, but the functions of the devices of the above-described embodiments are each programmed, written in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM in advance, and mounted on a computer. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by installing the CD-ROM or the like in a medium driving device such as a CD-ROM drive, and installing and executing these programs.
In this case, the program read from the recording medium itself realizes the above-described embodiment, and the program and the recording medium on which the program is recorded also constitute the present invention.

As a recording medium, a semiconductor medium (for example, ROM, nonvolatile memory card, etc.), an optical medium (for example, DVD, MO, MD, CD-R, etc.), a magnetic medium (for example, magnetic tape, flexible disk, etc.) Either may be sufficient.
Alternatively, the program stored in the storage device of the server computer may be directly supplied via a communication network such as the Internet. In this case, the storage device of this server computer is also included in the recording medium of the present invention.

  Further, not only the above-described embodiment is realized by executing the loaded program, but the operating system or the like performs a part of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program, and the above-described embodiment is performed by the processing. The case where it is realized is also included.

It is a block diagram which shows the whole structure of embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is an example of a search request input screen. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the search classification server of Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2. FIG. It is an example of the search log accumulated and stored in the search log storage unit. It is an example of the frequency table created from the search log of FIG. 6 is an example of a result of sorting the frequency table of FIG. 5 in descending order of frequency. It is an example of the category etc. which extracted predetermined number from the frequency table of FIG. FIG. 8 is a display example of a selection screen for categories and the like generated from the categories of FIG. 7. It is an example when a category and search conditions are added to the search log shown in FIG. It is an example of a screen that displays search results when the category is “device driver”. 5 is an example of a frequency table when the search log in FIG. 4 is divided into search terms. 12 is an example of a result of sorting the frequency table of FIG. 11 in descending order of frequency. It is an example of the category etc. which extracted predetermined number from the frequency table | surface of FIG. 14 is a display example of a category selection screen generated from the category of FIG. It is an example of a screen displaying a search result when the category is “driver”. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the search classification server of Embodiment 3. It is an example of the search log extracted when the period (the past 4 days) was limited. It is an example of the frequency table created from the search log for a limited period and sorted. It is an example of the category etc. which extracted predetermined number from the frequency table of FIG. FIG. 20 is a display example of a category selection screen generated from the category of FIG. 19. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Search classification server, 2 ... Terminal device, 3 ... DB server, 4 ... Network, 10 ... Control part, 20 ... Search word ranking part, 30 ... Category selection part, 40 ... Search part, 50 ... Output part, 60 ... Log range acquisition unit, 70 ... Search log storage unit, 80 ... Database (DB), 100 ... Category, 101 ... Search condition, 102 ... Radio button, 103 ... Search button, 104 ... List of category, 105 ... Number input field 106 ... Send button, 107 ... Title, 108 ... Bibliographic item.

Claims (7)

  A search classification server having a database for holding and managing information classified into categories and a plurality of terminal devices are connected via a network, and information corresponding to conditions required by the terminal devices is extracted from the database and the terminal devices In the search classification system that outputs to the search classification server, the search classification server extracts, as a category, a search term that is frequently searched from a search log that was searched in the past, and the category displayed on the screen of the terminal device. A category selection unit that allows a user to select a category from among the above, a search unit that searches the database using the selected category as a search condition, and an output unit that transmits the search result to the terminal device and displays it on the screen. The search classification system characterized by having.   The search classification system according to claim 1, wherein the search log includes time search information added to a search request category or search condition input by a user and is stored in time series. Feature search classification system.   3. The search classification system according to claim 1, wherein the search word ranking unit divides the search log category and search condition into words, and then extracts the words having high appearance frequency as categories. Search classification system.   The search classification system according to claim 1, further comprising: a log range acquisition unit that obtains a search log within the specified period from the search log when a period is specified for the search log. The search term ranking unit extracts a category based on the search log extracted by the log range acquisition unit.   In a search classification server that connects to a plurality of terminal devices through a network, extracts information according to conditions requested from the terminal devices from a database that holds and manages information classified into categories, and outputs the information to the terminal devices. A search term ranking unit that extracts frequently searched terms as categories from a search log when searched in the past, a category selection unit that allows a user to select a category from the categories displayed on the screen of the terminal device, A search classification server, comprising: a search unit that searches the database using the selected category as a search condition; and an output unit that transmits the search result to the terminal device and displays the search result on a screen.   A program for causing a computer to function as the search classification system according to any one of claims 1 to 4 or the search classification server according to claim 5.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 6 is recorded.

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