JP2011113102A - Advertisement distribution device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a plurality of advertisements without impairing the visibility of a map. <P>SOLUTION: An advertisement distribution device has: an advertisement storage means 45 for storing one or more advertisements in association with positions on a map; a position information reception means 30 for receiving a request for display related with a terminal T; an advertisement extraction means 40 for extracting one or more advertisements from the advertisement storage means 45 base on a position on the map in association with the received request; a sequence giving means 50 for giving a display sequences to each of the extracted advertisements based on a prescribed reference; a timing setting means 60 for setting the display timing of each of the advertisements based on each of the given display sequences; and a display control means 70 for making the terminal T display each of the corresponding advertisements in each of the set display timings based on the determination of the lapse of time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a web advertisement distribution technique.

  Conventionally, there is a service that displays an advertisement corresponding to a position on a map that a user is browsing on a web screen with an icon or the like (for example, see Non-Patent Document 1). When this type of icon is pointed or clicked with a mouse cursor, detailed information such as a store name is often displayed near the icon or on the left edge of the screen.

  By the way, in this kind of service, the user wants to see the information intended by the user, such as the spot information searched for the map surface itself or its location, and is not an advertisement. There is a problem that the visibility of the map is impaired when there are many advertisements.

NTT Resonant Co., Ltd., “goo map”, [online], [October 23, 2009 search], Internet <URL: http://map.goo.ne.jp/>

JP 2009-86786 A

  In this regard, when submitting advertisements, there is a technology that accepts the designation of the position you want to display on the map and the fee that you can pay from the advertiser etc., and displays it with the priority set in the order of the advertisement with the highest specified fee It has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this technology, if there are many advertisements to be displayed even if the priority in order of price is used for a certain place on the map, an advertisement display sub-screen is provided to display an advertisement that cannot be displayed on the map surface. .

  However, when the advertisement display sub-screen is displayed in this way, there is a problem that the net map display surface becomes narrow by that amount, and the visibility of the map is impaired. The present invention solves the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to display a large number of advertisements without impairing the visibility of a map.

  Based on the above object, one aspect (1) of the present invention relates to an advertisement distribution device, which relates to an advertisement storage unit that stores one or more advertisements in association with a position on a map, and a user terminal. Receiving means for receiving a request for display; advertisement extracting means for extracting one or more advertisements from the advertisement storage means based on a position on the map corresponding to the received request; and a predetermined reference for each extracted advertisement Based on the given display order, the order setting means for assigning the display order, the timing setting means for setting the display timing of each advertisement, and the respective display timings set based on the determination of the passage of time, Display control means for displaying each corresponding advertisement on the user terminal.

  According to another aspect (4) of the present invention, the above aspect is grasped from the viewpoint of a method, and a computer having advertisement storage means for storing one or more advertisements in association with a position on a map is used by a user. A receiving step for receiving a display request relating to the terminal, an advertisement extracting step for extracting one or more advertisements from the advertisement storage means based on the position on the map corresponding to the received request, and for each extracted advertisement A rank assigning step for assigning a display rank according to a predetermined standard, a timing setting step for setting a display timing of each advertisement based on the given display ranks, and each display set based on the determination of the passage of time And a display control step of displaying the corresponding advertisements on the user terminal at a timing.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when an advertisement is displayed on a map, a display timing is set for each advertisement individually or grouped by several based on a display order assigned to each advertisement on a predetermined basis. By displaying each advertisement on the user terminal, it is possible to display a large number of advertisements on a map while maintaining the visibility of the map even if a large number of advertisements are placed in a certain place.

  According to another aspect (2) of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, the rank assigning unit (step) calculates a distance between corresponding positions of the advertisement, and each advertisement within a predetermined distance has a different display timing. It is characterized in that a display order is given.

  In this mode, icons that are close to each other are displayed at different timings, so that several icons can be avoided from appearing densely such as overlapping, and the visibility of the map can be maintained more reliably. it can.

  According to another aspect (3) of the present invention, in any one of the above aspects, when the display control means (step) displays the advertisement of the next display order as an icon, the display control means (step) displays the icon of the advertisement of the previous display order. It is characterized by being hidden.

  In this mode, when displaying the icon of the advertisement in the next display order, the icon that was displayed in the previous display order is hidden, so that the icon gradually increases at every display timing and fills the map. It is possible to avoid the situation where the sex is lowered.

  It should be noted that other categories such as methods or programs corresponding to the above aspects and more specific aspects described below are also included in the present invention.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to display many advertisements, without impairing the visibility of a map.

The functional block diagram which shows the structure of embodiment of this invention. The figure which illustrates each information (data) in the embodiment of the present invention. The sequence diagram in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows the process sequence in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the screen display in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the screen display in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the screen display in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the screen display in embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the screen display in embodiment of this invention.

  Next, modes for carrying out the present invention (referred to as “embodiments”) will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that assumptions common to those already described in the background art and problems are omitted as appropriate.

[1. Constitution〕
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 (configuration diagram), an advertisement distribution apparatus that distributes advertisements to a user terminal T (hereinafter also simply referred to as “terminal T”) such as a PC (personal computer) or a mobile phone terminal apparatus. 1 (hereinafter also referred to as “this device 1”). Among them, the present apparatus 1 has a general computer configuration, at least an arithmetic control unit 5 such as a CPU, a storage device 6 such as an external storage device (HDD or the like) or a main memory, and a communication network (Internet or mobile phone). And a communication means 7 (such as a LAN adapter) with N.

  This device 1 provides an advertisement to be displayed in a web page provided by a map display device 2 which is a web server. One aspect in which the device 1 and the map display device 2 are linked is, for example, an image or a moving image including a URL serving as an advertisement distribution request to the device 1 in an HTML file of a web page provided by the map display device 2. Is to deliver only advertisements from other domains. As another mode of cooperation, the map display device 2 requests an advertisement from the device 1 based on a page request from the terminal T, and the map display device 2 incorporates the advertisement returned by the device 1 into the web page. This is to be provided to the terminal T. In any case, communication (indicated by broken line arrows in the figure) between the terminal T, the present apparatus 1 and the map display apparatus 2 is performed through the communication network N.

  Further, in the present apparatus 1, a predetermined computer program (not shown) stored (installed) in advance in the storage device 6 controls the arithmetic control unit 5 so that the elements (30, 40, etc.) shown in FIG. Is realized. Among these elements, the information storage means can be realized in the storage device 6 in any format such as various databases (also referred to as “DB”), files, data structures, variables such as arrays, and system setting values.

  Among these storage means, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the advertisement storage means 45 is a name of an advertisement target store, an advertisement unit price paid by an advertiser when clicked, an explanation text or a link. It is a means for storing advertisement information as data such as a destination URL in association with a position on the map (position coordinates in the example of FIG. 2). These advertisement information is input from an input unit (not shown) by a predetermined operator such as an advertiser before or during operation of the apparatus 1. Note that each means other than the storage means is a processing means that implements and executes the functions and operations of information processing described below.

[2. Action)
[2-1. (Overall effect)
In the present embodiment configured as described above, in the terminal T, a web browser (not shown) installed in advance functions as the respective units 11 to 13, and in the map display device 2, the configuration of a computer according to the device 1 (not shown). ) Realizes the function of each means 21 to 23, 25, 27. Here, FIG. 3 shows a sequence diagram representing a cooperative relationship among the user terminal T, the map display device 2 (also referred to as a map server), and the advertisement distribution device 1 (also referred to as an advertisement server).

  As shown in this figure, first, the map request transmission unit 11 of the terminal T transmits a page request for map display based on the user's operation (temporarily called “map display request”) to the map display device 2 (step). S11). Here, if the map display request is data that requests map display, the content and purpose of the map display request are free, but for example, map display instructions specifying a station name, address, etc., address, area name, store name, business type, etc. It is conceivable that the contents include a search instruction in which the keyword is specified, and the geographical information represented by the address includes an example of using position information by GPS or a wireless LAN access point.

  When the map request receiving means 21 of the map display device 2 receives such a map request (step S21), the map search means 23 stores a map of each scale and the like in advance for a map corresponding to the map request. The location information transmitting unit 27 searches the location information (center position coordinates, map display range, etc.) related to the retrieved map as a request to display an advertisement to the apparatus 1. Transmit (step S23).

  Then, the map transmission means 25 extracts map information such as an image corresponding to the displayed map display range from the map storage means 22 (step S24), and transmits the map information to the terminal T as web page data or the like ( In step S25), the terminal T receives this map information (step S12), and the map display means 12 uses it for displaying the map (step S13).

  On the other hand, the position information transmitted to the apparatus 1 is received by the apparatus 1 as a request for displaying an advertisement (step S31), the advertisement corresponding to the position information is extracted (step S32), and the display order for each advertisement is displayed. (Step S33), setting of display timing based on the display order (step S34), and transmission / reception of advertisement information (steps S35 and S14), an icon is displayed on the terminal T for each advertisement group of each rank while determining the elapsed time. The process proceeds to display (steps S15 to S17).

  Next, a more specific processing procedure including the control of the icon display timing from the advertisement extraction is illustrated in the flowchart of FIG.

[2-2. (Advertising extraction and prioritization)
In this example, first, the position information receiving means 30 (corresponding to the “receiving means” in the present invention) of the apparatus 1 receives the position information as a request for displaying an advertisement related to the terminal T (step S1). The advertisement extracting means 40 extracts one or more advertisements (actually advertisement information) from the advertisement storage means 45 based on the position on the map corresponding to the received request (step S2).

  Subsequently, the ranking assigning means 50 assigns display ranks to the extracted advertisements according to predetermined criteria (such as the proximity of the distance from the center point and the height of the advertising unit price) (step S3). In addition, since the display order provided here is reflected in the display timing, in this embodiment, in order to avoid a display in which a plurality of icons appear densely at one time, the order providing unit 50 includes icons corresponding to advertisements. A distance between them is calculated, and a display order with different display timing is given to each advertisement within a predetermined distance.

  Here, as an example, a case is considered where the same ranking is assigned to each of a predetermined number of advertisements, and the advertisements are displayed for each advertising group of the same ranking. In this case, the rank assigning means 50 calculates the distance between the icons for each advertisement given the same rank, and if there is one within a predetermined distance (step S4: “YES”), one of them is the front or the rear. By changing the display order, for example, by replacing it with the one of the order (step S5), it is distributed in different orders.

  As another example, when the advertisement is extracted (step S2), the ranking assigning unit 50 calculates the distance between the positions corresponding to each extracted advertisement, and distributes the ones within the predetermined distance to different ranks. The order may be determined as follows.

An example common to both cases is shown based on FIG. That is, when assigning two equal rankings to the icons I1 to I6 of each advertisement to be displayed on a map of a certain place,

First rank: Icons I1 and I2
Second rank: Icons I3 and I4
3rd order: icons I5 and I6

However, if the icons I3 and I4 are too close within a predetermined distance, for example, the order of the icon I4 and the next icon I5 is switched.

First rank: Icons I1 and I2
Second rank: Icons I3 and I5
3rd order: icons I4 and I6

An example can be considered.

[2-3. (Timing setting and display)
Based on the display orders assigned as described above, the timing setting means 60 sets the display timing of each advertisement (step S6), and the display control means 70 transmits the advertisement information of each advertisement to the terminal T. At the same time, based on the determination of the passage of time, the corresponding advertisements are displayed on the terminal T as icons at the set display timings.

  The specific content of how and what display timing is set and how to realize display according to the timing is arbitrary. For example, as in the above example, it is assumed that advertisements of the same rank are displayed as icon groups at intervals of several seconds from a high rank, and control processing such as time passage determination is performed on the server side, that is, the apparatus 1 side. Think. At this time, the display control means 70 on the apparatus 1 side has a function of updating the display of the terminal T as such, and as a timing setting, the display control is performed for the number of seconds at which the timing setting means 60 switches the display. It is conceivable to communicate to means 70. In this case, the elapsed time in seconds is monitored by the device 1 using a built-in clock function or the like.

  In addition, an example in which the display control unit 70 causes the terminal T to perform processing such as time lapse monitoring and display update as described above is also conceivable. In this case, the timing setting unit 60 transmits the number of seconds of the interval as the timing setting to the display control unit 70, and the display control unit 70 transmits the interval to the JavaScript (registered trademark) in the HTML file distributed to the terminal T. An example in which a display processing function incorporating the number of seconds is incorporated and distributed together with information such as an advertisement character string and an image is also conceivable. The terminal T in FIG. 1 shows the configuration in this case. In this case, the elapsed time is monitored using the elapsed time determination means 14 (built-in clock function or the like) of the terminal T.

[2-4. Display example)
As a typical example of the display common to the above-mentioned various cases, the advertisement group of the first display order is displayed as an icon together with the map display, as illustrated in steps S15 to S17 in FIG. 3 (step S7). ) Every time the next display timing arrives (step S8: “YES”), the advertisement group of the next display order is displayed as an icon (step S9), and when it is displayed to the end (step S10: “YES”). An example is conceivable in which the processing is terminated and the display is stopped, and the next operation is accepted by the browser of the terminal T.

Here, FIG. 5 to FIG. 7 show the rankings in which the advertisements that are too close in the above example are replaced, that is,

First rank: Icons I1 and I2 (FIG. 5)
Second order: Icons I3 and I5 (Fig. 6)
Third ranking: Icons I4 and I6 (Fig. 7)

It is an example of a screen which displays an icon group at the timing of the order. These screen examples start from the state of FIG. 5 in which only icons I1 and I2 are displayed. In the subsequent state of FIG. 6, icons I3 and I5 also appear, and in the state of FIG. 7, icons I4 and I6 are also displayed. Yes.

  The display control means 70 may be configured to hide the advertisement icon of the previous display order when displaying the advertisement of the next display order as an icon. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5 → FIG. 8 → FIG. 9, only the icon group for each rank is displayed at the same time.

[3. effect〕
As described above, in this embodiment, when displaying an advertisement on a map, the display timing is set for each advertisement individually or grouped based on the display order given to each advertisement on a predetermined basis. By displaying each advertisement on the user terminal at the timing, even if a large number of advertisements are put out in a certain place, it is possible to display the large number of advertisements on the map while maintaining the visibility of the map.

  In particular, in this embodiment, icons that are close to each other (for example, icons I3 and I4 in FIG. 7) are displayed in a distributed manner at different timings so that several icons appear densely such as overlapping. Can be avoided, and the visibility of the map can be maintained more reliably.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when the icon of the advertisement having the next display order is displayed, the icon displayed in the previous display order is hidden (for example, FIG. 5 → FIG. 8 → FIG. 9), It is possible to avoid a situation in which the number of icons gradually increases at every display timing, fills the map, and visibility decreases.

[4. Other embodiments]
In addition, said each embodiment is only an illustration, and this invention includes what is illustrated below and other embodiment other than that. For example, the device 1 and the map display device 2 are illustrated as separate devices in the above embodiment (FIG. 1), but may be integrated devices such as the same server.

  In addition, the elements such as the units described in the above embodiment may be realized by other information processing mechanisms such as an electronic circuit based on a wired logic or the like without being limited to the arithmetic control unit of the computer. Further, each configuration diagram, data diagram, flowchart diagram, and the like are merely examples, and the presence / absence of each element, its order, specific contents, and the like can be appropriately changed.

  In addition, the device of the present invention (particularly the advertisement distribution device 1) may be realized by a plurality of server computers, and depending on the function, an external platform or the like may be implemented by an API (Application Program Interface) or network computing. The configuration can be changed flexibly, for example, by calling. Further, the present invention is not limited to the single advertisement distribution apparatus 1 shown in the above embodiment, and the entire system including the terminal T and the map display apparatus 2, the information processing method and computer program corresponding to the entire system It can be grasped as.

N communication network T terminals I1 to I6 icon 1 advertisement distribution device 2 map display device 5 calculation control unit 6 storage device 7 communication means 11 map request transmission means 12 map display means 13 advertisement display means 14 elapsed time determination means 21 map request reception means 22 map storage means 23 map search means 25 map transmission means 27 position information transmission means 30 position information reception means 40 advertisement extraction means 45 advertisement storage means 50 rank assignment means 60 timing setting means 70 display control means

Claims (4)

Advertisement storage means for storing one or more advertisements in association with positions on a map;
Receiving means for receiving a display request relating to the user terminal;
An advertisement extracting means for extracting one or more advertisements from the advertisement storage means based on a position on the map corresponding to the received request;
A rank assigning means for assigning a display rank to each extracted advertisement according to a predetermined criterion;
Timing setting means for setting the display timing of each advertisement based on the given display ranks;
Display control means for displaying the corresponding advertisements on the user terminal at the set display timings based on the determination of the passage of time;
An advertisement distribution apparatus comprising: The advertisement distribution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rank assigning unit calculates a distance between corresponding positions of the advertisement and assigns display ranks having different display timings to each advertisement within a predetermined distance. The advertisement distribution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit hides the icon of the advertisement with the previous display order when displaying the advertisement with the next display order as an icon. A computer having advertisement storage means for storing one or more advertisements in association with a position on a map,
A receiving step for receiving a display request relating to the user terminal;
An advertisement extraction step of extracting one or more advertisements from the advertisement storage means based on the position on the map corresponding to the received request;
A rank assignment step for assigning a display rank to each extracted advertisement according to a predetermined criterion;
A timing setting step for setting a display timing of each advertisement based on the given display orders;
A display control step of causing each of the corresponding advertisements to be displayed on the user terminal at the set display timings based on the determination of the passage of time;
An advertisement delivery method comprising:

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