KR101350525B1 - Method and apparatus for using tab corresponding to query to provide additional information - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing additional information to a user viewing a document using a browser is disclosed. According to the present invention, a method for receiving a query and providing additional information corresponding thereto includes selecting an information source for searching for the information; Creating a tab corresponding to the information source outside the content providing area; Activating and displaying a tab selected by a user among the generated tabs; And requesting transmission of content corresponding to the selected tap. According to the present invention, by providing tabs for sites that the user is expected to provide the information they want to find, it is possible to efficiently convey additional information about the query to the user, and the user can easily provide the information provided by the various search sites. Can be compared.

Description

How to provide additional information using a tab corresponding to a query and its device {METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING TAB CORRESPONDING TO QUERY TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION}

The present invention relates to information retrieval, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing additional information to a user viewing a document using a browser.

The information on the Internet is so vast that a user can't go through all the sites that contain this information to get the information he wants, so he is helped by a search site. In other words, the user visits a search site and inputs a query to find information he / she wants. Search sites index and store information on the Internet according to their own rules, and provide information related to a query input by a user. The information provided is arranged according to the ranking algorithm of each search site so that the user can easily recognize the information. In addition, query terms input by a plurality of users may be pre-fetched from the corresponding site, edited, stored in the search site, and immediately provided.

Therefore, even when the user inputs the same query, different information may be provided for each search site according to the collected data range, ranking algorithm, and service policy. Therefore, most users use a plurality of search sites, and even if they find some related information in one search site, they may visit other search sites for better information.

On the other hand, there is a tool bar (toolbar) program that can visit the URL of the search site to enter the query directly on the browser menu to obtain the desired information without having to enter the query. The toolbar program is installed in addition to the browser program to generate a query input window outside the content browsing area and to help a search site request search result information about a query input by a user.

However, in order to obtain the search results of various search sites using such a toolbar program, it is cumbersome to install and use the toolbar program provided separately from each search site separately.

Technical Challenge

Therefore, the technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to create a tab, which is a means for accessing an information source for providing additional information, outside the content browsing area of the browser, and to request the transmission of content related to the tab by activating the tab selected by the user. As a result, a method and apparatus for providing additional information to a user are provided.

In addition, another technical task of the present invention is to create a tab providing additional information on the outside of the content browsing area and to activate the selected tab to be recognized as integrated with the content browsing area when the user selects the tab. The present invention provides a method of providing information intuitively and efficiently and a device for performing the method.

Advantageous effect

According to the present invention, it is possible to assist the user in collecting information by providing a tab which is an access means for an information source for providing additional information. In selecting a target information source for creating a tab, a specialized site providing high-quality information related to a query may be recommended by considering the user's query input information.

In addition, the user can automatically obtain the query information input by the user, create a tab, and provide a search result for the corresponding query in the site corresponding to the tab by simply clicking on the generated tab. You can compare the search results on multiple sites without having to visit and enter the same query repeatedly.

In addition, in expressing the tab selected by the user, the expression similar to the expression attribute of the browsed content. By expressing in a form that does not have a boundary with the content browsing area, it is possible to more intuitively express the relationship between the tab selected by the user and the content being browsed.

1 is a flowchart of an information providing method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a view showing a result of creating a tab for an additional information site as a user inputs a query according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating information provided at an activated tab and a corresponding site according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

4 is a view showing a collection tab provided according to an embodiment of the present invention and the corresponding collection contents provided therein;

5 is a block diagram of an information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

6 is a block diagram of an information providing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of receiving a query and providing additional information corresponding thereto, the method comprising: selecting an information source for searching for the information; Creating a tab corresponding to the information source outside the content providing area; Activating and displaying a tab selected by a user among the generated tabs; And requesting transmission of content corresponding to the selected tap.

On the other hand, according to another aspect of the present invention, the technical problem is an apparatus for receiving a query and providing additional information corresponding to the query, an information source selection unit for selecting an information source to search for the information; A tab generator for generating a tab corresponding to the information source outside the content providing area; An activation display unit for activating and displaying a tab selected by the user among the generated tabs; And a content requesting unit requesting the transmission of the content corresponding to the selected tab.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, a method and an apparatus for providing additional information to a user using a tab will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The term tab, which is used continuously in the present specification, refers to an object that may have a visual area. For example, a window in a Windows operating system of Microsoft Corporation, which is an operating system (OS). Corresponding to the concept of the size or shape displayed to the user may be modified to suit the purpose.

1 is a flowchart of an information providing method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Acquiring the query input information (S110) is a step of collecting a user input query or the like which is basic data for selecting a target information source for generating a tab for providing additional information.

A keyword entered by a user connected to the Internet into a search box of a search site or a search box of a toolbar program for information search becomes a query word, and the query word may be obtained by a toolbar program or the like pre-installed in the user terminal. In addition, the toolbar program may support a query input function through drag & drop of the mouse for the user's convenience.

For example, when a user visits a search site and inputs a query, the URL of the search result page includes information encoding the query. In such encoding, a scheme such as UTF-8, UTF8, or UTF16 may be used. When the URL address information of the document presented as a search result is decoded, the query information input by the user can be obtained.

In addition, not only keywords directly input by a user in a search box or the like, but also when a user clicks a mouse or uses a keyboard to copy text information, it is desirable to consider keywords related to the operation as a query word. Can be. For example, when a user clicks a link of a web page, all or part of the anchor text of the link can be regarded as a query, and the user manipulates a keyboard such as Ctrl + C to copy the text information. It is preferable to regard the copied text as a query when doing this.

As another example of obtaining query input information, when the browser program is an Internet explorer, the user may access necessary information by accessing MSHTML object, which is an OLE-based component of Internet Explorer, when a user visits a specific page.

As described above, the query input information may refer to a keyword input by a user for searching, and preferably, additional information such as an address and input time information of a site where the keyword is input is required. Including such additional information may help to accurately determine the search intention of the user who inputs the query.

Selecting an information source for generating a tab (S120) is a step of selecting address information of a site that is expected to provide additional information to the user.

In general, users use multiple search sites and compare their results. Therefore, a typical solution is to select a site frequently visited by a user or a site preset by the user as a target information source for creating a tab.

Also, query input information may be taken into consideration when selecting an information source for generating a tab. For example, if the query input by the user is a prominent book name, in addition to the general search sites, the user may determine that a tab for the book related page in the online store site is generated. In addition, when the query is a specific brand name of the digital camera, it may be desirable to additionally create a tab for a site that provides review or price comparison information for the digital camera. In order to implement such a function, it may be desirable to store and maintain dictionary information that defines a keyword or a related site corresponding to a classification to which the keyword belongs.

However, because query terms do not provide a complete picture of the user's intent, another alternative might be to provide the user with the means to set the rules for the sites on which the tabs will be generated, and determine which sites the tabs will be generated from. .

In addition, the tab provided to the user may serve as a medium for starting keyword advertising. Therefore, by selling the right to create a tab for the query, it is possible to consider selecting a site designated by the advertiser who purchased the right as one of information sources for generating the tab. This type of advertisement may be implemented by a technique of providing a conventional keyword advertisement, for example, the bidder may be selected based on the cost charged when the tab is clicked. In addition, a method of distributing a part of the sales amount contributed by a user flowing into the advertiser's site by clicking the corresponding tab may be considered.

Generating a tab corresponding to the selected information source outside the content browsing area (S130) is a step of generating a tab to be used as a means for receiving a connection request for an information source to provide additional information.

In the case of a general browser, there is an area at the top of the content browsing area where a means for displaying document address information or receiving commands related to the operation of the browser exists, and a toolbar program providing additional functions to the browser program also exists in this area. It is common to be expressed.

An information providing method according to an embodiment of the present invention may be provided by a toolbar program that provides an additional function to a browser. In this case, the tab can be created as a sub-object of the toolbar program and exists within the area occupied by the toolbar program.

Alternatively, creating a tab to be provided to the user as a child window of the browsing software may be an alternative. In this case, the tab may be generated by freely determining its position within the browsing window, and it may be desirable to position the tab at the top edge of the content browsing area. However, there may be restrictions depending on the area occupied by other programs or information.

On the other hand, in this step, it is possible to further create a collection tab that provides the received information for a plurality of information sources corresponding to various tabs. In this way, the content provided corresponding to the collection tab may include a part of the content provided corresponding to the other tab. The content provided through the collection tab and the arrangement of these contents will be described later with reference to FIG. 4.

The step of activating and displaying the tab selected by the user among the generated tabs (S140) is a step of displaying the tab selected by the user as a differentiated property from the generated tabs.

When the user's selection signal for the tab is received by the user's click or the like, a different attribute is assigned to the selected tab to inform that the information corresponding to the selected tab will be started. In this case, the activated tab is preferably represented as being integrated with the content browsing area, and the other tab is represented as being separate from the content browsing area.

Therefore, the activated tab is preferably displayed with properties similar to the content browsing area, so it is desirable to consider the background color information of the content or the presentation attribute of the portion adjacent to the tab. In general, however, the background color of most web pages is white, so one solution may be to display the selected tab white.

However, in the case of a tab created as a toolbar program sub-object, for example, even though the area of the toolbar program is adjacent to the content browsing area, there is a boundary of several pixels between them. In this case, you can create an eraser window as a sub-object of the browser, covering some of the borders of the selected tab, so that the tab appears to be associated with the content browsing area. One of the attributes to be rendered and the presentation attributes of the content browsing area adjacent to the tab may be followed, or may be expressed using a gradation between the two.

In addition, if the tab is created as a sub-object of the browser from the beginning, the tab may be created at a position that appears to be connected to the content browsing area, and the differentiated property may be applied thereto.

Requesting the transmission of content corresponding to the selected tab (S150) is a step of requesting the transmission of information to a site having an information source corresponding to the selected tab.

The user requests additional information, such as by clicking on the created tab. The transfer request for additional information may be indirectly performed by passing address information to be requested to the browser program.

Simply requesting to browse the representative address of the site corresponding to the tab may also be a solution. However, it is preferable to request the same contents as when the user directly inputs a query in the corresponding site.

In general, since the address information of the page showing the search result for the query has the form of a query, the user can receive the same contents of the query as the user directly inputs the query by combining the user's query information and the address information of the search site. It is desirable to request content by generating address information.

When the information obtained by the content request is transmitted to the user terminal side, the browser provides it to the user, thereby providing additional information.

In addition, when a plurality of tabs are generated, a collection tab may be additionally generated to provide a user with information that overlaps with content corresponding to various tabs. The content corresponding to the collection tab may be generated by analyzing the content corresponding to each generated tab. The contents of the collection tab can be generated by collecting the content corresponding to each tab and integrating the information into a single document form.In providing the integrated information to the user, the information with a large number of overlapping information sources appears higher. It is desirable to position.

In addition, the content corresponding to the collection tab may include related advertisements determined based on a query input by the user or content corresponding to another tab. Providing such related advertisements can be accomplished by techniques known for conventional keyword advertising or contextual advertising methods. For example, it is possible to provide an advertisement related to the content by extracting a keyword representing the content in consideration of the frequency value of the words appearing in the content that is the basis of the advertisement decision and the attributes that appear.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a result of generating a tab for an additional information site as a user inputs a query according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When a user accesses DreamWiz (www.dreamwiz.com), an internet portal site, the content browsing area 210 displays the content of the site. When the user inputs a search term 'chocolate' into the search box 211 of the corresponding site and makes a search request, the search result of the corresponding site is newly displayed in the content browsing area 210.

The toolbar program 220 for generating a tab may be located at the top of the content browsing area 210 and may have a search box 221 therein. As the user inputs the query 'choco' in the search box 221, a tab 222 is provided to provide additional information. For example, five tabs 222 are generated, and the shape thereof is generally similar to the shape of the button provided by the toolbar, but the number and the shape of the tabs may be changed according to a user's setting.

In determining the site where the tab will be created, the criteria can be determined by the user regardless of the type of query, but the target site where the tab will be created is determined based on the classification of the query and the classification of the site visited by the current user. It may be desirable.

For example, since the site that the user is currently browsing in FIG. 2 is one of portal sites, the provided tab may also be determined as a tab related to a portal site or a search site. Accordingly, the generated tab 220 may include a portal site 'naver (www.naver.com)' and a search site 'google (www.google.com)'.

3 is a diagram illustrating an information providing result at an activated tab and a corresponding site according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a user who wants additional information about the query “choco” entered by the user may select a tab corresponding to “Google” from the tabs 222 provided for viewing the search results on the search site Google (www.google.com). I can click it. In this case, a search result in 'Google (www.google.com)' for the query word 'choco' is displayed in the content browsing area 210 to provide additional information to the user.

In this case, it is necessary to mark the tab as an attribute different from other tabs to inform the user which tab is selected. This way of assigning differentiated properties to the tab you select is called an activation mark.

The tab selected by the user may be expressed in a consistent manner with the content displayed in the content browsing area 210. Therefore, when selecting a tab, it is preferable to express the same or similar to the expression attribute of the browsed content.

For example, the tab 310 with the same background color activated is distinguished from other tabs that are not selected to show which tab the content currently provided to the user is as a result of clicking.

However, in order to express the correlation between tabs and browsing contents more intuitively, it is desirable to express activated tabs as if they are integrated with the content browsing area. Therefore, it is preferable to display the activated tab as the form 320 in which the expression color of the tab is displayed the same as the background color of the content, and the boundary existing between the tab and the content browsing area is removed.

4 is a diagram illustrating a form of providing a collection tab and corresponding collection contents provided according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The input window 410 of the toolbar program installed in the browser of the user displays the query word 'democratic' entered by the user. A tab 411 is created to provide additional information in response to a user's query input. Each tab provides a means to access search results on each site for the query 'democracy'.

Of these tabs 411, when a user clicks on a tab labeled 'collection', the clicked tab is displayed differently from other tabs. Since the background color of the content browsing area 420 is white, the background color of the activated tab is also displayed as 'white'.

It also creates a white eraser window beneath the active tab to cover the border of a few pixels between the content browsing area and the area where the toolbar program is displayed so that the active tab is an extension of the content browsing area. To be recognized. This effect may be achieved by creating a new tab that extends to the position of the boundary.

When the user clicks on the collection tab, the collection information of the content corresponding to the other generated tab is provided. The collection information is generated by collecting information to be transmitted when clicking on other tabs. The collection information may be provided in the form of news collection 421 and blog collection 422 according to the classification of the information. Further, in determining the exposure order of information, how many of the information sources corresponding to the taps may overlap may be considered.

For example, the information located at the top of the information belonging to the news collection 421 is duplicated in all four sources of information generated tab. As you go down, the redundancy decreases.

5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, it can be seen that the information providing apparatus 510 of the present invention is installed in a server separate from the user terminal and receives and processes additional information providing request from the user terminal. That is, when the browser 520 of the user terminal accesses the server providing such information, the information providing apparatus 510 installed in the server receives and processes the additional information providing request from the browser 520.

Upon receiving the request for providing additional information from the browser 520, the information source selecting unit 511 selects the target information source to generate a tab that can access the information source that is expected to provide the additional information.

In selecting an information source, sites selected in advance by a user may be included as a target information source, and a site frequently visited by the user may be included as a target information source.

In addition, in selecting an information source, the user's query input information may be further considered. In addition to the query itself, information on the time at which the query is input and the information source at which the query is input may also be utilized. The query input information may be obtained by analyzing a user input signal in the user terminal 520 or searching a sub-object of a browser program used by the user.

In addition, the target information source may include an information source related to an advertiser who has purchased the right to generate a tab corresponding to the query and purchases the right. This selling process can be achieved by the prior art and the like for keyword advertising.

The tab generator 512 generates a tab for the information source selected by the information source selector 511.

The tab may be provided in the browser screen as a sub-object of the browser of the user terminal as an on-screen tool capable of receiving a user's connection request to the selected information source. In addition, when there are a plurality of generated tabs, it is preferable to further include a collection tab generating unit for generating a collection tab for providing collection information of corresponding content. That is, the collection tab generation unit generates a collection tab providing information received for the plurality of information sources, and the content provided in correspondence with the collection tab includes a part of the content provided in correspondence with the other tab. Content provided through the collection tab is as described above with reference to FIG. 4.

The activation display unit 513 distinguishes the tab selected by the user from among the tabs generated by the tab generator 512 from other tabs that are not.

According to the user's selection, the browser 520 of the user terminal displays information to be provided to the user from the information source 530 corresponding to the tab. Browsing content where the active tab displays the corresponding content to more intuitively indicate to users that the provision of additional information is the result of selecting that tab, and to inform them that additional information will be provided by clicking on another tab created. It is desirable to display in an integrated form with the area.

Therefore, the background color is displayed the same in consideration of the expression attribute of the browsed content. It is preferable to display in a form in which there is no boundary separating the tab and the content browsing area.

For this type of activation display, the activation display can be performed by using an eraser window so that the user cannot identify the boundary separating the tab and the content browsing area, or by creating a new tab that extends to the content browsing area. All.

The content request unit 514 requests content from the information source 530 corresponding to the tab. The request for content may be indirectly performed through the browser 520 of the user terminal.

The content request can simply invoke the representative document of the source. But. If the query information of the user is obtained, it is preferable to request content related to the query word of the user in the corresponding information source. When the information source is a search site, address information indicating a search result may be generated in a form of encoding and combining query information with address information of the information source.

In addition, in order to provide vowel information for a plurality of tabs, a vowel information generation unit for receiving content corresponding to several tabs and generating them as one document is required. have.

6 is a block diagram of an information providing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, it can be seen that the information providing apparatus 510 of the present invention is installed in the user terminal and receives and processes the additional information providing request from the browser 520. Even when the information providing apparatus 510 is included in the user terminal, the remaining components are the same as those described with reference to FIG. 5.

On the other hand, the information providing method disclosed in the present invention can be created by a computer program. The code and code segments that make up the program can be easily deduced by a computer programmer in the field. The program is also stored in a computer readable media, and read and executed by a computer to implement the information providing method. The information storage medium includes a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, and a carrier wave medium.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the present invention.

The present invention can be usefully applied in the field of information retrieval related to a method or apparatus for providing additional information to a user who browses a document using a browser.

Claims (20)

In the method for receiving a query and providing additional information corresponding thereto, Selecting an information source for retrieving the information such that the information source selected when the query is the first query and the information source selected when the query is the second query; Creating a tab corresponding to the information source outside the content providing area; Activating and displaying a tab selected by a user among the generated tabs; And Requesting transmission of content corresponding to the selected tab. The method of claim 1, And receiving the requested content to be displayed on the activated tab and transmitting the received content to the user. delete The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the information source And selecting an information source related to an advertiser who has purchased the right to the query. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the selected tab comprises: And displaying the content in consideration of the presentation attribute of the content corresponding to the selected tab. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the selected tab comprises: The information providing method characterized in that it is expressed in a form that does not have a boundary between the selected tab and the content providing area. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the selected tab comprises: And a boundary between the selected tab and the content providing area by using a child window of a browser. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the selected tab comprises: An information providing method comprising: newly creating a tab reflecting a presentation attribute of an activation display as a child window of a browser at a position of a tab selected by a user. The method of claim 1, Further comprising a collection tab providing the received information for the plurality of information sources, And the content provided corresponding to the collection tab includes a part of the content provided corresponding to another tab. 10. The method of claim 9, Content provided in response to the collection tab An information providing method characterized in that the sorting in consideration of the degree of overlapping appearance in other information sources. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1, 2 or 4 to 10 on a computer. An apparatus for receiving a query and providing additional information corresponding thereto, An information source selecting unit which operates as hardware of the apparatus and selects an information source for searching the information such that the information source selected when the query is the first query and the information source selected when the query is the second query; A tab generator which operates as hardware of the device and generates a tab corresponding to the information source outside of the content providing area; An activation display unit operating as hardware of the device and activating and displaying a tab selected by a user among the generated tabs; And And a content requesting unit which operates as hardware of the device and requests transmission of content corresponding to the selected tab. The method of claim 12, wherein the content request unit Receiving the requested content and displaying the activated content on the activated tab to transmit the information to the user. delete The method of claim 12, wherein the information source selection unit An information providing device, characterized in that selected to include an information source associated with the advertiser that purchased the right to the query. The display device of claim 12, wherein the activation indicator is And displaying the information in consideration of an expression attribute of the content corresponding to the selected tab. The display device of claim 12, wherein the activation indicator is And an information providing apparatus having no boundary between the selected tab and the content providing region. The display device of claim 12, wherein the activation indicator is And a boundary between the selected tab and the content providing area by using a child window of a browser. The method of claim 12, And a collection tab generator for operating as hardware of the apparatus and generating a collection tab providing the received information for a plurality of information sources. And the content provided corresponding to the collection tab includes a part of the content provided corresponding to another tab. 20. The method of claim 19, Content provided in response to the collection tab And an information providing apparatus arranged in consideration of the degree of overlapping with other information sources.

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