Information providing system and mediating apparatus
First Claim
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1. An information providing system comprising:
- a plurality of information sources each having both an information providing function of providing information upon receipt of a request for providing information and an index output function of outputting an individual index representative of an information group capable of being provided by oneself;
a retrieval engine having an index construction function of finally receiving at least one individual index outputted by the index output function of at least one information source to construct a general index representative of information group capable of being provided by at least one information source, and an information retrieval function of retrieving information upon receipt of a request for retrieving information with the general index constructed by the index construction function; and
a mediating apparatus intervening between said information sources and said retrieval engine adapted for receiving a plurality of individual indexes outputted from said plurality of information sources to select an individual index satisfying a predetermined index selection condition from among the plurality of individual indexes thus received, said mediating apparatus sending the selected individual index to said retrieval engine for use in the index construction function.
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Abstract
There is disclosed an information providing system having a mediator adapted for receiving renewal information for an index from information servers or information sources to select the received renewal information in accordance with index selection condition. The mediator sends the selected renewal information to a retrieval engine.
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Citations
5 Claims
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1. An information providing system comprising:
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a plurality of information sources each having both an information providing function of providing information upon receipt of a request for providing information and an index output function of outputting an individual index representative of an information group capable of being provided by oneself;
a retrieval engine having an index construction function of finally receiving at least one individual index outputted by the index output function of at least one information source to construct a general index representative of information group capable of being provided by at least one information source, and an information retrieval function of retrieving information upon receipt of a request for retrieving information with the general index constructed by the index construction function; and
a mediating apparatus intervening between said information sources and said retrieval engine adapted for receiving a plurality of individual indexes outputted from said plurality of information sources to select an individual index satisfying a predetermined index selection condition from among the plurality of individual indexes thus received, said mediating apparatus sending the selected individual index to said retrieval engine for use in the index construction function.
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2. A mediating apparatus comprising:
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an index receiving section for receiving a plurality of individual indexes outputted by a plurality of information sources each having both an information providing function of providing information upon receipt of a request for providing information and an index output function of outputting an individual index representative of an information group capable of being provided by oneself;
an index selection section for selecting an individual index satisfying a predetermined index selection condition from among the plurality of individual indexes received by said index receiving section; and
an index sending section for sending the individual index selected by said index selection section to a retrieval engine for use in an index construction function, said retrieval engine having the index construction function of finally receiving at least one individual index outputted by the index output function of at least one information source to construct a general index representative of information group capable of being provided by at least one information source, and an information retrieval function of retrieving information upon receipt of a request for retrieving information with the general index constructed by the index construction function. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5)
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Specification