Search system and search method

• US 20080189271A1
• Filed: 02/05/2008
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Harada, Akinori, Kaneyasu, Keisuke, Yanamoto, Syuuhei, Tomotani, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,649 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

In a search system for searching a database based on a keyword input from a portable terminal while outputting a result of the search to the portable terminal to display, there are provided a search server that searches the database for information including the input keyword, a degree-of-popularity calculating apparatus which acquires number-of-member information from an i-Mode® server having the number-of-member information on the number of members for each menu in which various webpages are sorted for each category thereof, and calculates the degree of popularity of the menu based on the acquired number-of-member information, and information ranking means for ranking a plurality of pieces of information searched by the search server based on the degree of popularity of the menu to which the information belongs generated by the degree-of-popularity calculating apparatus.

Claims

1. A search system for searching a database based on a keyword input from a terminal while outputting a result of the search to the terminal to display, comprising:

a search section that searches the database for information including the input keyword;

a degree-of-popularity calculating section which acquires number-of-member information from a server having the number-of-member information on the number of members for each menu in which various webpages are sorted for each category thereof, and calculates a degree of popularity of the menu based on the acquired number-of-member information; and

an information ranking section that ranks a plurality of pieces of information searched by the search section based on the degree of popularity of the menu to which the information belongs generated by the degree-of-popularity calculating section.

2. The search system according to claim 1, wherein the degree-of-popularity calculating section acquires access information from a server having the access information on access for each webpage, and calculates the degree of popularity of a webpage based on the access information, and

the information ranking section ranks a plurality of pieces of information searched by the search section based on the degree of popularity of the menu and the degree of popularity of the webpage to which the information belongs.

3. The search system according to claim 2, wherein the number-of-member information includes the information on the number of dues-paying members and the number of dues-free members,

the access information includes the information on the number of visitors of the webpage, and

the degree-of-popularity calculating section calculates the degree of popularity of the menu based on the number of dues-paying members, the number of dues-free members, and the number of visitors of the menu to which the webpage belongs counted from the number of visitors of the webpage.

4. The search system according to claim 3, wherein the degree-of-popularity calculating section calculates the degree of popularity of the menu by adding values obtained by multiplying the number of dues-paying members and the number of dues-free members by respective different coefficients and the number of visitors of the menu.

5. The search system according to claim 4, wherein the coefficient for the number of dues-paying members is higher than the coefficient for the number of dues-free members.

6. The search system according to claim 3, wherein the number-of-member information includes the information on the membership dues charged to each of the dues-paying members, and

the degree-of-popularity calculating section calculates the degree of popularity of the menu based on the membership dues.

7. The search system according to claim 2, wherein the access information includes the information on the number of accesses and the number of visitors each of the webpage, and

the degree-of-popularity calculating section calculates the degree of popularity of the webpage based on the number of accesses and the number of visitors each of the webpage.

8. The search system according to claim 7, wherein the degree-of-popularity calculating section calculates the degree of popularity of the webpage by adding the number of accesses of the webpage multiplied by a coefficient and the number of visitors of the webpage multiplied by another different coefficient.

9. The search system according to claim 8, wherein the coefficient for the number of visitors of the webpage is higher than the coefficient for the number of accesses of the webpage.

10. The search system according to claim 1, wherein the information ranking section ranks a plurality of pieces of searched information in descending order of the degree of popularity.

11. The search system according to claim 1 wherein the information displayed in the terminal is adjusted based on availability of access from the terminal to the information ranked by the information ranking section.

12. The search system according to claim 11, wherein when the information ranked by the information ranking section belongs to a membership-only webpage requiring advance registration to which the terminal cannot gain access, information is displayed that is related to a non-membership webpage related to the membership-only webpage to which the terminal can gain access.

13. The search system according to claim 12, wherein when the membership-only webpage belongs to a website having a hierarchical structure, information is displayed that is related to the non-membership webpage in a higher layer closest to the membership-only page.

14. The search system according to claim 12, wherein when the membership-only webpage belongs to a website having a hierarchical structure, information is displayed that is related to a front page of the website.

15. A search method for searching a database based on a keyword input from a terminal while outputting a result of the search to the terminal to display, comprising:

a search step of searching the database for information including the input keyword;

a degree-of-popularity calculating step of acquiring number-of-member information from a server having the number-of-member information on the number of members for each menu in which various webpages are sorted for each category thereof, and calculating the degree of popularity of the menu based on the acquired number-of-member information; and

an information ranking step of ranking a plurality of pieces of information searched in the search step based on the degree of popularity of the menu to which the information belongs calculated in the degree-of-popularity calculating step.

16. The search method according to claim 15, wherein the degree-of-popularity calculating step acquires access information from a server having the access information on access for each webpage, and calculates the degree of popularity of the webpage based on the access information, and

the information ranking step ranks a plurality of pieces of information searched in the search step based on the degree of popularity of the menu and the degree of popularity of the webpage to which the information belongs calculated in the degree-of-popularity calculating step.