Network service system and method including a channel generator

• US 7,266,588 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2001
• Issued: 09/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Oku, Kazuho
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US09/876,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20010051997A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,280 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/203, 709/227, 709/229, 709/238, 707/10, 705/1
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/567 Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Disclosed is a network service system and method. A data server receives contents from a plurality of network web servers that provide the contents, and provides them to a portable terminal via the network. The data server comprises a contents processor for processing the contents transmitted by the web servers according to standards of the portable terminal. Accordingly, since the contents provided by the web servers are converted according to standards, performance and parameters of the portable terminal and are then transmitted, a portable terminal user can appropriately receive information from contents providers that aim at general computer users.

Claims

1. A data server, to which a portable terminal is connected via a network for receiving contents from a plurality of web servers that respectively provide the contents, comprising:

an image compressor for reducing sizes or number of colors of images;

a proxy unit for determining whether a uniform resource locator (URL) received from the portable terminal is a channel URL associated with a set of URLS, each URL of the set corresponding to a web server that provides contents of a predetermined subject, and if so, requesting the contents from the plurality of web servers associated with the respective URLs of the set, monitoring the contents received from the plurality of web servers in response to the requesting to determine whether any of the received contents include image information, and if any of the received contents include image information, calling the image compressor to convert the image information by reducing sizes or number of color of images according to standard of the portable terminal;

a channel generator for gathering the received contents of the predetermined subject and binding the gathered contents into a single channel of contents prior to transmission of the single channel of contents to the portable terminal,

wherein the proxy unit transmits the single channel of contents to portable terminal, and

wherein the portable terminal includes a plurality of channel icons that respectively have channel URL information of a predetermined subject, and wherein a user selection of a channel icon of the portable terminal causes the respective channel URL to be transmitted from the portable terminal to the data server.

2. The data server of claim 1, further comprising a filter for filtering information that is inappropriate or not necessary for the portable terminal, from among the contents transmitted by the web servers.

3. The data server of claim 1, wherein the channel generator inserts advertisement contents into the contents of the predetermined subject and channels them.

4. The data server of claim 1, wherein the web servers provide the contents to the data server via the network.

5. The data server of claim 1, wherein the channel icon of the portable terminal is downloaded from the data server.

6. The data server of claim 1, wherein the portable terminal comprises a program for making or editing the channel icon.

7. The data server of claim 1, wherein the portable terminal receives the channel icon via a computer, the channel icon being made or edited by the user using the computer that includes the program for making or editing the channel icon.

8. In a service method of a network service system having a data server, to which a portable terminal is connected via the network for receiving contents from a plurality of web servers that provide the contents, the portable terminal including a plurality of channel icons that respectively have channel URL information of a predetermined subject, and wherein a user selection of a channel icon of the portable terminal causes the respective channel URL to be transmitted from the portable terminal to the data server, a network service method comprising:

determining whether a uniform resource locator (URL) received from the portable terminal is a channel URL associated with a set of URLS, each URL of the set corresponding to a web server that provides contents of a predetermined subject, and if so, requesting the contents from a plurality of web servers associated with the respective URLs of the set;

monitoring the contents received from the plurality of web servers in response to the requesting to determine whether any of the received contents include image information, and if any of the received contents include image information, converting the image information by reducing sizes or number of color of images according to a standard of the portable terminal;

gathering the received contents of the predetermined subject and binding the gathered contents into a single channel of contents prior to transmission of the single channel of contents to the portable terminal; and

transmitting the single channel of contents to the portable terminal via the network.

9. The network service method of claim 8, further comprising:

filtering information that is inappropriate or not necessary for the portable terminal, from among the contents provided by the web server.

10. The network service method of claim 9, wherein in the performance of channeling, advertisement contents are inserted into the contents of a predetermined subject and then a channeling step is performed on them.

11. In a network service system, to which a portable terminal is connected via the network for receiving contents from a plurality of web servers that provide the contents, the portable terminal including a plurality of channel icons that respectively have channel URL information of a predetermined subject, and wherein a user selection of a channel icon of the portable terminal causes the respective channel URL to be transmitted from the portable terminal to the data server, a network service system comprising:

a data server for determining whether a uniform resource locator (URL) received from the portable terminal is a channel URL associated with a set of URLS, each URL of the set corresponding to a web server that provides contents of a predetermined subject, and if so, retrieving the contents from the plurality of web servers associated with the respective URLs of the set, gathering the contents of a predetermined subject provided by the web servers and binding them into a single channel, processing the contents of the single channel to convert them according to standards of the portable terminal, and transmitting the single channel of converted contents to the portable terminal via the network; and

an advertisement server, connected to the data server via the network, for storing various advertisement contents.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the data server comprises:

an image compressor for receiving the contents from the web servers, reducing sizes and number of colors of images of the contents and compressing the images according to standards of the portable terminal;

a filter for filtering information that is inappropriate or not necessary for the portable terminal from among the contents transmitted by the web server;

a channel generator for gathering the contents of a predetermined subject provided by the web servers and binding them into a single channel;

a user database for storing user data corresponding to user information input by the portable terminal; and

a proxy unit for monitoring the data transmitted by the portable terminal or the web server, and calling and controlling the image compressor, the filter and the channel generator according to the data.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the proxy unit calls the image compressor when the contents transmitted by the web server include image information.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the proxy unit checks whether a URL input by the portable terminal is a channel URL that is of a set of URLs of the web servers that provide the contents of a predetermined subject, and in the case the URL input by the portable terminal is a channel URL, the proxy unit calls the channel generator.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the channel generator inserts advertisement contents transmitted by the advertisement server into the contents of a predetermined subject provided by the web server and binds them.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the proxy unit extracts user data corresponding to user information input by the portable terminal from the user database and transmits the extracted user data to the advertisement server, and the advertisement server transmits the advertisement contents based on the extracted user data to the proxy unit.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the user information includes ID and passwords, and the user data include at least one of user'"'"'s general information, electronic commerce information and previously transmitted advertisement information.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the advertisement server is connected to the data server via an exclusive network.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the advertisement server connected to the data server via the network is a web server of an advertisement contents provider.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein in the case the converted contents comprise a plurality of streams, the proxy unit controls timing of each transmission stream.

21. In a network service method of a network service system, to which a portable terminal is connected via the network for receiving contents from a plurality of web servers that provide the contents, the portable terminal including a plurality of channel icons that respectively have channel URL information of a predetermined subject, and wherein a user selection of a channel icon of the portable terminal causes the respective channel URL to be transmitted from the portable terminal to the data server, a network service method comprising:

searching, when a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web server for providing the contents via the portable terminal and user information are input, a user database and extracting user data;

determining whether the inputted URL is a channel URL associated with a set of URLS, each URL of the set corresponding to a web server that provides contents of a predetermined subject, and if so, requesting the contents from a plurality of web server associated with the respective URLs of the set, and transmitting the extracted user data to an advertisement server;

filtering information that is inappropriate or not necessary for the portable terminal from among the contents received from the plurality of web servers, the filtering comprising reducing sizes or number of colors of images of the contents or compressing the images according to a standard of the portable terminal, and inserting advertisement contents corresponding to the user data transmitted by the advertisement server into the filtered contents to convert the contents;

gathering the filtered contents of the predetermined subject binding the gathered contents into a single channel of contents; and

transmitting the single channel of contents to the portable terminal via the network.