Local area information providing system and method using real name

• US 7,272,638 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2001
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Netpia Dot Com Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Netpia Dot Com Incorporated
• Inventors: Lee, Pan-Jung, Bae, Jeen-Hyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): ISMAIL, SHAWKI SAIF
• Application Number:
  US09/784,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20010052002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,407 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 709/224, 709/248, 707/10, 707 3- 7
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4547 for personal communications, i.e. using a personal identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

Disclosed is a local area information-providing system and method using real names. When an access word provided by an accessing client via a network is a real name, a local area information database is searched using the real name and the client'"'"'s position information, and various kinds of information on the real name placed within an area corresponding to the client'"'"'s position information are found and provided to the client. Together with this, an Internet address corresponding to the real name is provided to the client, and accordingly, the client accesses the web page corresponding to the input real name. Hence, the user can access desired web pages using not conventional English domain names but real names, and concurrently receive various kinds of local area information corresponding to the real name. Especially, the user can receive various kinds of local area information of the real names corresponding to predetermined positions without additional position assignment.

Claims

1. A local area information providing system, comprising:

a local area information database for storing local area information with respect to areas corresponding to first real names;

a first real name database for storing network addresses on a network, first real names and position information, wherein said first real names comprise a name in English and names of a verbal language other than English;

a second real name database for storing network addresses corresponding to second real names;

a web server for setting a position information of a client when an access word provided by the client is a first real name stored in the local area information database; and

a real name server for determining whether the access word provided by the client is a first real name or a second real name when the access word is a real name, searching the first real name database using the first real name and position information of the client, finding a corresponding network address and providing the network address to the client when the access word input by the client is the first real name, and searching the second real name database using the second real name, finding a corresponding network address and providing the network address to the client when the access word input by the client is the second real name, wherein the real name server determines the access word as the first real name when the access word is stored in the local area information database and determines the access word as the second real name when the access word is not stored in the local area information database, wherein the real name server combines the position information of the client with the first real name and processes them as a single domain when the access word input from the client is the first real name.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first real name is a life information keyword.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a position information database for storing position information corresponding to a network address on a network, and the web server searches the position information database and extracts position information by using the network address of the accessing client, and uses the position information as the position information of the client.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client provides position information to the web server via a program, and the web server uses position information provided by the client as the position information of the client.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a membership information database for storing user information corresponding to an identification number assigned to the client, and the web server searches the membership information database and finds user information by using the identification number input from the accessing client, and extracts position information according to the user information, and uses the position information as the position information of the client.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the user information comprises postal address, postal code and telephone number, and the web server extracts the position information of the client according to the postal address, postal code or telephone number.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the client is a mobile communication terminal, and the web server is connected to a mobile communication service system, and the mobile communication service system detects position information of the mobile communication terminal and provides the position information to the web server, and the web server uses the mobile communication terminal'"'"'s position information as the position information of the client.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the client checks an access word input operation and provides the input access word to the web server.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the web server provides an access word input window when the client accesses the web server via a network, and determines whether the access word is a real name when the access word is input from the client via the access word input window.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client provides the access word to the web server via a web browser.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the client is a network accessible terminal.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the local area information providing system is connected to a plurality of cooperation devices cooperating with local area information providing services via a network, and when the client accesses a cooperation device and inputs an access word to the cooperation device, the cooperation device provides the access word to the web server of the local area information providing system, and the web server provides corresponding local area information to the client according to the position information of the client when the access word provided by the cooperation device is a real name.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the second real names comprise firm names, product names and service names.

14. In a method for providing local area information using a real name to a client that accesses via a network, a local area information providing method, comprising:

(a) determining whether an access word provided by a client that accesses via the network is a real name;

(b) when the access word is a real name, determining whether the real name is a first real name or a second real name, wherein said first real name can comprise a name in English or a name of a verbal language other than English;

(c) setting position information of the client when the access word is a first real name;

(d) providing a network address corresponding to the first real name and the position information of the client to the client, so that the client accesses a web page corresponding to the network address; and

(e) providing a network address corresponding to the second real name to the client when the access word is the second real name, so that the client accesses a web page corresponding to the network address, wherein the access word is determined as the first real name when the access word is stored in a local area information database and the access word is determined as the second real name when the access word is not stored in the local area information database, wherein the position information of the client is combined with the first real name, and the position information of the client and first real name are processed as a single domain when the access word provided by the client is the first real name.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein in the step (c), position information is extracted using a network address of the accessing client, and the position information is established as the position information of the client.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein in the step (c), position information is extracted using user information including a postal address, postal code and telephone number of the accessing client, and the position information is established as the position information of the client.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein in the step (b), position information provided by a program for inputting the position information of the client is set as the position information of the client.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing uniform resource location (URL) information to the client when the access word is the first name and uniform resource location information corresponds to the first real name and the position information of the client.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a search result that represents local area information corresponding to the first real name and the position of the client when the access word is the first real name.