Information providing system and mediating apparatus

• US 20010044806A1
• Filed: 03/15/2001
• Published: 11/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Mohri, Takao, Ushijima, Satoru, Ichiki, Hiroki, Ide, Toshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,072,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

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.

Claims

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.

2. A mediating apparatus comprising:

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.

3. A mediating apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein a plurality of said retrieval engines is provided,

said mediating apparatus further comprises an index selection condition storage section for storing the index selection condition in association with said retrieval engine upon receipt of a request for registration of the index selection condition by said retrieval engine,

said index selection section selects an individual index satisfying an index selection condition stored in said index selection condition storage section, and

said index sending section sends the individual index selected by said index selection section to a retrieval engine associated with the index selection condition used in selection of the individual index, of the plurality of retrieval engines.

4. A mediating apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein said information sources each has, as the index output function, a function of receiving a push program defining a method of producing and outputting the individual index to produce and output the individual index in accordance with the method defined by the push program, and

said mediating apparatus further comprises a program receiving section for receiving the push program,

a program selection section for selecting a push program satisfying a predetermined program selection condition from among the push programs received by said program receiving section, and

a program sending section for sending the push program selected by said program selection section to said information source for use in the index output function.

5. A mediating apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein said mediating apparatus further comprises a program selection condition storage section for storing the program selection condition in association with said information source upon receipt of a request for registration of the program selection condition by said information source,

said program selection section selects a push program satisfying a program selection condition stored in said program selection condition storage section, and

said program sending section sends the push program selected by said program selection section to an information source associated with the program selection condition used in selection of the push program.