Service providing device and service providing method

• US 20040010564A1
• Filed: 04/29/2003
• Published: 01/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Takemoto, Masayo, Imaida, Kazuto
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,504 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A member information unit, a service history unit and a log information unit for acquiring information from a company'"'"'s member terminal hold respectively member information including a URL indicating the location of the company'"'"'s own website, questionnaire information and log information. A predicting unit derives an area of the company'"'"'s purchase orientation based on the member information, the questionnaire information and the log information. A searching unit accesses the company'"'"'s own website based on the URL to extract orientation area descriptions belonging to the area of the company'"'"'s orientation derived by the predicting unit. An analysis instructing terminal displays the extracted orientation area descriptions.

Claims

1. A service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network and provides a service including at least information distribution to a customer who uses the terminal device, said service providing device comprising:

an information holding unit operable to acquire from the terminal device customer-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the customer and hold the customer-specific information;

a deriving unit operable to derive an orientation area of the customer based on the customer-specific information; and

a description extracting unit operable to access the website using the location information and extract from the website an orientation area description belonging to the orientation area derived by said deriving unit.

2. The service providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the customer-specific information is company-specific information, the customer is a company, and the orientation area is a purchase orientation area.

3. The service providing device according to claim 1,

wherein the customer-specific information is person-specific information, the customer is a person, the orientation area is an interest area, and the orientation area description is an interest area description.

4. The service providing device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a dictionary information holding unit operable to hold dictionary information which stores a plurality of interest areas and keywords, each of which belongs to one of the interest areas; and

a keyword extracting unit operable to search the dictionary information held by said dictionary information holding unit for a keyword belonging to the interest area derived by said deriving unit and extract the keyword,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to search the website for a keyword identical to the keyword extracted by said keyword extracting unit, and is operable to extract a description including the keyword as the interest area description.

5. The service providing device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a service information holding unit operable to hold service information which stores in advance a plurality of sentences which can be provided to the person;

a summary information holding unit operable to hold summary information which stores a plurality of summaries, each of which corresponds to one of the sentences stored in the service information and is associated with one of the keywords stored in the dictionary information;

a service specifying unit operable to specify a service which is to be provided to the person;

a summary displaying unit operable to display at least the summaries;

a selecting unit operable to have said summary displaying unit display the plurality of summaries stored in the summary information, each of which is associated with one of the keywords, and select any of the plurality of summaries based on a specification by said service specifying unit; and

a providing unit operable to select a sentence corresponding to the summary selected by said selecting unit from among the plurality of sentences stored in the service information and provide the selected sentence to the person,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to have said summary displaying unit display the extracted interest area description by associating with the keyword belonging to the interest area description, and

said selecting unit is operable to acquire the keyword which said description extracting unit uses for extracting the interest area description, and has said summary displaying unit display the summary associated with the keyword from among the summaries stored in the summary information.

6. The service providing device according to claim 5,

wherein the summary associated with the keyword stored in the summary information held by said summary information holding unit is further stored by associating with each relevant information indicated by one or more letters relevant to the keyword, and

said selecting unit is operable to search the interest area description extracted by said description extracting unit using a predetermined keyword for the relevant information of the predetermined keyword, and has said summary displaying unit display the relevant information in a display form distinguishable from other information.

7. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to extract from the website a keyword and a predetermined number of letters preceding the keyword as the interest area description.

8. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to extract from the website a keyword and a predetermined number of letters following the keyword as the interest area description.

9. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to extract from the website a sentence including a keyword as the interest area description.

10. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein said description extracting unit is operable to search a top page of the website and a page linked up to a predetermined level from the top page for a keyword.

11. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein the person-specific information includes log information which stores a plurality of types of logs on a website from the terminal device of the person, and

said deriving unit is operable to derive the interest area of the person by referring to the plurality of types of logs and interest area information which stores in advance interest areas which are derived from the logs.

12. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein the person-specific information includes personal information which stores a plurality of types of attributes of the person, and

said deriving unit is operable to derive the interest area of the person by referring to the plurality of types of attributes and interest area information which stores in advance interest areas which are derived from the attributes.

13. The service providing device according to claim 3,

wherein the person-specific information includes questionnaire information which stores a plurality of types of answers to a questionnaire by the person, and

said deriving unit is operable to derive the interest area of the person by referring to the plurality of types of answers and interest area information which stores in advance interest areas which are derived from the answers.

14. The service providing device according to claim 3, further comprising a product purchase accepting unit operable to encourage the person to purchase a product and accept the purchase,

wherein the person-specific information includes purchase information indicating a history of a plurality of types of purchases of the person accepted by said product purchase accepting unit, and

said deriving unit is operable to derive the interest area of the person by referring to the plurality of types of purchases and interest area information which stores in advance interest areas which are derived from the purchases.

15. The service providing device according to claim 3, further comprising a product purchase accepting unit operable to encourage the person to purchase a product and accept the purchase,

wherein the person-specific information has at least two of:

personal information which stores attributes of the person;

questionnaire information which stores answers to a questionnaire by the person;

log information which stores logs on a website from the terminal device of the person; and

purchase information indicating a history of purchases of the person accepted by said product purchase accepting unit, and

said deriving unit is operable to derive the interest area based on the at least two of the personal information, the questionnaire information, the log information and the purchase information.

16. The service providing device according to claim 3, further comprising an area information holding unit operable to hold interest area information which stores a plurality of types of information and interest areas which are derived from the information,

wherein said deriving unit is operable to search the interest area information held by said area information holding unit for the interest area based on the information included in the person-specific information.

17. The service providing device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a service information holding unit operable to hold service information which stores in advance a plurality of sentences which can be provided to the person; and

a providing unit operable to select any of the plurality of sentences stored in said service information and provide the selected sentence to the person.

18. The service providing device according to claim 17, further comprising:

a service specifying unit operable to specify a service which is to be provided to the person;

a summary information holding unit operable to hold summary information which stores a plurality of summaries, each of which corresponds to one of the sentences stored in the service information;

a summary displaying unit operable to display the plurality of summaries stored in the summary information; and

a selecting unit operable to select any of the plurality of summaries based on a specification by said service specifying unit,

wherein said providing unit is operable to select a sentence corresponding to the summary selected by said selecting unit and provide the selected sentence to the person.

19. The service providing device according to claim 17,

wherein said providing unit is operable to provide the sentence selected from the service information to the person by e-mail.

20. The service providing device according to claim 17,

wherein said providing unit is operable to provide the sentence selected from the service information to the person by opening a person-only website and posting the sentence selected from the service information on the person-only website.

21. The service providing device according to claim 17, further comprising a providing method selecting unit operable to select a method of providing the sentence selected from the service information by at least one of e-mail and a person-only website having the sentence posted thereon,

wherein said providing unit is operable to provide the sentence selected from the service information to the person based on the selection by said providing method selecting unit.

22. The service providing device according to claim 17, further comprising an editing unit operable to edit the sentences stored in the service information.

23. A service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network and provides a service including at least information distribution to a user who uses the terminal device, said service providing device comprising:

an information holding unit operable to acquire from the terminal device user-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the user and hold the user-specific information,

a deriving unit operable to derive an interest area of the user based on the user-specific information,

a description extracting unit operable to access the website using the location information and extract from the website an interest area description belonging to the interest area derived by said deriving unit, and

a displaying unit operable to display the interest area description extracted by said description extracting unit.

24. A service providing method, executed by a service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network, for providing a service including at least information distribution to a person who uses the terminal device, said service providing method comprising:

acquiring from the terminal device person-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the person and holding the person-specific information;

deriving an interest area of the person based on the person-specific information; and

accessing the website using the location information and extracting from the website an interest area description belonging to the interest area derived in said deriving of the interest area.

25. The service providing method according to claim 24, further comprising:

holding dictionary information which stores a plurality of interest areas and keywords, each of which belongs to one of the interest areas; and

searching the dictionary information for a keyword belonging to the interest area derived in said deriving operation and extracting the keyword,

wherein said accessing of the website comprises searching the website for a keyword identical to the keyword extracted in said extracting of the keyword, and said extracting from the website comprises extracting a description including the keyword as the interest area description.

26. The service providing method according to claim 25,

wherein said extracting of the description including the keyword comprises extracting the keyword and a predetermined number of letters preceding the keyword from the website as the interest area description.

27. The service providing method according to claim 24, further comprising:

holding service information which stores in advance a plurality of sentences which can be provided to the person; and

selecting any of the plurality of sentences stored in the service information and providing the selected sentence to the person.

28. A service providing method, executed by a service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network, for providing a service including at least information distribution to a user who uses the terminal device, said service providing method comprising:

acquiring from the terminal device user-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the user and holding the user-specific information;

deriving an interest area of the user based on the user-specific information; and

accessing the website using the location information and extracting from the website an-interest area description belonging to the interest area derived in said deriving of the interest area, and

displaying the interest area description extracted in said extracting from the website.

29. A program for causing a service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network to execute a service providing method for providing a service including at least information distribution to a person who uses the terminal device, said program comprising:

program code operable to acquire from the terminal device person-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the person and holding the person-specific information;

program code operable to derive an interest area of the person based on the person-specific information; and

program code operable to access the website using the location information and extract from the website an interest area description belonging to the interest area derived in said deriving of the interest area.

30. A program on a medium for causing a service providing device that is connected to a terminal device via a communication network to execute a service providing method for providing a service including at least information distribution to a person who uses the terminal device, said program comprising:

program code operable to acquire from the terminal device person-specific information including location information indicating a location of a website owned by the person and holding the person-specific information;

program code operable to derive an interest area of the person based on the person-specific information; and

program code operable to access the website using the location information and extract from the website an interest area description belonging to the interest area derived in the deriving of the interest area.