Search information providing apparatus and search information providing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9454614-B2
Application number	US-201514789354-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 1, 2015
Priority date	Apr 18, 2012
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

An information searching apparatus according to an embodiment includes a receiving unit that receives a search request including a search keyword; an acquiring unit that acquires information corresponding to a specific search keyword from an information storage unit when the search keyword included in the search request is the specific search keyword; a generating unit that generates a search result page for displaying a search result and a background image based on the information acquired by the acquiring unit; and a transmitting unit that transmits the search result page generated by the generating unit to a request source.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A search information providing apparatus comprising:
a receiving unit, implemented on a processor operatively coupled to a memory, which receives a search request including a search keyword from a user terminal;
a searching unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, which acquires first information corresponding to the search keyword as a search result based on the search keyword included in the search request;
an information memory that stores second information corresponding to a specific search keyword;
an acquiring unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, which acquires the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword from the information memory when the search keyword included in the search request is the specific search keyword;
a generating unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, which generates a search result page for displaying the search result and a background image based on the second information acquired by the acquiring unit; and
a transmitting unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, which transmits the search result page generated by the generating unit to the user terminal performing the search request including the specific search keyword, wherein
the receiving unit receives, from the user terminal, a registration request for registration of the background image that is displayed in the search result page and in response to receiving the registration request, information associated with the background image is stored, and
the receiving unit further receives, a cancellation request for cancellation of the background image registered by the user, and deletes the information associated with the background image that was stored to cancel the registration of the background image.

2. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a user information memory, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, that stores information regarding a user of the user terminal,
wherein the acquiring unit selects second information corresponding to the information stored in the user information memory among the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword when the search keyword included in the search request is the specific search keyword.

3. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the receiving unit determines a classification of the user terminal performing the search request,
wherein the information memory stores second information corresponding to the classification of the user terminal as the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword, and
wherein the acquiring unit selects the second information corresponding to the classification of the user terminal performing the search request as the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword when the search keyword included in the search request is the specific search keyword.

4. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the acquiring unit acquires second information corresponding to the background image of the registration request instead of the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword included in the search request when the user terminal performing the registration request performs the search request including the specific search keyword.

5. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the information memory stores an address of a predetermined page in correspondence with the second information, and
wherein the generating unit adds, to the search result page, a button for accessing the predetermined page corresponding to the second information acquired by the acquiring unit based on the address of the predetermined page stored in the information memory.

6. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the button has a color and/or a shape according to an image based on the corresponding second information.

7. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a content memory, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, that stores a content to be provided to each user terminal;
a deciding unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, that decides a compensation for the provision of the content for each user terminal; and
a determining unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, that determines a use status of the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword for each user terminal,
wherein the generating unit transmits a content page including the content stored in the content memory to the user terminal, and
wherein the deciding unit decides the compensation for the provision of the content based on the determination result of the determining unit.

8. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when information corresponding to the search keyword searched by the searching unit exceeds a predetermined number, the generating unit generates a plurality of search result pages of which each displays the background image and the search results less than or equal to a predetermined number, the background images being different.

9. The search information providing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the generating unit sets images of which at least one of a color and a size is different as the different background images.

10. A search information providing method comprising:
(A) receiving, by a computer, a search request including a search keyword from a user terminal;
(B) acquiring, by the computer, first information corresponding to the search keyword as a search result based on the search keyword included in the search request;
(C) acquiring, by the computer, second information corresponding to a specific search keyword from an information memory that stores the second information corresponding to the specific search keyword when the search keyword included in the search request is the specific search keyword;
(D) generating, by the computer, a search result page for displaying the search result and a background image based on the second information acquired in the (C) acquiring; and
(E) transmitting, by the computer, the search result page generated in the (D) generating to the user terminal performing the search request including the specific search keyword, wherein
the receiving includes receiving, from the user terminal, a registration request for registration of the background image that is displayed in the search result page and in response to receiving the registration request, information associated with the background image is stored, and
the receiving includes receiving a cancellation request for cancellation of the background image registered by the user, and deletes the information associated with the background image that was stored to cancel the registration of the background image.

11. A search information providing apparatus comprising:
a receiving unit, implemented on a processor operatively coupled to a memory, which receives a search request including a search keyword from a user terminal;
a searching unit, implemented on the processor operatively coupled to the memory, which acquires first information corresponding to the search keyword as a search result based on the search keyword included in the search request;
an information memory that stores second information corresponding to a specific search keyword;
an acquiring unit, imple

Assignees

• Yahoo Japan Corp

Inventors

• Sugimoto Akira

Classifications

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F16/248

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06Q30/0277 Primary

  Online advertisement · CPC title

• G06F16/245

  Query processing · CPC title

• G06Q30/0254

  based on statistics · CPC title