WO2006009410A1

WO2006009410A1 - Method and system for impressing knowledge advertisement using knowledge search service

Info

Publication number: WO2006009410A1
Application number: PCT/KR2005/002381
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hwa Seop Lee; Mi Jeong Choi
Original assignee: Nhn Corporation
Priority date: 2004-07-23
Filing date: 2005-07-22
Publication date: 2006-01-26
Also published as: KR100479363B1

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method including the steps of: maintaining knowledge data for each directory and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data in a knowledge database; maintaining knowledge advertising data for each directory and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data in a knowledge advertising database; receiving a knowledge search request including a predetermined query from a knowledge searcher; searching for knowledge data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge database in response to the knowledge search request; searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge advertising data in response to the knowledge search request; generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data; and providing the search result list to a knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPRESSING KNOWLEDGE ADVERTISEMENT USING KNOWLEDGE SEARCH SERVICE

Technical Field The present invention relates to method and system for impressing knowledge advertising, and more particularly, to method and system for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, which bring advertising effects through a knowledge search by providing knowledge advertising data registered by an advertiser together with knowledge data searched in response to a knowledge search request.

Background Art

Generally, while transactions of products or service using a network such as the Internet become active, it becomes a major marketing target of an advertiser to advertise products or service at a portal site or an advertising agency site of e-commerce. One of conventional Internet advertising is to display a banner associated with an advertiser at an advertising agency site, thereby impressing advertising information of the advertiser. This method adopts a method of displaying a banner consisting of an advertising message or an advertising image on a predetermined location of an advertising agency site and charging advertising cost to an advertiser on the basis of the number of displays (impressions) of the banner or the number of times that an Internet user clicks the displayed banner. Also, there is keyword advertising as another Internet advertising. In this keyword advertising, if an Internet user inputs a predetermined keyword in order to use search service, advertising information on an advertiser who has paid a fee is displayed on a search result list while a search result list regarding the keyword is provided to the Internet user.

However, since all the aforementioned Internet advertising is an advertising method of being provided to an Internet user from an advertiser, whether corresponding advertising information is substantially useful to the Internet user is not considered at all.

Meanwhile, in knowledge search service providing answer information of an unspecific person in correspondence to question information inputted by a questioner, question information associated with products or service occupies a lot of portions because of characteristics of question information. In spite of this fact, so far, there has been no knowledge service supporting advertising information of an advertiser to an Internet user, together with answer information, with respect to question information associated with products or service. Accordingly, the development of advertising markets becomes more influential with respect to knowledge search service which has more possibility to provide postscripts of products or service users regarding the question information as answer information and may bring high advertising effects due to positive answer information regarding a particular product or service.

Accordingly, there is required a new type of knowledge advertising impressing model which provides advertising information on products or service needed by a knowledge searcher by displaying advertising information of an advertiser together with search results with respect to knowledge data in conventional knowledge search service that has simply provided question-answer information only. Also, there is required a knowledge advertising impressing model which brings more efficient advertising effects by helping creation of profits through advertising in a potential field of knowledge advertising and enabling an advertiser to appropriately provide advertising information substantially necessary to a knowledge searcher.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Goals The present invention is conceived to solve the aforementioned problems.

Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which bring advertising effects to an advertiser in knowledge search service by providing knowledge advertising data including advertising information of the advertiser in response to a knowledge search request. Also, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can determine an impressing method of knowledge advertising data in accordance with an evaluation point by computing the evaluation point with respect to the knowledge advertising data.

Also, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing keyword advertising which can encourage an advertiser to participate in knowledge search service more aggressively by differentiating standards of computing evaluation points of knowledge data and knowledge advertising data, and computing an evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data using the degree of activity of the advertiser.

Also, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a directory matched to a query (in case of directory searching) or a keyword matched to a query (in case of keyword- oriented searching) in case that a knowledge searcher inputs the query including a plurality of keywords.

For this, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a directory or knowledge advertising data matched to the query by using a computed efficiency point for each keyword.

Also, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a proper directory easily and precisely in directory identification of a query by determining a directory whose directory matching point is comparatively high to be a directory of the query, and the directory matching point is computed when the query is inputted into a general knowledge search server.

Also, another object of the present invention is to provide method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which enable an advertiser to generate knowledge advertising data for the purpose of advertising as many as a certain number of times.

Technical solutions

According to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the objects, there is provided a method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method including the steps of: maintaining knowledge data for each directory and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data in a knowledge database; maintaining knowledge advertising data for each directory and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data in a knowledge advertising database; receiving a knowledge search request including a predetermined query from a knowledge searcher; searching for knowledge data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge database in response to the knowledge search request; searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge advertising data in response to the knowledge search request; generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data; and providing the search result list to a knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request. Also, as a technical configuration for achieving the above objects, there is provided a system for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the system including: a knowledge database storing knowledge data for each directory and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data; a knowledge advertising database storing knowledge advertising data for each directory and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data; a first search unit searching for knowledge data associated with a predetermined query by referring to the knowledge database, in response to a knowledge search request including the query from a knowledge searcher; a second search unit searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge advertising database, in response to the knowledge search request; and a list generation unit generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data, and providing the generated search result list to the knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request, and wherein the list generation unit determines a sort method of the search result list on the basis of a knowledge evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge data and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge advertising data.

Brief Description of Drawings

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of knowledge advertising data, and FIG. 2 is a view explaining schematic operations of a knowledge advertising impressing system,^' according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating a knowledge advertising impressing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a directory database, FIG. 5 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a knowledge advertising database, and FIG. 6 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a search result list according to the present invention; FIG. 7 is a flowchart concretely illustrating a knowledge advertising impressing method, FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of recording a directory and keyword advertising data by directory searching, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of identifying a directory of a keyword determined by an efficiency point of the keyword, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of determining a directory of a query, FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of determining a directory of a query, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing the degree of association between knowledge data and a query via a knowledge search server, according to the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing ranking with respect to each of knowledge adverting data, FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing information on the degree of activation, and FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing a ranking point by using second evaluation information, according to the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of generating first payment information, and FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of generating second payment information according to the present invention; and FIG. 18 is an internal block diagram of a general-purpose computer which may be adopted in implementing the knowledge advertising impressing method according to the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Hereinafter, method and system for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

"Knowledge advertising data" continuously used in the present specification is one of search result information that is provided in response to a search result request generating in predetermined knowledge service, and particularly indicates knowledge data including advertising information of an advertiser in association with a query inputted by a knowledge searcher. Also, the present invention may give a predetermined advertising identifier to knowledge advertising data, so as to distinguish the knowledge advertising data from knowledge data, or so as to limit an advertiser's rights. Accordingly, "knowledge data given with an advertising identifier" also means knowledge advertising data. In this aspect, a knowledge advertising impressing system according to the present invention may withdraw an advertising identifier from knowledge advertising data, thereby restoring the knowledge advertising data to "knowledge data, not knowledge advertising data."

Also, "databases" such as a directory database, a knowledge advertising database, and the like, used in the present specification means a group of data that is methodically integrated and systematically constructed. The term "record data in a database" is used to concisely express that "the database is recorded in a predetermined storage unit and the data is recorded in the storage unit to be included in the database in accordance with the structure of the database."

Forms of these knowledge advertising data include all forms such as a question- and-answer form in which a knowledge searcher registers a question and an advertiser inputs an answer corresponding to the question, a search form in which an advertiser makes and maintains both a question and an answer corresponding thereto, thereby providing to a knowledge searcher, an additional form of providing advertising information of a corresponding advertiser together with predetermined answer information in case that a question registered by a knowledge searcher is determined to have relation with the advertiser, and forms of providing advertising information in association with knowledge data.

Also, advertising information included in knowledge advertising data may be link data for an access between a knowledge searcher and an advertiser (network address information), text/image data associated with products of the advertiser or his/her own company promotion, banner data of the advertiser, and the like. Namely, knowledge advertising data means a general name of information data enabling advertising of a particular advertiser to be provided to a knowledge searcher in knowledge service formed of question-answer (Q&A). Hereinafter, knowledge advertising data generated by an advertiser will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of knowledge advertising data according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view explaining schematic operations of a knowledge advertising impressing system according to the present invention.

As described above, FIG. 1 exemplifies a search form that an advertiser 230 prepares a question and an answer and includes predetermined advertising information among various forms of knowledge advertising data.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the advertiser 230 may use an advertising identifier to generate knowledge advertising data. Namely, the advertiser 230 assigns an advertising identifier to knowledge data including advertising information, thereby generating knowledge advertising data associated with the advertiser 230. In the meantime, the number of advertising identifiers that the advertiser 230 may give may be limited. Namely, the advertiser 230 may generate knowledge advertising data by assigning an advertising identifier to knowledge data only as many times as the first number, and said first number is changeable in accordance with advertising cost paid by the advertiser 230. Also, an advertising identifier may be sold to the advertiser 230 for each category or for each keyword. For example, the advertiser 230 may have a right to generate knowledge advertising data ten times by assigning an advertising identifier to knowledge data associated with keyword "refrigerator".

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, knowledge advertising data generated as above may be registered and maintained for a predetermined period, such as only 30 days. For example, in case that 30 days have passed since the advertiser 230 who could generate knowledge advertising data ten times had generated and registered one piece of knowledge advertising data by using an advertising identifier, the knowledge advertising data is automatically restored to knowledge data without the advertising identifier, and now the advertiser 230 may further generate 9 pieces of knowledge advertising data. Accordingly, if knowledge advertising data generated by the advertiser 230 is all restored to knowledge data without an advertising identifier since ten knowledge advertising data have been generated and a predetermined period has passed, the advertiser 230 can no longer generate knowledge advertising data, and knowledge advertising data associated with the advertiser 230 no longer exists.

Also, according to embodiments, the predetermined period may be flexibly set on the basis of advertising cost paid by the advertiser 230. Namely, knowledge advertising data generated by the advertiser 230 who has paid more advertising cost is enabled to remain longer than one generated by an advertiser who has paid less advertising cost. The advertiser 230 generates and maintains knowledge advertising data including question information, answer information corresponding thereto, and advertising information associated with the advertiser 230, and the knowledge advertising data may be provided as search results in response to a knowledge search request of a knowledge searcher 220. For example, knowledge advertising data of FIG. 1 includes question information 'please recommend a digital camera--' and answer information including advertising information 'SAMSUNG product is good¹. Knowledge advertising data such above may be provided to the knowledge searcher 220 in response to a knowledge search request thereof. As the knowledge advertising data is provided, the advertiser 230 may obtain advertising effects of impressing his/her (company) advertising information to the knowledge searcher 220. While it is described that knowledge advertising data provided as search results is limited to knowledge advertising data pre-made by the advertiser 230, besides thereto, it is also possible to register knowledge advertising data which is previously provided as similar question-answer and to provide the registered knowledge advertising data to the knowledge searcher 220 as search results in response to a knowledge search request.

A knowledge advertising impressing system 200 is a device for providing knowledge advertising data which is highly relevant to an inputted query, in response to a search result request of the knowledge searcher 220, and through this, serves to bring advertising effects by impressing advertising information associated with the advertiser 230 to the knowledge searcher 220. There may be various methods of identifying knowledge advertising data which is highly relevant to a query. The present embodiment adopts a method of identifying knowledge advertising data well-matched to a query by using a keyword inputted for a knowledge search request or a directory of the keyword.

A knowledge search server 210 provides knowledge service using question- answer between the knowledge searcher 220 and an answerer 240 or between the knowledge searchers 220. First, the knowledge searcher server 210 receives question information from the knowledge searcher 220, records/maintains the same in a knowledge database 215, and provides the question information to the predetermined answerer 240 accessing the knowledge search server 210. Also, the knowledge search server 210 receives answer information corresponding to the provided question information from the answerer 240.

Answer information inputted for one piece of question information may be one or more, and the question information and the answer information corresponding thereto are maintained in the knowledge database 215 as one set of knowledge data.

Knowledge data such above may be accumulated in the knowledge database 215 as time goes by, and the accumulated knowledge data may be provided to the knowledge searcher 220 in response to a search request thereof. Accordingly, the knowledge searcher 220 may receive answer information corresponding to registered answer information. Also, although not registering question information in person, the knowledge searcher 220 may receive similar knowledge data to the question information by knowledge searching.

At this time, "knowledge data" may be used as a concept including knowledge data that includes advertising information of the advertiser 230 (or knowledge data given with an advertising identifier) and general knowledge data that does not include advertising information of the advertiser 230 (or knowledge data without an advertising identifier).

The knowledge searcher 220 may be an Internet user who has a terminal unit 225 to access the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention, and generates a predetermined knowledge search request by inputting his/her question into the knowledge search server 210 in form of a query (e.g., one word or combination of words). The knowledge searcher 220 in the present invention may be classified as an Internet user who performs a knowledge search request with respect to previously registered knowledge data (or knowledge advertising data) and as an Internet user who registers his/her real question and awaits answer information from the answerer 240 in accordance with the inputted query.

The advertiser 230 may be a Contents Provider (CP) who operates a website whose location is designated on a network by a network address (e.g., IP address, URL, domain, etc). For example, the advertiser 230 generates knowledge advertising data by generating knowledge data including advertising information associated with a website and registers the generated knowledge advertising data to the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention.

The answerer 240 may be an Internet user who inputs answer information about question information registered by the knowledge searcher 220, and the knowledge search server 210 generates knowledge data by using the question information and the answer information. Namely, the answerer 240 may be identical to the advertiser 230 depending on whether advertising information is included in knowledge data, and knowledge data including advertising information may become knowledge advertising data of the present invention.

The terminal unit 225 maintains a connection state with the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 via a communication network 250 such as the Internet, and displays knowledge advertising data searched by the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 on a predetermined screen. The terminal unit 225 may be a general concept for terminals provided with a predetermined computation function by mounting a predetermined microprocessor and a memory means, such as, personal computers, handheld computers, PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), MP3 players, electronic dictionaries, cellular phones, smart phones, and the like.

The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 provides knowledge advertising data matched to a keyword inputted for a knowledge search request to the knowledge searcher 220 as knowledge search results by using the keyword, thereby providing advertising information included in the knowledge advertising data to the knowledge searcher 220. The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may identify knowledge advertising data matched to the keyword in accordance with keyword-oriented searching based on the degree of keyword identification or in accordance with directory searching based on the degree, of directory identification of a keyword. Hereinafter, concrete configuration of the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram illustrating a knowledge advertising impressing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A knowledge advertising impressing system 300 includes a directory database 310, a knowledge advertising database 320, a keyword search unit 330, a data extraction unit 340, a keyword determination unit 350, and a list generation unit 360. First, the directory database 310 is a unit for storing a directory and at least one keyword associated with the directory, and serves to maintain a particular keyword corresponding to one directory. At this time, a directory may be a standard to classify knowledge advertising data searched by knowledge searching, and a keyword corresponding to the directory may be determined by an operator of the present system. In the present embodiment, while it is not particularly limited whether a directory and a keyword corresponding thereto are correlated, it will be preferable to make a keyword similar to the attribute of a directory (category, function, etc.) correspond to the directory by considering the accuracy of search results with respect to a knowledge search request. Hereinafter, the directory database 310 will be further in detail described with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a directory database according to the present invention.

As described above, in the directory database 310, at least one keyword corresponds to a particular directory, which enables a search of knowledge advertising data by directory searching. Namely, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention is enabled to identify a directory of a query by using a particular keyword included in the query inputted for a knowledge search request, by referring to the directory database 310. For example, the directory database 310 of FIG. 4 exemplifies that keywords, 'camera, digital camera (dica), camera phone, and tripod' are related in correspondence to the directory 'camera'. After this, in case that the keyword (e.g., 'dica') stored in the directory database 310 is included in a query inputted for a knowledge search request, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies a directory of the query by 'camera' with reference to the directory database 310. Also, in selecting a keyword corresponding to a directory, the directory database 310 may strategically select the keyword 'tripod' having comparatively low frequency to be included in a query, thereby inducing the number of impressions with respect to knowledge advertising data associated with the keyword 'tripod' to increase.

The knowledge advertising database 320 is a unit for including a directory and knowledge advertising data associated with the directory, and serves to maintain knowledge advertising data searched by directory searching. Namely, the knowledge advertising database 320 stores knowledge advertising data in correspondence to a directory of an inputted query. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 enables an advertiser to select to which directory his/her knowledge advertising data corresponds.

Hereinafter, in another embodiment of the present invention, a process of generating knowledge advertising data by using an advertising identifier will be described.

The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 records and maintains first number information and second number information in a predetermined database (not illustrated) by each advertiser. The first number information is information on the first number of times that an advertiser may assign an advertising identifier to knowledge data, and the second number information is information on the second number of times that the advertiser gave an advertising identifier to the knowledge data.

The advertiser 230 selects predetermined knowledge data and requests the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 to assign an advertising identifier to the knowledge data. The selected knowledge data may include all answers and questions, or may include only questions when the advertiser 230 elects to do so.

The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 searches for first number information and second number information by referring to the database, in response to the request. The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 assigns an advertising identifier to the selected knowledge data, in case that the second number of times is less than the first number of times on the basis of the searched first number information and the second number information. Namely, as described above, the number of times that an advertiser can assign an advertising identifier to generate knowledge advertising data is limited. Whenever the advertiser 230 requests the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 to assign an advertising identifier, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 determines whether the limit of the number of advertising identifiers has been reached, and only if not, assigns an advertising identifier to the selected knowledge data as per the request.

As an advertising identifier is given to the selected knowledge data, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 updates the second number information to increase the second number of times associated with the advertiser 230 by 'I¹, and records the updated second number information in the database in association with the advertiser 230.

Knowledge advertising data associated with the advertiser 230 may generate through the aforementioned process. In the meantime, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may withdraw an advertising identifier from knowledge advertising data generated as above, thereby restoring the withdrawn advertising identifier to the knowledge advertising data.

For example, the advertiser 230 may withdraw an advertising identifier from knowledge advertising data generated by himself or herself. The advertiser 230 selects knowledge advertising data associated therewith, and inputs a request for withdrawal of an advertising identifier given to the selected knowledge advertising data into the knowledge advertising impressing system 200. hi accordance with the withdrawal request, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 withdraws the advertising identifier from the selected knowledge advertising data and restores the knowledge advertising data to knowledge data again.

As described later, it is possible to provide knowledge advertising data and knowledge data that is not knowledge advertising data, by a method of distinguishing one from the other. For example, in case of providing knowledge advertising data by a first method and providing knowledge data that is not knowledge advertising data by a second method, the selected knowledge advertising data is provided to the knowledge searcher 220 by the first method. However, in case that the knowledge advertising data is restored to knowledge data through the aforementioned process, the selected knowledge advertising data is provided to the knowledge searcher 220 by the second method.

Meanwhile, in case that the first number of times that the advertiser 230 may generate knowledge advertising data is determined, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may update second number information recorded in association with the advertiser 230 and record the updated second number information in the database. Namely, withdrawal of the advertising identifier decreases the second number of times. According to the configuration such constructed, the advertiser has a wider range of selections in operating advertising by using knowledge data in a situation where said first number of times is limited. For example, the advertiser withdraws an advertising identifier from existing knowledge advertising data and assigns an advertising identifier to knowledge data more-recommended by users, thereby capable of generating knowledge advertising data expected to bring better advertising effects. Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, even in case that the advertiser 230 requests withdrawal of an advertising identifier whereby the selected knowledge advertising data is restored to knowledge data, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may not decrease said second number of times.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, in case that a predetermined violation reason is included in knowledge advertising data, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may withdraw an advertising identifier from the knowledge advertising data. Namely, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may withdraw an advertising identifier from the knowledge advertising data. The violation reason includes a case that advertising information included in the knowledge advertising data includes unsound contents judging from a socially accepted idea, or a case that knowledge contents included in the knowledge advertising data (e.g., answers) is very unreliable, or the like.

According to embodiments, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may increase a violation point in association with the knowledge advertising data whenever a predetermined violation reason occurs, and may withdraw an advertising identifier from the knowledge advertising data only when the violation point exceeds a predetermined value.

In case that an advertising identifier is withdrawn, the knowledge advertising data is restored to knowledge data and provided to the knowledge searcher 220 by a providing method of knowledge data, that is, the second providing method.

The withdrawal of the advertising identifier has meaning of sanction against an advertiser who has generated knowledge advertising data including unreliable or unsound contents. Thus, even in case that the advertising identifier is withdrawn, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may not update second number information to increase the second number of times associated with the advertiser 230 by T. Meanwhile, knowledge advertising data extracted as search results may be a part of or the total of knowledge advertising data corresponding to a directory. The scope of knowledge advertising data to be extracted may be flexibly determined by an operator of the present system, for example, an operator may decide to give a ranking to each knowledge advertising data and only enable knowledge advertising within a predetermined ranking to be extracted.

Hereinafter, the knowledge advertising database 320 will be in detail described with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a knowledge advertising database.

The knowledge advertising database 320 maintains knowledge advertising data extracted as search results in accordance with a directory of an inputted query. The knowledge advertising database 320 of FIG. 3 exemplifies knowledge advertising data associated with each of directories, 'camera' and 'camcorder'. For example, when a query inputted at a knowledge search request is 'Do you want to buy a digital camera cheap?', the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies a directory of the query as 'camera' by referring to the directory database 310. The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 extracts four pieces of knowledge advertising data, such as 'manual camera is out of order', etc, that are recorded in association with the directory 'camera', from the knowledge advertising database 320.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 provides knowledge advertising data to the knowledge searcher 220 by a keyword advertising method. For this, knowledge advertising data is maintained in association with a keyword, and the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies knowledge advertising data associated with a keyword included in a query and provides the identified knowledge advertising data to the knowledge searcher 220.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in the knowledge advertising database 320 of FIG. 5, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 records knowledge advertising data corresponding to at least one keyword or a part thereof corresponding to one directory in one database, thereby enabling the same to be used in both keyword-oriented searching and directory searching. Various configuration methods of a database such those described above may be flexibly selected by an operator of the present system considering an advertising providing method or system environment.

The keyword search unit 330 is a unit for searching for a keyword from a predetermined query inputted for a knowledge search request, and determines "a keyword to be a standard of identifying a directory of a query" (hereinafter, "input keyword").

In case that an input keyword included in the query is one, a directory corresponding to the input keyword is determined to be one. In the case a plurality of input keywords is included in a query and a plurality of directories associated with the query is identified, such as in a case of supporting a natural language search, it is necessary to determine one directory from the query which is among said plurality of directories. Hereinafter, a method of determining a directory of a query will be described.

A keyword searched to be an input keyword by the keyword search unit 330 may be a substantive whose meaning is identifiable, and preferably, a keyword stored in the directory database 310. For example, in case that question information of FIG. 1 ("please recommend a really nice digital camera with good screen quality at a price between 300,000 and 500,000 won") is inputted as a query for a knowledge search request, the keyword search unit 330 may search for 'digital camera', 'picture quality¹, and 'recommend' as input keywords, and determines any of directories thereof as a directory of the query.

The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention further includes the keyword determination unit 350 in order to select one input keyword determining a directory of the query. Namely, the keyword determination unit 350 determines one input keyword having prior ranking among searched input keywords, and thus, computes a predetermined efficiency point with respect to each of a plurality of input keywords searched from the query and determines one keyword through the size comparison of the computed efficiency points. The efficiency point may be computed on the basis of various computation elements determined by an operator of the present system.

Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, an efficiency point is computed on the basis of at least one selected from the group consisting of the number of references for the number of times that a particular keyword is inputted by the knowledge searcher 220, the number of impressions for the number of times that knowledge advertising data associated with the keyword is impressed, and the number of clicks for the number of times that the impressed knowledge advertising data is selected by the knowledge searcher 220. Namely, the keyword determination unit 350 enables more efficiency points to be computed for an input keyword that has caused predetermined events more in association with knowledge advertising impressing of the present invention. Accordingly, although a plurality of input keywords are searched from a query, it is possible to enable a directory of the query to be more easily and precisely selected by determining one keyword having a higher efficiency point.

In the present embodiment, it is described as an illustrative example that an efficiency point is computed on the basis of the number of references, the number of impressions, and the number of clicks. Besides thereto, an efficiency point also may be computed by a computation element arbitrarily selected by an operator of the present system considering the system environment.

Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may determine a directory of a query including a plurality of input keywords by using the knowledge search server 210.

For this, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 inputs a query into the predetermined knowledge search server 210 and identifies information on the degree of association of search results extracted in correspondence to the query. Namely, the knowledge search server 210 may sort the extracted search results, for example, in accordance with the degree of association of directories and may determine a predetermined directory of the search result having the highest relationship to be a directory of the query.

The data extraction unit 340 is a unit for extracting knowledge advertising data corresponding to an identified directory by referring to the knowledge advertising database 320.

In case that an input keyword identical to keywords maintained in the directory database 310 is one among searched input keywords, the data extraction unit 340 identifies a directory corresponding to the input keyword as a directory of the query. Also, in case that input keywords identical to keywords maintained in the directory database 310 are plural among searched input keywords, the data extraction unit 340 identifies a directory corresponding to the input keyword determined by the keyword determination unit 350 as a directory of the query.

Also, the data extraction unit 340 extracts a part of or the total of knowledge advertising data maintained in association with the identified directory. For example, the data extraction unit 340 extracts knowledge advertising data within set ranking from the knowledge advertising database 320 by considering ranking according to predetermined evaluation information. For example, as described above, in case that 'digital camera', 'screen quality', 'recommend', etc are searched as input keywords, the data extraction unit 340 confirms a 'digital camera' maintained as a keyword in the directory database 310, identifies the directory 'camera' associated with the keyword 'digital camera' as a directory of a query, and extracts associated knowledge advertising data.

The list generation unit 360 is a unit for generating a search result list by using extracted knowledge advertising data and controlling the generated search result list to be provided to the knowledge searcher 220 who has generated a knowledge search request. Namely, the list generation unit 360 serves to generate a search result list by sorting at lest one of extracted knowledge advertising data in accordance with a predetermined standard and provide the generated search result list in correspondence to a query. At this time, the search result list is sorted such that extracted knowledge advertising data may be impressed to the knowledge searcher 220 at a particular location. The location where knowledge advertising data will be impressed may be determined on the basis of ranking computed in accordance with predetermined evaluation information. The evaluation information may be involved in extracting knowledge advertising data from the knowledge advertising database 330 via the data extraction unit 340. For example, only knowledge advertising data included within predetermined ranking may be controlled to be extracted. Hereinafter, a search result list will be further in detail described with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating an example of configuration of a search result list according to the present invention.

In FIG. 6, it is exemplified that 'please recommend dica¹ is inputted as a query and four pieces of knowledge advertising data are extracted from the knowledge advertising database 320. Namely, the list generation unit 360 sorts a plurality of knowledge advertising data extracted in association with a directory of the query as a search result list, but sorts by considering each ranking of a plurality of knowledge advertising data computed on the basis of predetermined evaluation information. For example, a search result list in FIG. 6 exemplifies that knowledge advertising data is sorted on the basis of 'the number of references' which is evaluation information, in which first-ranking knowledge advertising data having the highest number of references is provided in the highest position of a search screen where CTR (Click Through Rate) is high. Accordingly, there is an effect that it is possible to enable the knowledge searcher 220 to precisely obtain answer information about his/her question only by a knowledge search without an additional process of registration of answer information, by providing knowledge advertising data determined to be highly relevant to an inputted query so as to be easily recognized by the knowledge searcher 220.

In the present embodiment, it is described as an illustrative example that 'the number of references' is used as evaluation information. Besides thereto, an application element of various evaluation information may be set by an operator of the present system.

The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention may further include an evaluation information database 370 and a ranking unit 380 in order to rank knowledge advertising data on the basis of the evaluation information. The evaluation information database 370 may be embodied in the same database to the knowledge advertising database 33.

First, the evaluation information database 370 is a unit for maintaining first evaluation information or second evaluation information as standard information to determine ranking of knowledge advertising data. At this time, the first evaluation information indicates information data associated with knowledge contents of knowledge advertising data and includes, for example, content reliability information, information on whether the knowledge advertising data has been adopted as an important answer, information on the number of recommendations, information on the number of penalties, and information on the number of times that the knowledge advertising data has been copied to other sites. Also, the second evaluation information indicates information data associated with a corresponding advertiser of knowledge advertising data and includes, for examples, predetermined activity point information of the advertiser 230, registration fee information with respect to knowledge advertising data, and information on the number of connections performed by network address information included in the knowledge advertising data. Particularly, the evaluation information database 370 may further include information on the degree of activation with respect to a directory as first evaluation information. At this time, the degree of activation may be preferences of Internet users using knowledge search service with respect to the directory. The information on the degree of activation may be computed by using the number of knowledge advertising data associated with a directory, the number of references of the knowledge searcher 220 with respect to knowledge advertising data of the directory, the number of clicks with respect to particular knowledge advertising data associated with the directory, and the number of accesses of the knowledge searcher 220 to a webpage associated with the directory. It will be apparent to those of skills in the related art that sorts of information included in said each of evaluation information may be flexibly determined by an operator of the present system considering the system environment.

The ranking unit 380 is a unit for ranking each of knowledge advertising data extracted as search results on the basis of first evaluation information or second evaluation information of the evaluation information database 370. Namely, the ranking unit 380 serves to generate a predetermined data value with respect to each of knowledge advertising data by applying weight to first evaluation information or second evaluation information and determine ranking of knowledge advertising data according to the size of the generated data value. Also, in determining ranking of knowledge advertising data, the ranking unit 380 may limit evaluation information becoming a standard arbitrarily. For example, the ranking unit 380 may determine ranking of knowledge advertising data by considering only first evaluation information, or only second evaluation information, or both first evaluation information and second evaluation information. In the present embodiment, it is described as an illustrative example that ranking of each of knowledge advertising data is determined via data value generation by weight. However, there may be various ranking determination methods, such as, a method of determining ranking at random without considering evaluation information or a method of determining ranking on the basis of the accuracy with respect to an inputted query (a matching point).

Also, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 according to the present embodiment may provide not only knowledge advertising data about a question of the knowledge searcher 220 but also general knowledge data irrelevant to advertising. The knowledge data may be extracted in accordance with an evaluation point that is determined on the basis of first evaluation information. Also, the first evaluation information may be further used as a standard for sorting the extracted knowledge data. Also, knowledge data irrelevant to advertising may be recorded and maintained in a separate knowledge database (not illustrated). Although not illustrated in FIG. 3, the knowledge advertising impressing system

200 of the present invention may further include a charge control unit generating payment information under a predetermined condition and transmitting the generated payment information to the advertiser 230. The charge control unit constructed as above may be provided inside or outside the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 and generate predetermined payment information, for example, at a time point when the advertiser 230 registers knowledge advertising data or when access traffic by knowledge advertising data occurs.

In configuration such above, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that it is possible to bring efficient advertising effects by enabling advertising information of the advertiser 230 to be impressed to the knowledge searcher 220 - naturally by knowledge advertising data.

Operation flows of the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 according to the present invention constructed such above will be in detail described.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart concretely illustrating a knowledge advertising impressing method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The knowledge advertising impressing method according to the present embodiment may be performed by the aforementioned knowledge advertising impressing system 200.

In step S710, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 maintains the knowledge advertising database 320 including a predetermined directory, at least one keyword associated with the directory, and knowledge advertising data associated therewith. This step S710 is a procedure for making a directory or a keyword causing extraction of a 'knowledge advertising data association corresponding to knowledge advertising data, thereby storing. At this time, the number of keywords or knowledge advertising data associated with a particular directory may be arbitrarily adjusted in accordance to the system environment (see FIG. 5). Particularly, in this step S710, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may further include the step of receiving a directory and knowledge advertising data for implementation of directory searching, and it will be described later with reference to FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of recording a directory and keyword advertising data by directory searching of the present invention. As described in FIG. 8, in step S711, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 receives a selection of a directory and knowledge advertising data from the advertiser 230. This step S711 is a procedure for receiving information on a directory and knowledge advertising data which are needed to implement directory searching. The knowledge advertising impressing system 200 enables a selection of a directory, for example, by providing a list of directories, which are already set, to the advertiser 230 and receiving a predetermined selection signal with respect to a particular directory of the list. Also, in this step S711, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 receives knowledge advertising data associated with the selected directory from the advertiser 230. In the present embodiment, there is no particular constraint on how much the characteristic of a directory and contents of knowledge advertising data are related, but it may be preferable to maintain a minimum relationship therebetween, so as to extract associated knowledge advertising data through a directory.

Also, in step S712, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 records knowledge advertising data in the knowledge advertising database 320 in correspondence to the selected directory. This step S712 is a procedure for associating knowledge advertising data extracted by directory searching with the selected directory, thereby maintaining. Accordingly, extraction of at least one of knowledge advertising data according to directory identification of a query is enabled.

Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to enable knowledge searching by directory searching to be smoothly implemented .by enabling at least one of associated knowledge advertising data to be searched through directory identification with respect to a query.

Referring again to FIG. 7, in step S720, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 searches for an input keyword from a predetermined query inputted for a knowledge search request. This step S720 is a procedure for recognizing an input keyword which can identify a directory of a query. For a search of an input keyword, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may search for, for example, at least one substantive whose meaning is identifiable (preferably, a keyword registered to the knowledge advertising database 320) from an inputted query as the input keyword.

Also, in step S730, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies a directory associated with the searched keyword. This step S730 is a procedure for identifying a directory of a recognized input keyword. In this step S730, information on a predetermined category corresponding to a question is enabled to be identified at the knowledge advertising impressing system 200. Particularly, in case that the number of searched input keywords is 2 and more, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 in this step S730 may compare efficiency points of each of input keywords and determine only one input keyword. Only, this process may be performed only in case that directories corresponding to said two and more input keywords are different. Namely, even in case that more than two input keywords are searched, if the input keywords are associated with an identical directory, the process as described later may be omitted. Hereinafter, computation of an efficiency point with respect to an input keyword will be described.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of identifying a directory of a keyword determined by an efficiency point of the keyword, according to the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 9, in S731, the knowledge advertising impressing system

200 computes an efficiency point associated with searched keywords, in case that the searched keywords are plural. This step S731 is a procedure for establishing a predetermined standard enabling one directory to be specified by the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 in case that characteristics of categories belonged by the searched input keywords are respectively different whereby each of directories is different to each other. At this time, the efficiency point is computed by considering the number of references for the number of times that the keyword is inputted by the knowledge searcher 220, the number of impressions for the number of times that knowledge advertising data associated with the keyword is impressed, and the number of clicks for the number of times that the impressed knowledge advertising data is selected by the knowledge searcher 220. Namely, in knowledge search service, an efficiency point is computed to be higher for a keyword having a high use frequency in accordance with a particular keyword use rate. In the present embodiment, while elements for computing an efficiency point are limited to the number of references, the number of impressions, and the number of clicks, as described above, an element determined by an operator of this system may be flexibly modified and applied. Also, in step S732, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 determines one keyword by using a computed efficiency point in association with each keyword among the searched keywords. This step S732 is a procedure for determining an input keyword having the highest efficiency point due to its excellent keyword use rate, hi this step S732, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 is enabled to recognize the determined input keyword as a representative word for a query.

In step S733, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies a directory associated with the determined keyword. This step S733 is a procedure for identifying a directory of a keyword having the highest efficiency point and determining the identified directory as a directory of a query. Accordingly, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may identify a directory more reasonably and precisely even in identification of a directory with respect to a query having a plurality of input keywords.

Referring again to FIG. 7, in step S740, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 extracts knowledge advertising data corresponding to the identified directory by referring to the knowledge advertising database 320. This step S740 is a procedure for extracting knowledge advertising data stored in correspondence to the same directory to a directory of the query as search results. Namely, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 enables a part of or the total of knowledge advertising data associated with a directory to be extracted in accordance with a predetermined standard. At this time, the predetermined standard may be, for example, ranking given on the basis of predetermined evaluation information. In this case, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may enable only the predetermined number of knowledge advertising data within established ranking to b extracted. Concrete configuration of giving ranking by using evaluation information has been described in the aforementioned embodiment and thus, description related thereto will be omitted in the present embodiment. Also, in step S750, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 generates a search result list by using the extracted knowledge advertising data. This step S750 is a procedure for generating a search result list by sorting the extracted knowledge advertising data in accordance with a predetermined standard. At this time, the search result list is provided with comparatively high-ranking knowledge advertising data in a location (a location where CTR is high) where the knowledge searcher 220 can easily recognize by considering the aforementioned ranking.

In step S760, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 provides the generated search result list to the knowledge searcher 220 who has inputted a knowledge search request. This step S760 is a procedure for impressing a search result list to the knowledge searcher 220 as search results in response to a knowledge search request.

The searcher result list may include knowledge advertising data given with an advertising identifier or knowledge data without an advertising identifier. Also, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may enable knowledge advertising data given with an advertising identifier to be provided to the knowledge searcher 220 by a providing method of distinguishing the same from advertising data without an advertising identifier. Accordingly, the knowledge searcher 220 may distinguish knowledge advertising data from general knowledge data in the provided search result list. Accordingly, the present invention enables the knowledge searcher 220 to easily get answer information on his/her question without an additional procedure of registration of question information and also enables knowledge advertising data including advertising information of the advertiser 230 to be impressed to the knowledge searcher 220 to the optimization.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may perform a knowledge search by keyword- oriented searching instead of the aforementioned directory searching. The keyword- oriented searching searches for an input keyword from a query inputted for a knowledge search request and enables knowledge advertising data corresponding to the searched input keyword to be extracted as search results. For this, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 maintains at least one of knowledge advertising data associated with a predetermined keyword in the knowledge advertising database 320 and extracts a part of or the total of knowledge advertising data associated with the searched input keyword as search results. Also, in case that two and more keywords are searched from a query, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 by keyword-oriented searching determines one keyword causing extraction of knowledge advertising data by comparing the aforementioned efficiency points. Determination of one input keyword by comparison of efficiency points is same or similar to the aforementioned directory input method, and thus, description related thereto will be omitted.

Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to enable impressing of advertising information by keyword-oriented searching to be performed by extracting predetermined corresponding knowledge advertising data not only by a directory of a query, but also by an input keyword included in the query.

Also, as another embodiment of the present invention, in determining a directory of a query inputted for a knowledge search request, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 inputs a query in the general knowledge search server 210 and determines a directory of best-matched knowledge data among knowledge data searched as search results as a directory of the query.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of determining a directory of a query according to the present invention.

In step SlOlO, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 maintains a predetermined directory and knowledge advertising data corresponding to the directory. In step S 1020, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 determines a directory of a query inputted from the knowledge searcher 220. These steps SlOlO and S 1020 are procedures for storing at least one of knowledge advertising data associated with a particular directory in the predetermined knowledge information database 320 and determining whether a query relevant to a corresponding directory is inputted for a knowledge search request. Particularly, the step S 1020 of determining a directory of a query may include a procedure of inputting the query in the general knowledge search server 210 and determining a directory of the query by referring to knowledge data searched by a corresponding knowledge search.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of determining a directory of a query, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing the degree of association between knowledge data and a query via a knowledge search server, according to the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, in step S 1021, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 transmits a query to the predetermined knowledge search server 210. In response thereto, in step S 1022, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 receives a directory corresponding to the query from the knowledge search server 210. These steps S 1021 and S 1022 are procedures for inputting a query inputted for a search request into the knowledge search server 210 (e.g., a naver knowledgeiN search server) and receiving a directory of knowledge data having the highest association with the query among knowledge data extracted in response to the search request. Namely, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may determine a directory of a query on the basis of knowledge data searched by the knowledge search server 210.

Since the knowledge search server 210 searches for knowledge data in order whose degree of association with the query is high, it is possible to guarantee the association between the query and the directory in case that a directory of knowledge data having the highest association with the query is determined as a directory corresponding to the query.

Namely, as illustrated in FIG. 12, in step S 1201, the knowledge search server 210 maintains the knowledge database 215 including knowledge data for each directory. In step S 1202, the knowledge search server 210 searches for knowledge data associated with a transmitted query by referring to the knowledge database 215. These steps S 1201 and S 1202 are procedures for accumulating and recording knowledge data including predetermined question-answer information for each directory. In these steps S 1201 and S 1202, the knowledge search server 210 searches for knowledge data including question information similar to the inputted query.

Also, in step S 1203, the knowledge search server 210 computes the degree of association between searched knowledge data and the query. In step S 1204, the knowledge search server 210 searches for a directory corresponding to knowledge data whose computed degree of association is highest. At this time, the degree of association may be the size of similarity between question information of searched knowledge data and query. The knowledge search server 210 identifies a directory of knowledge data determined to be most similar, thereby enabling the identified directory to be transmitted to the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention. In the present embodiment, while a method of computing the degree of association is not concretely limited, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skills in the related art that all general similarity computation methods (e.g., determining the number of synonyms/antonyms being maintained from a predetermined keyword of a query). Accordingly, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention computes the degree of association with respect to knowledge data extracted by the predetermined knowledge search server 210 and receives information on a directory of knowledge data whose computed degree of association is highest.

Referring again to FIGIl, in step S 1023, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 determines the received directory as a directory of the query.

Thus, according to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to use the existing knowledge search server 210 as it is without performing separate analysis of an input keyword with respect to a query inputted for a knowledge search request and to accurately determine a directory of the query itself. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 identifies knowledge advertising data associated with the determined directory in step S 1030, generates a search result list by using the identified knowledge advertising data in step S 1040, and performs a procedure of providing the generated search result list to the knowledge searcher 220 in step S 1050. Following procedures of the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 constructed such above will be same or similar to the aforementioned steps S730 to S760 and thus, detailed description related thereto will be omitted. As another embodiment of the present embodiment, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention assigns predetermined ranking to each of knowledge advertising data on the basis of predetermined evaluation information and determines a location of knowledge advertising data in a search result list in accordance with the ranking.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing ranking with respect to each of knowledge advertising data according to the present invention.

For this, in step S1310, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 maintains the evaluation information database 370 for storing first evaluation information associated with knowledge contents of knowledge advertising data. This step S 1310 is a procedure for maintaining evaluation data with respect to particular knowledge advertising data itself that has generated for a predetermined period. At this time, the first evaluation information includes content reliability information with respect to knowledge advertising data, information whether the knowledge advertising data is adopted as an important answer, information on the number of recommendations, information on the number of penalties, and information on the number of times discarded. Through this first evaluation information, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may recognize that corresponding knowledge advertising data includes excellent information data as answer information or advertising information. Also, in step S 1320, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 computes a ranking point by giving weight to each of the identified knowledge advertising data on the basis of first evaluation information. This step S 1320 is a procedure for applying predetermined weight to each of information included as first evaluation information, thereby ranking. Sorts of first evaluation information applied with the weight may be flexibly set by an operator of this system considering the system environment.

In step S 1330, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 sorts the extracted knowledge advertising data on the basis of a ranking point. This step S1330 is a procedure for sorting each of knowledge advertising data as search results on the basis of the given ranking. As described above, knowledge advertising data having the highest ranking point is enabled to be provided in a position where the knowledge searcher 220 may recognize most easily. Thus, according to the present invention, there is an effect that knowledge advertising data having excellent knowledge contents is enabled to be provided to the knowledge searcher 220 as a knowledge search for a query, and at this time, to be provided in a position where the knowledge searcher 220 may easily recognize. Also, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention may compute and include information on the degree of activation as first evaluation information in the step S 1310 of maintaining the evaluation information database.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing information on the degree of activation according to the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 14, in S1311, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 computes predetermined information on the degree of activation with respect to a directory as first evaluation information. At this time, the information on the degree of activation may be computed by using the number of knowledge advertising data associated with a directory, the number of references of the knowledge searcher 220 with respect to knowledge advertising data of the directory, the number of clicks with respect to particular knowledge advertising data associated with the directory, and the number of accesses of the knowledge searcher 220 to a webpage associated with the directory. Namely, this step S1311 is a procedure for storing preference information of the knowledge searcher 220 with respect to a particular directory. In this step S 1311, it is possible to easily determine the business value of a directory through information on the degree of activation constructed such above.

Also, in the step S 1320 of computing the ranking point, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 of the present invention may compute a ranking point by considering second evaluation information associated with an advertiser of knowledge advertising data, besides the first evaluation information.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of computing a ranking point by using second evaluation information according to the present invention.

As described in FIG. 15, in step S1321, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 gives ranking with respect to each of the identified knowledge advertising data on the basis of first evaluation information or second evaluation information. At this time, the second evaluation information includes predetermined activity point information of the advertiser 230, registration fee information with respect to knowledge advertising data, and information on the number of connections performed by network address information included in the knowledge advertising data. Namely, this step S 1321 is a procedure for reflecting an activation contribution point of the advertiser 230 with respect to a predetermined server in computation of the ranking point. Accordingly, it is possible to compute a more reasonable ranking point not only by content evaluation with respect to knowledge advertising data, but also by evaluation with respect to the advertiser 230 who has registered corresponding knowledge advertising data.

A concept of sorting knowledge advertising data in accordance with a ranking point may be expanded to selectively extract knowledge advertising data from the knowledge advertising database 320. For example, it is possible to give predetermined ranking to knowledge advertising data associated with a particular directory on the basis of evaluation information and to enable knowledge advertising data within predetermined ranking to be selectively extracted from the knowledge advertising database 320.

Hereinafter, as another embodiment of the present invention, it will be described to generate predetermined payment information, thereby charging the advertiser 230. In the present embodiment, payment information is generated mainly when knowledge advertising data is registered and when the corresponding knowledge searcher 220 is induced to access a webpage of the advertiser 230 in accordance with a click selection of the knowledge searcher 220 with respect to knowledge advertising data.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of generating first payment information according to the present invention. In step S 1601, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 generates first payment information associated with recording of knowledge advertising data. This step S 1601 is a procedure for generating a amount of first payment information in association with generation of knowledge advertising data or storage thereof in the knowledge advertising database 320. An amount to be charged as first payment information may be determined arbitrarily by an operator of the present system. Particularly, a charge amount may be determined by using the degree of activation of a directory as described above. The use of information on the degree of activation is for enabling a comparatively large amount of money to be assigned for a directory whose identification frequency is often in connection with query input of the knowledge searcher 220 (the degree of activation is high) and enabling the advertising cost to be charged to the advertiser 230 who selects a corresponding directory as his/her directory. Also, in step S 1602, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 transmits the generated first payment information to the advertiser 230. This step S 1602 is a procedure for transmitting the generated first payment information to the advertiser 230 who has registered the knowledge advertising data, thereby charging the advertiser 230. For example, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 may charge the advertiser 230 by subtracting an amount of money corresponding to the first payment information from an account associated with the advertiser 230.

Thus, according to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to charge a predetermined fee to the advertiser 230 in association with registration of knowledge advertising data and to enable reasonable charge processing based on the degree of activation for each directory.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of generating second payment information according to the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 17, in step S 1721, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 receives a click selection selecting any one knowledge advertising data among a search result list from the knowledge searcher 220. This step S1721 is a procedure for recognizing the knowledge advertising data selected by the knowledge searcher 220 from a search result list of knowledge advertising data provided in response to a search request. For example, in this step S 1721, the knowledge searcher 220 clicks knowledge advertising data impressed on a search screen via a predetermined instruction input tool, thereby generating a selection signal.

Also, in step S 1722, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 generates traffic for an access between the knowledge searcher 220 and the advertiser 230 on the basis of network address information according to receipt of the click selection. This step S 1722 is a procedure for connecting the knowledge searcher 220 to a webpage of the advertiser 230 by referring to network address information included in knowledge advertising information selected by the knowledge searcher 220.

In step S 1723, the knowledge advertising impressing system 200 generates second payment information associated with generation of traffic and transmitting the generated second payment information to the advertiser 230. This step S 1723 is a procedure for generating predetermined payment information in accordance with an access between the knowledge searcher 220 and the advertiser 230 and transmitting the same to the advertiser 230 to charge.

Thus, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that a charging process is enabled only when substantial advertising effects are induced by an access of the knowledge searcher 220 by charging a predetermined fee resulted from a click selection with respect to knowledge advertising data to the advertiser 230. The embodiments of the present invention include computer readable media including program instructions to implement various operations embodied by a computer. The media may also include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, tables, and the like. The media and program instructions may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and perform program instructions, such as read- only memory devices (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). The media may also be a transmission medium such as optical or metallic lines, wave guides, etc. including a carrier wave transmitting signals specifying the program instructions, data structures, etc. Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that may be executed by the computer using an interpreter.

FIG. 18 is an internal block diagram of a general-purpose computer which may be adopted in implementing the knowledge advertising impressing method according to the present invention.

The computer system 1800 includes any number of processors 1810 (also referred to as central processing units, or CPUs) that are coupled to storage devices including primary storage (typically a random access memory, or "RAM 1820 "), primary storage (typically a read only memory, or "ROM 1830"). As is well known in the art, ROM 1830 acts to transfer data and instructions uni-directionally to the CPU and RAM 1820 is used typically to transfer data and instructions in a bi-directional manner. Both of these primary storage devices may include any suitable type of the computer-readable media described above. A mass storage device 1840 is also coupled bi-directionally to CPU and provides additional data storage capacity and may include any of the computer-readable media described above. The mass storage device 1840 may be used to store programs, data and the like and is typically a secondary storage medium such as a hard disk that is slower than primary storage. A specific mass storage device such as a CD-ROM 1860 may also pass data uni-directionally to the CPU. Processor 1810 is also coupled to an interface 1850 that includes one or more input/output devices such as such as video monitors, track balls, mice, keyboards, microphones, touch-sensitive displays, transducer card readers, magnetic or paper tape readers, tablets, styluses, voice or handwriting recognizers, or other well-known input devices such as, of course, other computers. Finally, processor 1810 optionally may be coupled to a computer or telecommunications network using a network connection as shown generally at 1870. With such a network connection, it is contemplated that the CPU might receive information from the network, or might output information to the network in the course of performing the above-described method steps. The above- described devices and materials will be familiar to those of skill in the computer hardware and software arts.

The hardware elements above may be configured to act as one or more software modules for implementing the operations of this invention.

The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended - to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. Therefore, it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended thereto and their equivalents.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is not limited thereto since it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various substitutions, modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Industrial Applicability

According to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which bring advertising effects to an advertiser in knowledge search service by providing knowledge advertising data including advertising information of the advertiser in response to a knowledge search request.

Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can determine an impressing method of knowledge advertising data in accordance with an evaluation point by computing the evaluation point with respect to the knowledge advertising data.

Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing keyword advertising which can encourage an advertiser to participate in knowledge search service more aggressively by differentiating standards of computing evaluation points of knowledge data and knowledge advertising data, and computing an evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data using the degree of activity of the advertiser.

Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a directory matched to a query (in case of directory searching) or a keyword matched to a query (in case of keyword- oriented searching) in case that a knowledge searcher inputs the query including a plurality of keywords.

Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a directory or knowledge advertising data matched to the query by using a computed efficiency point for each keyword.

Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which can identify a proper directory easily and precisely in directory identification of a query by determining a directory whose directory matching point is comparatively high to be a directory of the query, and the directory matching point is computed when the query is inputted into a general knowledge search server. Also, according to the present invention, there are provided method and system for impressing knowledge advertising which enable an advertiser to generate knowledge advertising data for the purpose of advertising as many as a certain number of times.

Claims

1. A method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a knowledge advertising database including at least one of knowledge advertising data associated with a keyword; extracting the keyword from a predetermined query inputted for a knowledge search request; computing each efficiency point associated with the extracted keyword, in case that the extracted keywords are plural; selecting one keyword from the extracted keywords by using the efficiency point; searching for knowledge advertising data corresponding to the selected keyword by referring to the knowledge advertising database; generating a search result list by using the searched knowledge advertising data; and providing the generated search result list to a knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request.

2. The method of claim I₅ wherein the step of maintaining the knowledge advertising database comprises the steps of: receiving a selection of a keyword and knowledge advertising data from an advertiser; and recording the knowledge advertising data in the knowledge advertising database in correspondence to the selected keyword.

3. A method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a knowledge advertising database including a predetermined directory and at least one keyword associated with the directory or knowledge advertising data associated therewith; extracting the keyword from a predetermined query inputted for a knowledge search request; computing each efficiency point associated with the extracted keyword, in case that the extracted keywords are plural; selecting one keyword from the extracted keywords by using the efficiency point; identifying a directory associated with the selected keyword by referring to the knowledge advertising database; searching for knowledge advertising data corresponding to the identified directory by referring to the knowledge advertising database; generating a search result list by using the searched knowledge advertising data; and providing the generated search result list to a knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of maintaining the knowledge advertising database comprises the steps of: receiving knowledge advertising data and a selection of a directory from an advertiser; and recording the knowledge advertising data in the knowledge advertising database in correspondence to the selected directory.

5. The method of claim 1 or 3, wherein the efficiency point is computed by considering at least one selected from the group consisting of the number of references for the number of times that the keyword is inputted by the knowledge searcher, the number of impressions for the number of times that knowledge advertising data associated with the keyword is impressed, and the number of clicks for the number of times that the impressed knowledge advertising data^" is selected by the knowledge searcher.

6. A method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a predetermined directory and knowledge advertising data corresponding to the directory; receiving a query from a knowledge searcher; transmitting the query to a predetermined knowledge search server in case that the query includes a plurality of keywords; receiving a directory corresponding to the query from the knowledge search server; determining the received directory as a directory of the query; generating a search result list by searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the received directory; and providing the search result list to the knowledge searcher, wherein the knowledge search server performs the steps of: maintaining a knowledge database including knowledge data for each directory; searching for knowledge data associated with the transmitted query by referring to the knowledge database; computing the degree of association between the searched knowledge data and the query; and searching for a directory corresponding to knowledge data of which the computed degree of association is highest.

7. A method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining a directory corresponding to a keyword in a directory database; maintaining knowledge data for each directory and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data in a knowledge database, in which the knowledge evaluation point is computed on the basis of first evaluation information; maintaining knowledge advertising data for each directory and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data in a knowledge advertising database, in which the knowledge advertising evaluation point is computed on the basis of first evaluation information or second evaluation information; receiving a knowledge search request including a predetermined query from a knowledge searcher; identifying a directory associated with the query by referring to the directory database; searching for knowledge data associated with the identified directory by referring to the knowledge database; searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the identified directory by referring to the knowledge advertising database; generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data, in which a sort method of the search result list is determined on the basis of a knowledge evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge data and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge advertising data; and providing the search result list to the knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request, wherein the second evaluation information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of activity point information of an advertiser in knowledge search service, registration fee information with respect to the knowledge advertising data, and information on the number of connections performed by network address information included in the knowledge advertising data.

8. A method for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the method comprising the steps of: maintaining knowledge data for each keyword and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data in a knowledge database, in which the knowledge evaluation point is computed on the basis of first evaluation information; maintaining knowledge advertising data for each keyword and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data in a knowledge advertising database, in which the knowledge advertising evaluation point is computed on the basis of first evaluation information or second evaluation information; receiving a knowledge search request including a predetermined query from a knowledge searcher; searching for knowledge data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge database in response to the knowledge search request; searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge advertising database in response to the knowledge search request; generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data, in which a sort method of the search result list is determined on the basis of a knowledge evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge data and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge advertising data; and providing the search result list to the knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request, wherein the second evaluation information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of activity point information of an advertiser in knowledge search service, registration fee information with respect to the knowledge advertising data, and information on the number of connections performed by network address information included in the knowledge advertising data.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the first evaluation information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of answer adoption information by a knowledge searcher, information on the number of recommendations by the knowledge searcher, information on the number of penalties by the knowledge searcher or a predetermined manager, and information on the number of times discarded by the knowledge searcher, and the knowledge searcher generates the knowledge search request or inputs a predetermined query.

10. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein: the first evaluation information further includes the degree of activation of a directory associatedjwith the knowledge data or the knowledge advertising data, and information on the degree of activation is computed for each directory by using at least one of selected from the group consisting of the number of knowledge data or knowledge advertising data included in a predetermined directory in association with the directory, the total number of references of the knowledge searcher with respect to each of knowledge data or each of knowledge advertising data included in the directory, the total number of clicks with respect to each of knowledge data or each of knowledge advertising data included in the directory, and the number of accesses which is the number of times that the knowledge searcher has accessed a webpage associated with the directory.

11. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein the activity point information is computed for each directory by using at least one selected from the group consisting of a question input number of the advertiser, an answer input number thereof, the number of adopted answers which is the number of times that an answer inputted by the advertiser is adopted by a questioner, and the number of times that the advertiser has accessed a webpage providing the knowledge search service.

12. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein: the knowledge advertising data is knowledge data given with an advertising identifier, and the knowledge advertising data is generated by performing the steps of: maintaining a database including first number information with respect to the number of times that an advertiser may assign an advertising identifier to knowledge data for each advertiser and second number information with respect to the number of times that the advertiser has given an advertising identifier to knowledge data for each advertiser; receiving a selection of knowledge data and a request for an advertising identifier from the advertiser; searching for first number information and second number information associated with the advertiser by referring to the database; generating knowledge advertising data by assigning an advertising identifier to the selected knowledge data, in case that the second number is less than the first number; on the basis of the searched first number information and second number information; and updating second number information associated with the advertiser, thereby recording the updated second number information in the database.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of providing the search result list to the knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request comprises the step of: providing the search result list to the knowledge searcher by a method of distinguishing knowledge advertising data given with an advertising identifier from knowledge data without an advertising identifier among the list of search results.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of: receiving a withdrawal request of an advertising identifier from knowledge advertising data generated in association with the advertiser, from the advertiser; restoring the knowledge advertising data to knowledge data by withdrawing the advertising identifier from the knowledge advertising data; deleting the knowledge advertising data from the knowledge advertising database and recording the restored knowledge data in the knowledge database; and updating the second number information to reduce a second number associated with the advertiser by T, thereby recording the updated second number information in the database in association with the advertiser.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of: withdrawing the advertising identifier from the knowledge advertising data in case that the knowledge advertising data includes a content corresponding to a predetermined violation reason, thereby restoring the withdrawn advertising identifier to the knowledge data; and deleting the knowledge advertising data from the knowledge advertising database, and recording the restored knowledge data in the knowledge database.

16. A computer readable record medium recording a program for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, 6 to 8, or 13 to 15.

17. A system for impressing knowledge advertising using knowledge search service, the system comprising: a knowledge database storing knowledge data for each directory and a knowledge evaluation point associated with the knowledge data; a knowledge advertising database storing knowledge advertising data for each directory and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the knowledge advertising data; a first search unit searching for knowledge data associated with a predetermined query by referring to the knowledge database, in response to a knowledge search request including the query from a knowledge searcher; a second search unit searching for knowledge advertising data associated with the query by referring to the knowledge advertising database, in response to the knowledge search request; and a list generation unit generating a search result list by using the knowledge data and the knowledge advertising data, and providing the generated search result list to the knowledge searcher who has inputted the knowledge search request, and wherein the list generation unit determines a sort method of the search result list on the basis of a knowledge evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge data and a knowledge advertising evaluation point associated with the searched knowledge advertising data.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a data extraction unit computing the knowledge advertising evaluation point on the basis of predetermined evaluation information about an advertiser associated with the knowledge advertising data, and wherein the evaluation information includes at least one selected from the group consisting of activity point information of an advertiser in knowledge search service, registration fee information with respect to the knowledge advertising data, and information on the number of connections performed by network address information included in the knowledge advertising data.