Background Art Generally, the Internet has been used as a communicating means for sharing, transmitting and receiving information among users. Recently, with the rapid increase in the number of Internet users, requirements of companies providing goods or services to publicize goods or services, which are for sale, to Internet users through the Internet have greatly increase.

Meanwhile, for one of the methods of promoting the sales of goods or services, there is a Public Relations (PR) method of favorably publicizing an image of a company as. The PR method serves to promote the sales of goods or services provided by a company by broadly publicizing a good image of the company. This PR method is more effective than the direct publicity of goods or services to modern people determining which goods and services they select in a variety of goods or services. Therefore, many companies promote the sales of goods and services using the PR method.

According to this trend, companies, providing goods or services, have been greatly concerned about the PR of companies using the Internet with infinite potentiality, as well as the publicity thereof through various media, and have made various efforts to research the PR and publicity thereof. The main concern over such research is to find a more effective Internet advertising method of allowing a user to easily access and recognize advertisements, even on small screens of Internet terminals, and capable of obtaining the maximum advertisement effect.

Hereinafter, conventional Internet advertising methods are described with

reference to Korean Patent Publication Nos. 2000-53726 (15, Sep. 2000), 2000-53790 (5, Sep. 2000), and 2000-54064 (5, Sep. 2000) as examples. The conventional methods, which will be described here, were filed by the same applicant and the same inventor.

FIGS. 1 to 3 a re v iews showing Internet advertising methods using a user input field.

The conventional Internet advertising methods of FIGS. 1 to 3 are constructed to provide advertisements using a user input field for requesting a user to enter certain information when the user applies for membership registration through the Internet. Among the above methods, the conventional Internet advertising method of FIG. 1 is constructed so that, if one of a plurality of advertisements displayed on a screen of an Internet terminal is selected when the user applies for membership registration through the Internet terminal, information corresponding to the selected advertisement is divided and displayed in a plurality of user input fields.

Further, if a first character is input from a user, the advertisement displayed in the user input fields disappears.

The conventional advertising method of FIG. 2 is constructed so that a plurality of advertisement images are first displayed at the positions where a plurality of user input fields will be displayed, and if a mouse button of a user is put over the advertisement images in this state, the corresponding advertisement images disappear and, instead, the user input fields are displayed on the screen. That is, the conventional advertising method of FIG. 2 is constructed so that advertisement images are displayed at the positions of the user input fields in advance, and if a predetermined event occurs by the user, the advertisement images disappear and the user input fields are displayed at the positions.

The conventional advertising method of FIG. 3 is constructed so that, when required information is obtained from a user through an input form box with a predetermined size, including a user input field, a provided advertisement image is displayed at the position of the input form box, if the user enters desired information and clicks a select/submit button. Further, this method is constructed so that the

input form box is displayed again, if the user puts a mouse over the advertisement image.

As described above, the conventional Internet advertising methods are constructed so that an advertisement is displayed in a user input field, or at the position where a user input field will be displayed or the position where a input form box including a user input field will be displayed on a screen of an Internet terminal, and if key input is started by a user, the advertisement disappears. Further, the conventional Internet advertising methods are constructed so that, if the user enters information in the user input field and clicks the select/submit button, an advertisement is displayed instead of the user input field.

However, in the first conventional Internet advertising method, at least one advertisement or information selected among goods information, stock information, weather information, news information and the like is divided and displayed in a plurality of user input fields using the plural user input fields. Therefore, according to the first method, it is difficult for the user to easily recognize displayed advertisement or information. Moreover, this method is problematic in that, since an advertisement is displayed using the plurality of user input fields displayed on a screen, the method annoys a user desiring to register as a member.

Further, the second conventional Internet advertising method is a method of simply providing an advertisement by displaying an advertisement image previously at the position where a user input field will be displayed. Moreover, the third one thereof is a method of providing an advertisement by temporarily displaying an advertisement image instead of a user input field when information entered by the user is submitted through the user input field. That is, the second and third methods of the conventional Internet advertising methods actually do not directly use the user input field for advertisements.

Meanwhile, the present inventor researched a method of more effectively providing advertisements to Internet users using a key word search box (hereinafter referred to as a search box) frequently used by the Internet users and has reached the present invention.

The present invention proposes a method and system for providing advertisements, which reduces the annoyances for Internet users and repeatedly responds to input from the Internet users using a search box displayed on a screen of an Internet terminal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and system for providing advertisements, which can effectively publicize the name or representative image of a sponsor to Internet users, as well as direct advertisement of goods or services provided by a personal user/company/enterprise.

Disclosure of the Invention In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a method of providing advertisement information to an Internet terminal by an advertisement providing apparatus connected to the Intemet, comprising the steps of creating a Web document including a search box and an advertisement to be displayed in the search box, the search box being a text box for inputting a key word, and transmitting the web document to the Internet terminal, wherein the advertisement is scrolled to a corner of the search box, becomes vague, or disappears by occurrence of an event according to input of a key word by a user.

In this case, the web document creating step comprises the steps of determining an advertisement to be displayed in the search box of the Web document on the basis of information on region and time of access of the Internet terminal, extracting information corresponding to the advertisement from an advertisement database connected to the advertisement providing apparatus, and inserting the extracted information into the Web document. Further, the determining step may be performed by a Web server or an advertising server included in the advertisement providing apparatus.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an advertisement providing system, the system being connected to the Internet to

provide advertisement information to an Internet terminal, comprising a memory for storing programs, and a processor connected to the memory to execute the programs, wherein the processor operative with the program to create a Web document including a search box and an advertisement to be displayed in the search box, the search box being a text box for inputting a key word, and transmit the web document to the Internet terminal, and wherein the advertisement is scrolled to a comer of the search box, becomes vague, or disappears by occurrence of an event according to input of a key word by a user.

In the present invention, the advertisement can be combined with at least one Internet address (URL) for allowing a user to access another Web site in response to an event, such as enter key or mouse input by the user. Further, the advertisement is selected to be a displayed state or a hidden state according to variation of a length of a key word entered in the search box. Moreover, the present invention can be changed and d isplayed r andomly, se quentially o r i n a p redetermined d isplay r atio w henever the Internet terminal re-accesses the advertisement providing system.

Brief Description of the Drawings FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an example of a conventional Internet advertising method; FIG. 2 is a flowchart of another example of a conventional Internet advertising method; FIG. 3 is a flowchart of still another example of a conventional Internet advertising method; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for providing advertisements using a search box according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of providing advertisements using a search box according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 6A is a flowchart of an advertisement providing method using a search box according to a modified embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6B is a flowchart of an advertisement providing method using a search box according to another modified embodiment of the present invention; and FIGS. 7A to 7F are views showing the advertisement providing method using a search box according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings.

For ease of understanding the present invention, a Web server which provides an Internet service is described in brief. Internet advertisements are services supported by a Web server connected to, for example, a user terminal and an advertising server. The user terminal is provided with a Web browser, which accesses the Web server through the Internet. The Web browser means software capable of reading HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents which are Web standard documents and communicating with the Web server using Common Gateway Interface (CGI). However, the Web browser is also used as a concept including a computer running the software.

The Web server is a computer in which server software capable of responding to the request of a Web client, such as a Web browser, is basically installed. The Web server transmits a Web document in response to the request of the Web browser. Further, the Web server may include a separate advertising server. In this case, the determination or selection of an advertisement which will be displayed in a search box can be carried out by the Web server or the advertising server. Therefore, the Web server and the advertising server, which will be mentioned in a later description, can be implemented by separate devices, respectively. Alternatively, they can be integrated into a single advertisement providing apparatus in which a Web server has the function of an advertising server or an advertising server has the function of a Web server.

Further, the Web server or the advertising server is connected to an

advertisement information database (DB). The advertisement information database is used to systematically store related data in a recording medium, such as a hard disk, so as to easily add, update and search the related data, and is used as a concept including the recording medium and data stored in the recording medium.

Hereinafter, a system for providing advertisements using a search box according to an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to FIG. 4. In a description of this embodiment, an advertisement providing apparatus is referred to as a Web server and an advertising server.

Referring to FIG. 4, the advertisement providing system using a search box according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises a Web server 10 for transmitting a Web document to a user terminal 50, representing an Internet terminal here, in response to the request of the user terminal 50, and an advertising server 20 for extracting a corresponding character or image from an advertisement information database 30 in response to the request of the Web server 10 and transmitting the extracted character or image to the Web server 10. In this case, although not shown in FIG. 4, the Web document transmitted to the user terminal 50 by the Web server 10 includes a search box in which an advertisement representing the name or representative image of a sponsor is displayed. Further, the Web document, including the search box and the advertisement displayed in the search box, is programmed in an Internet language, such as an eXtensible Markup Language (XML), to hide the name or representative image of a sponsor depending on the occurrence of a predetermined event according to the input of a key word by the user.

Specifically, the advertising server 20 comprises the advertisement information database 30 in which program sources, representing a plurality of sponsors'names and representative images, are stored. Further, the advertising server 20 obtains information on the region and time of access of a final user terminal 50 from the Web server 10, selects an advertisement to be displayed in the Web document from the advertisement information database 30 on the basis of the region and time information, and transmits the selected advertisement to the Web server 10.

Then, the Web server 10 inserts a program source of the name or representative

image of the sponsor, received from the advertising server 20, into the Web document, and transmits the Web document to the final user terminal 50.

According to the above process, the present invention can publicize the name and representative image of a sponsor to Internet users using a search box of a Web document transmitted to the user terminal 50. Especially, according the embodiment of the present invention, an advertisement displayed in the search box can be combined with at least one Internet address for allowing a user to access another Web site by responding to enter key or mouse input by the user. Further, an advertisement displayed in the search box is formed so that a displayed state and a hidden state thereof can be repeatedly selected depending on the variation of the length of a key word entered in the search box. In this case, an advertisement displayed in the search box is constructed so that, if the length of a key word becomes longer, the advertisement disappears, while if the length thereof becomes shorter, it appears again. As a result, the user can use the search box without any annoyance while viewing the advertisement displayed in the search box.

Further, an advertisement displayed in the search box can be changed randomly, sequentially or in a predetermined ratio, whenever the Internet terminal re- accesses the advertisement providing apparatus. In this case, the Web server or advertising server checks an advertisement displayed previously in the search box on the screen of the user terminal using cookie information stored in the user terminal, and provides another advertisement. An advertisement provided at this time can be selectively displayed depending on an advertisement display option previously stored in the Web server, the advertising server or the advertisement information database.

The advertisement display option includes information of advertisement groups classified according to display ratios or display times defined in respective advertisements with respect to all advertisements.

Although not shown in the drawing, the advertisement providing method according to the embodiment of the present invention realizes earnings yields through a method of counting reactions of users while viewing an advertisement and so fourth. For example, the advertisement providing method of the present invention is

constructed to bill a sponsor for an advertisement fee using a page view, or information of reactions of users who view and click an advertisement, similar to conventional advertising methods.

The advertisement providing method using a search box according to embodiments of the present invention is described in detail with reference to FIG. 5 and FIGS. 6A and 6B. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an advertisement providing method using a search box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the advertisement providing method using a search box according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of preparing a Web document to be transmitted to the user terminal 50 by the Web server 10 (sol0), determining an advertisement to be displayed in a search box of the Web document on the basis of accessing area and time information of the user terminal 50, obtained from the Web server 10 by the advertising server 20 and transmitting the advertisement to the Web server 10 by the advertising server 20 if the Web server 10 requests information on an advertisement to be displayed in the Web document from the advertising server 20 (S12), inserting the advertisement information received from the advertising server 20 into the Web document by the Web server 10 (S14), and transmitting the Web document to the user terminal 50 to display the advertisement in the search box of the Web browser of the user terminal 50 (Sl6).

The above steps are described in detail with reference to Table 1.

Table 1 Seoul Incheon Busan Kwangju Japan United States United Kingdom 0 : 00-2 : 00AAXAJKH 2 00-4 00 A A A A J K H 4 :00#6:00 A A A A J K H 6 : 00-8 : 00BCMMJKF 8 : 00-10 : 00BCMMJKF 10: 00-12 : 00 B C M J F 12: 00-14 : 00 E E E D J K F 14 : 00-16 : 00BCMDJKF 16: 00-18 : 00 B C M J F 18: 00-20 : 00 G G G J 20 : 00-22 : 00GGGDJKH 22 : 00-24 : 00 G G G D i K H

In Table 1, alphabet characters"A"to"M"represent information of names or representative images of all sponsors ranging from"A"to"M".

As shown in Table 1, if the Internet user accesses the Internet using the user terminal 50 and requests a certain Web document from the Web server 10 providing a search service, the advertising server 20 receives information on the time and region of the user having accessed the Web server 10 from the Web server 10.

For example, when a user"a"living in Seoul, Korea accesses the Web server 10 to execute an Internet search immediately after midnight, the Web server 10 transmits time and region information of access of the user to the advertising server 20. At this time, the advertising server 20 selects a program source of an advertisement corresponding to the region and time of access of the user from the advertisement information database 30 including advertisement information as shown in Table 1 on the basis of the user information obtained from the Web server 10, and transmits the selected program source to the Web server 10.

Next, the Web server 10 inserts the received program source into a Web document and transmits the Web document to the user terminal 50. Then, the user "a"views the name or representative image of the sponsor"A"displayed in the search box of the Web document through his or her Web browser.

At this time, an advertisement service provider, providing an advertisement service using a search box, can monitor consumers corresponding to specific regions and specific times, and change an advertisement displayed in the search box depending on the selection of a sponsor desiring to transmit the name or image of a company to specific consumers.

As described above, the advertisement service provider providing an advertisement service can selectively provide advertisements depending on regions and times of access of users, or advertising target regions and target times of sponsors. Therefore, the advertisement service provider can provide an advertisement service in behalf of more sponsors.

Further, the advertisement service provider using an Internet search box can publicize sponsors to a plurality of Internet users as consumers, without annoyances,

and meet the expectation of sponsors to obtain advertisement effect through the publicity.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flowcharts of an advertisement providing method using a search box according to modified embodiments of the present invention. In a later description referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, a description of the same operations as those of FIG. 5 is omitted.

Referring to FIG. 6A, when the user clicks on a search box using a mouse and enters a key word with a predetermined length to execute a search at step S 18, the name or image of the sponsor disappears depending on the length of the key word not to annoy the user at step S20. Especially, as shown in FIG. 6B, if the user deletes all characters or part of the entered key word at step S22, the advertisement is displayed again in the search box at step S24. Therefore, even in the case where the Internet user uses the search box, the advertisement service provider can provide an enterprise publicity service or enterprise PR service to the user without annoyance.

The advertisement providing method and system using a search box according to embodiments of the present invention enables a plurality of Internet users to engrave the names or representative images of sponsors on their memories without annoying the Internet users. Therefore, the present invention is preferably applied to search boxes of Web sites used by a certain number of Internet users or more. Further, in the present invention, when the name or representative image of a sponsor to be displayed in a search box is selected, it is preferable to select a sponsor recognizable by Internet users in some degree.

Hereinafter, examples to which the advertisement providing method using a search box according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied are described with reference to FIGS. 7A to 7F.

First, examples of a program written in an extensible markup language are shown below. The following programs are program sources each showing only a part displayed in the Web browser of the user terminal except for a procedure of selecting a corresponding advertisement by the advertising server.

[program example (1/2)]

10 <script languagejavascript> # <!-- (g function checkLength (el) { if ( (el. value. length + 1) >= 6) # el. style. backgroundlmage ="" ; else if (el. value. length<=2) # el. style. backgroundlmage ="url ('search adl. gif)" ; <BR> <BR> <BR> }<BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> ho<BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <script> [program example (2/2)] (t) <form name ="search"action "http://search. empas. com/search/all. html"> (2) enter key word: # <input type= text name=q size =32 @) style ="background-image : url ('searchadl. gif) ; " (D onKeyDown="checkLength (this)"> <input type=submit value ="search"> # </form> An example to which the above program sources are applied is described with reference to FIGS. 7A to 7F. This application example does not fully show the present invention, but shows a part displayed on the Web browser at the user's position, thus facilitating a more precise understanding of the present invention.

FIG. 7A shows a state of the search box displayed on the Web browser of the user terminal 50, which accesses the Web server 10 and receives a Web document from the Web server 10. The user accessing the Web server 10 views an advertisement displayed in the search box even in the case where the user does not use the search box. This advertisement is displayed in such a way that small characters or images are harmoniously arranged at the center of a white, clean search

box, thus the advertisement can be more familiar to the user.

As shown in FIG. 7B, if the user clicks a mouse on the search box or moves a prompt to the search box using another input means to execute a search using the search box, the prompt flashes on the left end of the search box. In FIG. 7B, the prompt is depicted as a vertical bar on the left end of the search box. Even in this case, the advertisement displayed in the search box is maintained as it is.

Referring to FIG. 7C, the user enters a key word with a predetermined length. At this time, since the number of entered characters is less than a preset number, the advertisement is still displayed.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 7D and 7E, if the user enters a longer key word with more characters, the advertisement displayed in the search box disappears.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 7F, if the user deletes part of the entered key word and the key word is reduced to have a preset length or less, the advertisement is displayed again in the search box.

As described above, the present invention softly advertises the names and images of sponsors using search boxes used by most Internet users, thus enabling the Internet users to engrave the images of companies on their memories for a long time.

This remembrance is directly connected to the yield of new demands for goods and services, thus meeting the expectations of sponsors.

Meanwhile, although in the above embodiments, the content of an advertisement displayed in the search box has been described as the name or representative image of a sponsor, the present invention is not limited to such a construction, but can be constructed so that advertisement content is the name or image of main goods or service of the sponsor.

Further, in the above embodiments, a case where the number of characters of a key word is equal to or less than 2, or equal to or greater than 6, or where the number thereof is 4, as shown in the drawings, is described as an example.

However, the present invention is not limited to such a construction, but can be constructed so that the number of characters of a key word is changed and set to, for example, 1, 3,5, 7,8, 9 or the like, without departing from the scope of the present

invention.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Industrial Applicability As described above, the present invention provides a method and system for providing advertisements, which displays an advertisement paragraph or image corresponding to the name or representative image of a sponsor using a search box which is not utilized for an advertisement space at the present time, instead of a direct advertisement of goods or the like, thus enabling Internet users to easily engrave the name and representative image of the sponsor on their memories without annoying the Internet users.

Further, the present invention is advantageous in that it publicizes the name or image of a sponsor using a search box used by most Internet users, thus greatly contributing to the yield of demands for goods and services of the sponsor.