BACKGROUND As the number of users of personal communication stations connected to communication networks, such as the Internet, has grown more or less exponentially over the last few years, the rate of increase in the number of suppliers of information and services has more or less kept pace with the user growth. The users and information providers connected to the Internet now number tens, if not hundreds, of millions. Present day information providers connected to the Internet comprise all kinds of traditional commercial and non-commercial enterprises such as mail-order companies and news publishers, as well as"new economy"enterprises such as electronic trading sites where, e. g., collections of music, films can be browsed, purchased and delivered in a digitized manner.

Common to many information providers are problems related to the very fact that the user base connected to the Internet is very large. It is not reasonable to consider the whole user base of the Internet as a larget group for, e. g., an advertising campaign. In fact, the accessibility introduces problems of how to select the receivers of the information, and how to reach them. It has been observed that only a very small number of visitors to web sites actually register in order to enter into a relationship with the web site provider, which in

turn points towards a problem of how to convert a user interest of a web site into a long lasting relationship where the visitors regularly keep in touch with a web site provider.

The present situation, from a user's point of view, in terms of overview and access to specific subjects of interest, is not less problematic than that of the information providers. By the fact that the Internet is crowded with information providers, all wanting to gain attention from the users, there exists a need for users to easily, and with short notice of time, get hold of specific wanted information while at the same time being able to filter out unwanted information. In fact, there is a growing sense of frustration among Internet users as they wade through increasingly vast amounts of information obtained through E-mail and web sites. In addition to this there is an increasing problem related to a feeling of threatened privacy by users who are subjects of so-called"junk E-mail"and"spamming"by more or less unscrupulous senders.

US-patent no. 5, 828, 837 discloses a computer network for connecting information providers with users through a network service provider. An important feature of US- 5, 828, 837 is that it aims to speed-up the process of information transfer from the provider to the receiving users. Users specify in more or less general terms fields of interests, thereby creating a user interest profile not necessarily directly associated with the information provider, and thus providing a relatively low correspondence between the information asked for by the user, and the information received by the user.

Accordingly, a problem is identified of how to provide information transfer between information providers and information receivers with an increased level of

correspondence between user interests and the information transmitted to the users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses a problem as stated above. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to at least provide alleviation from a lack of correspondence between what a user is prepared to accept in terms of subjects of information messages, and the information messages received from information providers.

The invention solves the problem in that it is directed to a method and a system for of controlling transfer of information in a digital communication network, between an information provider and an information receiver, comprising the association of specific subjects of interest for the information receivers with information messages originating from the information providers, and distributing only those messages for which there is established a correspondence between the subjects of interest and the messages.

In other words, an aspect of the present invention is that it provides a technique that allows users of personal computers to specify or subscribe to messages of selected and specific subjects via a computer network, such as the Internet. Registrations of subscriptions to subjects are directly related to specific and known providers of information, i. e. senders of information.

The senders of information are typically companies having web sites on the Internet. The senders generate and control the content of the information messages. The for-. of the content may be of any kind known in the art, and obviously includes plain text, sound, video sequences as well as references to resources such as links to web sites.

Subjects are associated with the information messages and the sender has continuous control of what subjects should be offered to the subscribers. The senders have also a continuous control of when the messages are to be sent to the subscribers. The messages are generated by a sender individual or on the instructions by a sender individual in a more or less automated manner by appropriately constructed message generating software. The generated messages may be kept in a queue and distributed to the subscribers of the specific subjects, e. g. at the subscriber's time of connection to the Internet.

A preferred system according to the invention comprises a service provider server with which subscribing user computers and information provider computers connect in accordance with known Internet protocols, such as TCP/IP, HTTP etc, and using known interface software packages such as web browsers, E-mail clients or specifically designed user interface client/server software packages.

The sender initiates the distribution of information messages by communicating with the service provider server. The initiation entails typically a download of a number of messages, each having a specific content and a subject and may also include an indication regarding time of delivery as well as including a reference to further information such as a link to a web site. The service provider server receives the messages and stores them in an appropriate manner known in the art, using e. g. widely used database software, in lists of subjects that are to be presented to users.

The service provider server software further controls the distribution, or redirection, of the messages generated by the senders. The actual transmission of the messages takes place through channels established between the users and the service provider server, and include such well known techniaues as presentation in a window or

frame of a web browser, but also include presentation on the users computer screens by means of specifically designed presentation software clients which may have been distributed to the user and installed previous to the message transfer.

The management, or control, of whom of the users to distribute the messages to, is performed by message redirection control software running in the service provider server. A main feature of the redirection control software is that of comparing message subjects with user specific subjects of interest, and to direct transmission of the messages to users that have specified interest in the specific subject of the messages. Notable is the fact that the message distribution control does not include any matching of general user interest profiles with information provider message profiles.

Although sender constructed forms, that are associated with the service provider server, may be included. The provided messages, having specific subjects associated with them, are simply distributed to the users that have selected the subject of the message to be sent. The identification of the users who are to receive each message is performed in a process only involving the service provider server software and the receiving user software, thus enabling a certain level of privacy. The identification of the user is performed in a registration procedure, as will be discussed below, and may comprise any kind of personal or non-personal association, i. e., anonymous or non-anonymous identification.

The means and methods relating to the user specification of subjects of interest is also a main feature of the software running in the service provider server. A user may specify his/her subjects of interest with respect to a specific information provider, by simply selecting from subject lists on a web page presented to the user. The web page comprising the subject lists is preferably

constructed and transmitted by the software running on the service provider server.

A number of procedures may be used to summarize the main features of the invention. These procedures will be further discussed in some detail below and include user registration, user subscription management, message transfer, sender registration, sender administration and message creation and transfer.

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a simple way for users to subscribe to specific selected information from information providers without having to register, as is usual in the state of the art, by filling out forms on different information providers web pages.

Present information providers or information mediators typically manages general data about the receiver in order to match information messages, without allowing the receiver to explicitly specify the subjects at an information provider level. The invention provides for a simple and consistent method for specifying subjects of interest in that it is a centralized service serving a number of different information providers.

Moreover, the invention enables a receiver to maintain contact with information providers at a level which is simple and non-personal. The user registers and obtains information messages provided from the specific providers without having to disclose any personal information. The only data needed to maintain the non-personal level is that which identifies the specific type of information that is wanted from the specific provider. This enables a large correspondence between wanted information and delivered information, without need for any filtering of general profiles of interest.

Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a higher level of anonymity. Users may register

with the service provider's server without having to disclose any personal information such as E-mail address, unless the receiver specifically asks to receive messages via e-mail.

Moreover, advantageous from a user's point of view is that users do not have to perform any specific action in order to find out if there is information of interest available. The user simply awaits incoming messages and when messages arrive, the user knows that the messages contain information specifically asked for. Thus, the user saves time and is in control of the information flow.

An advantage from the point of view of the information provider is that the invention provides the ability to establish a personalized and structured communication channel with visitors to their web page. This is obtained in that the customers are pinpointed in terms of their specific subjects of interest.

Yet another advantage gained, from an information provider's point of view, by the present invention is that it provides for simple management of message transfer. Simply by downloading messages, with associated subject specifications, to a service provider server, all messages will be correctly distributed only to those users that have specified interest in the subjects of the messages. There is no need for the information provider to keep and manage lists, such as e-mail address lists, of information receiver users or indeed perform any subject filtering procedures.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows in a schematic manner a network of interconnected users, information providers and a service provider.

Figure 2a shows a flow chart of a registration procedure according to the present invention.

Figure 2b shows a flow chart of a subscription procedure according to the present invention.

Figure 3a shows a flow chart of a registration procedure according to the present invention.

Figure 3b shows a flow chart of a manual message handling procedure according to the present invention.

Figure 3c shows a flow chart of an automatic message handling procedure according to the present invention.

Figure 4 shows a flow chart of a message reception procedure according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to figure 1, a network 100 to which is connected a user computer 101 being in use by an information receiving user, a sender computer 103 being in use by an information provider, and a service provider computer 104 being in use by a service provider. As indicated by user computers 102 and sender computers 105, there may be numerus other users connected to the network 100. In order to illustrate the facu that one single service provider, incorporating software according to the invention, may serve many information receiving users and sending information providers, only one service provider 10o is illustrated in figure 1. Nevertheless, any number of service providers may be present in the any ? ctWOrK be 0.

Now, turning to figures 2-, er, bodiments o methods according to the invention will be presented. References will, however, also be made to figure 1. It is to be understood that the different steps of the methods

preferably are realized by means of software modules created using programming techniques known in the art.

Figure 2a illustrates a subscriber registration procedure. In an installation step 201, a subscriber installs a client program for communication with a service provider computer. This can be obtained by e. g. uploading it over the network 100 from the service provider computer 104, or simply distributed on a recording media such as CD-ROM.

In a connection step 202, the client program connects to the service provider computer 104. A check is made in step 203 if the user has a unique ID. If not, the connection is regarded as a first connection and a user ID is generated on the service provider computer 104 and transferred to the client program in the user computer 101 in an assignment step 205. The client program can store either one or more user IDs to allow multi user functionality. In this case the user has to submit the user ID to client program before connecting to the service provider server 104.

If user ID is known normal client server communication for message queue checking takes place in a procedure which commences with a message check step 204, as will be described further below.

Figure 2b illustrates a subscription management procedure. In a service access step a user tries to get access to the service as provided by the service provider computer 104. This is done by activatina-reference on either a) the service provider's web site (or network area), b) the client or c) the web site of an information providing sender, such as sender computer 103. The service provider computer 104 then checks if the user is registered. If not so, an installation is offered.

If the user is registered, as determined in a checking step 212, the subjects or a subset of subjects are presented, after appropriate checking in a checking step 213 if there are any messages to be presented, to the user in a presentation step 214. Named presentation takes place either on a web page (or network area) provided by the service provider or in the client program installed in the user computer 101.

The user can then, in a subscription step 215, specify subscription data, i. e. subjects and subject parameters describing particular intervals, price ranges etc. characterizing the desired information, typically from a specific sender, and submit this to the service provider computer 104.

Typically users get direct access to the service provider database of specific senders and subjects. However it is also possible that the sender server receives subscription data from the user in a sender designed user form, e. g. on a web page, before this data is submitted from the sender to the service provider server.

Identification of the user may take place by giving the sender means to collect the identification data and distributing that data as well to the service provider.

Figure 3a illustrates a procedure for sender registration. When a sender is registered, as illustrated by a registration step 301, access is allowed to a part of a subject database, located in the computer 104 of the service provider, to the sender in an access assignment step 302. This is to give the sender means to administer subjects for users to subscribe to. In orner to administer own subjects, an individual connects to the network and logs in to the server system. Then subjects (including named parameters) can be added, changed and deleted.

Messages can be created by the information provider either through a totally manual process or by means of computer support. Figure 3b illustrates a procedure for manual message creation and sending.

A sender connects to network and logs in to the service provider computer in respective connection 311 and login 312 steps. Content of the message is manually specified for one or more subjects in a content specification step 313. The message content is then submitted to the service provider in a submission step 314.

The manual process can be replaced or supported in one or more parts by computer support, and as figure 3c illustrates, computer support can be applied to one or more of the following steps. Search or continuous monitoring 331 of database content for a) Specific values on one or more parameters, typically called"triggers", indicating that one or more messages should be generated, and b) message content indicating that one or more messages should be generated, creation 332 of data components in a message (including e. g. text content, and URL), network connection 333 and login 333 to main database, and submission 334 of message to a message buffer, or queue, and creation of web page that URL in message refers to.

Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for message reception and handling. The client program automatically detects when there is a connection to the network 100 in a connection step 401. When there is a connection a client- server communication takes place in a checking step 402 to determine whether there are messages for the user that uses the client program. To do this, the user ID is submitted to the service provider server 10 and the message database is checked for corresponding messages.

If there are no messages for the user nothing happens. If messages are found, these are transmitted to the client

program in a transmission step 403, and displayed by the client in a display step 404. At this stage, the user can activate a reference to further information. If user does so as illustrated by a checking step 405, a connection is established in a connection step 406 to the web page (or network area) containing the extended information. This is typically a web page on the senders web site, i. e. the information provider computer 103. However, the referenced information may already have been transferred to the client computer, ready to be presented upon activation.

It is foreseen that transmission may take place to a selected subset of the subscribing users and that the service provider may also act as an information provider and may send messages to, e. g., all users or a specifically identified user. Moreover, service providers may associate user Ids with so called pseudo Ids that may be accessed by senders enabling an addressed sending of a message to a unique individual user.

Also, messages may be associated with time stamps, such as a particular point in time, or time interval, to send the message or a time of presentation according to, e. g., specifications from the service provider and/or information provider. A time interval or validity may also be associated with messages in order to prevent old and outdated messages to be distributed.

Messages may, as discussed above, contain any kind of data such as text, sound etc. and it shall be pointed out that message data may also comprise information regarding the user subscription, such as the subject list associated with the user.

Regarding the presentation of the messages, messages that have been distributed may be presented according to time stamp, time interval or as a response to a user action,

such as a click command given to the client software. It is also feasible to include functionality to control the number of times a message is presented to a user.

With respect to the procedures discussed above, it should be noted that they may be implemented by means of either centralized or distributed software on any digital communication network, that is via dedicated client software, via web pages, via PC, TV-sets, lap-top or hand-held computer devices such as PDAs, cellular phones etc. Technologies such as SMS and WAP are natural components in these solutions. The software may be dedicated or of a more general purpose character, such as e. g. a web browser.

In the case of general purpose client/server software, such as a web browser, is used, it is assumed that the browser is connected to a web page of a service provider or a sender's web page.

An important aspect with regard to the software used is that it includes functionality to store and control local storage of one or more user Ids, as well as retrieval of user Ids for local use as well as transfer to the service provider server Logging of events may be performed by either the service provider server, the client or the sender computer and the logging data may be stored on any of these and be transferred between the servers. Events may include transmission of messages, subjects and other data, clicks, new registrations, de-recistratio-s as well as time stamps for events. The data may be used for pricing and performance monitoring by service provider and/or information provider.

Although the invention has been illustrated as being implemented in one single network of computers, it may be foreseen that not all of the communicating units are

connected to one and the same physical network.

Variations such as a combination of a network as discussed above in which the users register, and a mobile, e. g. cellular, network in which users receive the messages by way of, e. g., GSM SMS.

Other variations entail a separation of functionality at the user end of the network. Message receiving client software which performs the function of directly communicating with the service provider server, may be separate from the actual message presentation function.

The presentation software is typically located within a user computer, but may also be located in a user sub- unit, such as a palm-top computer, which in turn is in direct contact with, or at least regularly synchronized with, the user computer message receiving software.