Description

METHOD AND SERVER FOR PROVIDING TEAM BLOG SERVICE BY USING SHOPPING INFORMATION

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a method and a server for providing a team blog service by using shopping information. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a server for providing a team blog service by using shopping information, in which, when a user makes a request for opening a team blog for a specific keyword or subject in the process of providing a user with a blog service, team blog setting request data is transmitted to a user terminal, team blog setting response data (blog title, URL information, keyword information, and image information) is received from the user terminal to open a team blog, information of interest related to the team blog setting response data (product evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information) is extracted from a shopping service provision server, link information of interest is created by adding corresponding link information to the information of interest, and the created link information of interest is periodically output on the opened team blog. Background Art

[2] The Internet, which is an open network employing a common communication protocol known as a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), can provide a variety of services such as information search, e-mailing, and file transfer.

[3] Since the Internet services have an advantage in that unspecified multiple users can concurrently use them without limitations of time and space, they can be conveniently applied in the form of services in which multiple users frequently participate. As the Internet has been popularized such that it becomes a part of daily life, types of services provided on Internet sites are also diversifying.

[4] That is, there is a tendency not only to steadily create new business opportunities through the Internet, but also to expand new business territories, so business providers using the Internet are also increasing. With the development of the Internet, a new enterprise culture, such as a cyber enterprise, a cyber market, and a cyber trading community has been created, and an environment capable of electronically realizing businesses beyond borders of countries or enterprise organizations has been provided.

[5] In this way, e-commerce called "Internet shopping malls" has been vitalized due to the growth of Internet technology, and such e-commerce services currently play an important role as one hub of product distribution by ensuring reliability for billing and delivery together with convenience.

[6] Conventionally, in order to purchase any product through e-commerce, a purchaser had to access a specific e-commerce site (hereinafter, referred to as "shopping mall") to acquire product and price information, and then decide whether to purchase the corresponding product.

[7] In addition, in order to purchase a low-priced product from among the same products or products of the same grade, a purchaser had to access many shopping malls one by one to personally acquire and compare price information, and then decide which product to purchase. This causes a purchaser to spend considerable time and effort on purchasing a product, which results in reduction of the purchaser's purchase desire. Additionally, on the part of sellers, there is a problem in that declines in sales are caused by reduction of purchaser's purchase desires.

[8] In order to solve these problems, a price comparison system has been provided, which affiliates with specific shopping malls, and then gathers product and price information from each of the shopping malls to provide the gathered information to purchasers. The price comparison system receives information about products on sale together with their price information from the affiliated shopping malls and provides the received information to purchasers, so that purchasers can collectively identify information about products and their prices without having to access shopping malls one by one, which increases purchaser's purchase desires and thus sales of shopping malls.

[9] However, the conventional price comparison system has a problem in that it cannot meet purchasers' demands because it fails to smoothly gather product information and price information from affiliated shopping malls. That is, considering that a price comparison system is required to gather fluctuations in prices of affiliated shopping malls and reflect the fluctuations in price information to provide the price information to purchasers in real time, the conventional price comparison system has a problem in that it is not equipped with an appropriate module for gathering such information, so that it is impossible to rapidly update and provide product and price information. Additionally, the conventional price comparison system is troublesome in that a user has to access a price site to search prices of a specific product one by one.

[10] Meanwhile, Internet services provided to users have evolved from homepage services to various services, such as a community service, and a blog service. In particular, many Internet users have recently used a blog service that is in the spotlight as an Internet one-person media service. In line with this, a number of portal sites are providing a blog services in various schemes, which target Internet users.

[11] Therefore, there is a need to develop technology for opening a blog about a specific product (or specific information) in which a user is interested, and updating product evaluation, purchase postscript, and price information related to a specific product in real time.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[12] Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the present invention provides a method and a server for providing a team blog service by using shopping information, in which, when a user makes a request for opening a team blog for a specific keyword or subject in the process of providing a user with a blog service, team blog setting request data is transmitted to a user terminal, team blog setting response data (blog title, URL information, keyword information, and image information) is received from the user terminal to open a team blog, information of interest related to the team blog setting response data (product evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information) is extracted from a shopping service provision server, link information of interest is created by adding corresponding link information to the information of interest, and the created link information of interest is periodically output on the opened team blog. Technical Solution

[13] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server for interworking with a wired/wireless communication network to provide a blog service to a user terminal, the server including: a server communication unit for interworking with the user terminal; a server controller for controlling the server communication unit to transmit team blog setting request data to the user terminal, receive team blog setting response data from the user terminal to open a team blog, extract information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from a shopping service provision server at a predetermined period of time, and output the extracted information of interest on the opened team blog, when receiving a team blog open request signal from the user terminal; and a server storage unit for storing at least one of the team blog open request signal, the team blog setting request data, and the team blog setting response data.

[14] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing a blog service to a user terminal via a wired/wireless communication network by a team blog provision server, the method including the steps of: (a) receiving a team blog open request signal from the user terminal; (b) transmitting team blog setting request data to the user terminal; (c) receiving team blog setting response data from the user terminal and opening a team blog; (d) extracting information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from a shopping service provision server at a predetermined period of time; and (e) performing a control function of outputting the information of interest on the opened team blog.

Advantageous Effects

[15] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a team blog service by using shopping information, in which, when a user makes a request for opening a team blog for a specific keyword or subject in the process of providing a user with a blog service, team blog setting request data is transmitted to a user terminal, team blog setting response data (blog title, URL information, keyword information, and image information) is received from the user terminal to open a team blog, information of interest related to the team blog setting response data (product evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information) is extracted from a shopping service provision server, link information of interest is created by adding corresponding link information to the information of interest, and the created link information of interest is periodically output on the opened team blog.

[16] Moreover, according to the present invention, a user extracts information of interest related to a specific keyword designated by the user and shares the extracted information of interest with multiple users through a blog, thereby creating an additional community with visitors.

[17] Furthermore, when a user opens a team blog about a desired specific product, it is possible not only to collect price evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information related to the specific product in real time and grasp the information for the specific product at one time, but also to require no additional page movement, so that convenience of a user can be increased.

[18] It is also possible to output price evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information for a specific product selected by a user in real time, so that the user can obtain cost-cutting effects through reasonable on-line purchase. Brief Description of Drawings

[19] The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

[20] FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for providing a team blog service by using shopping information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[21] FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a team blog provision server according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[22] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a team blog service by using shopping information according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[23] FIGs. 4 to 10 are exemplary views illustrating team blogs according to an embodiment of the present invention. Mode for the Invention

[24] Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that similar reference numerals and characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

[25] FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a system for providing a team blog service by using shopping information according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[26] The system for providing the team blog service by using shopping information according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a user terminal 110, a wired/wireless communication network 120, a shopping service provision server 130, and a blog provision server 140.

[27] The user terminal 110 refers to a terminal capable of receiving various types of webpage data via the wired/wireless communication network 120 according to user's key operation. Moreover, the user terminal 110 may correspond to any one of a Personal Computer (PC), a notebook, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a mobile communication terminal, and so on. Furthermore, the user terminal 110 refers to a terminal which includes a web browser used to access the shopping service provision server 130 or the blog provision server 140 via the wired/wireless communication network 120, a memory for storing programs, and a microprocessor for performing operation and control through program execution.

[28] The wired/wireless communication network 120 refers to a network which includes

Internet network, an intranet network, a mobile communication network, a satellite network, and so on, and through which data can be transmitted and received on Internet Protocol (IP) by using various wired/wireless communication technologies. Herein, technology of the wired/wireless communication network 120 is well known in the prior art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[29] The shopping service provision server 130 refers to a server that provides contents related to products to the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120.

[30] The shopping service provision server 130 stores product information about a specific product, and interworks with an electronic approval server (not shown) to perform electronic payment for the specific product when receiving a purchase request signal for the specific product from the user terminal 110.

[31] In the description of the present invention, the shopping service provision server 130 is assumed to include a number of shopping service provision servers, such as an A shopping service provision server, a B shopping service provision server, a C shopping

service provision server, an n shopping service provision server, and so on. [32] The blog provision server 140 refers to a server which provides a blog service to the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120. [33] The blog provision server 140 also includes a team blog provision server 142 and a personal blog provision server 144. [34] When receiving a team blog open request signal from the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120, the team blog provision server 142 transmits team blog setting request data to the user terminal 110. [35] The team blog provision server 142 receives team blog setting response data from the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120, and then opens a team blog. [36] Herein, the team blog setting response data may include at least one of a team blog title, URL, team blog description information, keyword information, representative image information, and background setting color information. [37] The team blog provision server 142 interworks with the shopping service provision server 130 to extract information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from the shopping service provision server 130. [38] Herein, the information of interest may include at least one of purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A information, and price information. [39] The team blog provision server 142 creates link information of interest 510 by adding link information of the shopping service provision server 130 to the extracted information of interest, and then outputs the created link information of interest on the opened team blog. [40] The team blog provision server 142 periodically identifies whether the information of interest, which is extracted from the shopping service provision server 130, has been updated. As a result of the identification, when the extracted information of interest has been updated, the team blog provision server 142 extracts updated information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from the shopping service provision server. The team blog provision server 142 creates updated link information of interest 460 by adding the link information of the shopping service provision server

130 to the extracted updated information of interest, and then outputs the created updated link information of interest on the opened team blog. [41] The personal blog provision server 144 refers to a server which provides a personal blog service to the user terminal 110. [42] The personal blog provision server 144 may interwork with the team blog provision server 142, and transmit a team blog open request signal to the team blog provision server 142. [43] FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a team blog provision server

according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[44] The team blog provision server 142 includes a server communication unit 210, a server controller 220, and a server storage unit 230.

[45] Although the present invention has been described with an assumption that the team blog provision server 142 includes only the server communication unit 210, the server controller 220, and the server storage unit 230, the assumption is only for convenience of illustration and description. One of ordinary skill in the art will understand that various modifications and changes are applicable to components of the team blog provision server 142 without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

[46] The server communication unit 210 acts as a communication means for interworking with the user terminal 110 or the shopping service provision server 130, and transmits and receives a variety of data.

[47] The server controller 220 acts as a control means for controlling general functions of the server, and controls the server communication unit 210 such that team blog setting request data can be transmitted to the user terminal 110 when a team blog open request signal is received from the user terminal 110.

[48] The server controller 220 receives team blog setting response data from the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120, and then opens a team blog.

[49] Herein, the team blog setting response data may include at least one of a team blog title, URL, team blog description information, keyword information, representative image information, and background setting color information.

[50] The server controller 220 performs a control function of interworking with the shopping service provision server 130 to extract information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from the shopping service provision server 130.

[51] Herein, the information of interest may include at least one of purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A information, and price information.

[52] The server controller 220 creates link information of interest 510 by adding the link information of the shopping service provision server 130 to the extracted information of interest, and then outputs the created link information of interest on the opened team blog.

[53] The server controller 220 periodically identifies whether the information of interest, which is extracted from the shopping service provision server 130, has been updated. As a result of the identification, when the extracted information of interest has been updated, the server controller 220 performs such a control function that the team blog provision server 142 can extract updated information of interest related to the team blog setting response data from the shopping service provision server.

[54] The server controller 220 performs a control function of creating updated link information of interest 460 by adding the link information of the shopping service provision server 130 to the extracted updated information of interest, and outputting the created updated link information of interest to the opened team blog.

[55] The server storage unit 230 acts as a storage means for storing a variety of data necessary to drive the server, and stores the team blog open request signal, the team blog setting request data, the team blog setting response data, the information of interest, the link information of interest 510, the updated information of interest, the updated link information of interest 460, and so on.

[56] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for providing a team blog service by using shopping information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[57] The user terminal 110 accesses the team blog provision server 142 via the wired/ wireless communication network 120 after receiving key input and commands by user's operation.

[58] Then, the team blog provision server 142 transmits a user account request signal for user authentication to the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120. Then, the user terminal 110 receives and outputs the user account request signal, and then receives key input and commands by user's operation and transmits a user account response signal for user authentication to the team blog provision server 142. Herein, the user account response signal may include a user name, an ID, a password, or a resident registration number.

[59] When the user account response signal received from the user terminal 110 is authenticated, the team blog provision server 142 authenticates the user terminal 110.

[60] Then, the user terminal 110 transmits a team blog open request signal to the team blog provision server 142 via the wired/wireless communication network 120 after receiving key input and commands by user's operation (S310).

[61] Then, the team blog provision server 142 transmits team blog setting request data to the user terminal 110 via the wired/wireless communication network 120 (S320).

[62] That is, as soon as the user terminal 110 receives the team blog setting request data, the user terminal 110 may output a screen as shown in FIG. 6.

[63] Herein, the team blog setting request data may request at least one of team blog title,

URL, team blog description information, keyword information, representative image information, and background setting color information.

[64] The user terminal 110 creates team blog setting response data, obtained by inputting at least one of team blog title, URL, team blog description information, keyword information, representative image information, and background setting color information, as shown in FIG. 6, and transmits the created team blog setting response data to the team blog provision server 142.

[65] The team blog provision server 142 receives the team blog setting data from the user terminal 110, and then opens a team blog (S330).

[66] That is, the team blog provision server 142 may open the team blog as shown in FIG.

7, by receiving the team blog setting data including at least one of team blog title, URL, team blog description information, keyword information, representative image information, and background setting color information.

[67] Then, the team blog provision server 142 extracts information of interest related to team blog setting response data from the shopping service provision server 130 (S340).

[68] Herein, the information of interest may include at least one of purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A information, and price information.

[69] For example, when a keyword of the team blog setting data is assumed to be

'mini-game player', the team blog provision server 142 extracts information of interest, including at least one of purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A information, and price information for the mini-game player, from the shopping service provision server 130.

[70] Then, the team blog provision server 142 creates link information of interest 510 by adding the extracted link information of the shopping service provision server 130 to the information of interest, and outputs the created link information of interest on the opened team blog (S350).

[71] That is, the team blog provision server 142 creates the link information of interest

510, and then outputs the created link information of interest on the opened team blog, as shown in FIG. 5.

[72] Then, the team blog provision server 142 identifies whether the information of interest related to the team blog setting response data has been updated (S360).

[73] For example, the team blog provision server 142 extracts the information of interest, including at least one of the purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A information, and price information for the 'mini-game player,' from the shopping service provision server 130, and then identifies whether the information of interest has been updated.

[74] That is, the team blog provision server 142 may identify whether the information of interest for the 'mini-game player' has been updated from the shopping service provision server 130, whenever a predetermined period of time (about one week) has passed.

[75] As a result of identification in step S360, when the information of interest related to the team blog setting response data has been updated, the team blog provision server 142 extracts updated information of interest from the shopping service provision server 130 (S370).

[76] For example, at the time of passage of the predetermined period of time (about one week), in the case where the information of interest corresponding to the 'mini-game

player' has been updated, the team blog provision server 142 extracts the updated information of interest for the 'mini-game player' from the shopping service provision server 130.

[77] The team blog provision server 142 creates updated link information of interest 460 by adding link information to updated information of interest, and then outputs the created updated link information of interest on the opened team blog (S380).

[78] That is, the user terminal 110 receives and outputs the updated link information of interest 460 from the team blog provision server 142 via the wired/wireless communication network 120.

[79] FIGs. 4 and 5 are exemplary views illustrating team blogs according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[80] Examples of screens of the team blogs include a team blog title area 410, an image output area 420, an image description area 430, a popular tag area 440, a team blog creation area 450, updated link information of interest 460, and link information of interest 510, as shown in FIGs. 4 and 5.

[81] The team blog title area 410 is an area on which a title of the team blog is output, and the image output area 420 is an area on which a representative image selected by a user is output.

[82] The image description area 430 is an area on which a subtitle or a URL about the image output to the image output area 420 is output, and the popular tag area 440 is an area on which the most selected upper tag is output, and on which upper tags of about 20 may be output.

[83] The team blog creation area 450 is an area for creating a new team blog, and the updated link information of interest 460 is an area on which the updated link information of interest is output. The link information of interest 510 is an area on which information of interest related to team blog setting response data is output from the shopping service provision server 130.

[84] FIG. 6 is an exemplary view of creating a team blog according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[85] An example of a screen of the team blog includes a team blog title area 610, a team blog URL area 620, a team blog description area 630, a team blog keyword area 640, a representative image area 650, and a background color selection area 660, as shown in FIG. 6.

[86] The team blog title area 610 is an area on which the title of the team blog is output, and the team blog URL area 620 is an area on which URL to which the team blog belongs is output.

[87] That is, when the user inputs a URL of a team blog, the team blog provision server

142 identifies whether there is a duplicate URL. As a result of the identification, when

there is no duplicate URL, the URL input by the user may be used as URL of the team blog.

[88] The team blog description area 630 is an area on which a brief description about the team blog input by the user is output as a text, and the team blog keyword area 640 is an area on which a specific keyword corresponding to a main subject word is input and output.

[89] The representative image area 650 is an area on which an image corresponding to the specific keyword is output, and the background color selection area 660 is an area on which a background color of the team bog is set.

[90] FIGs. 7 and 8 are exemplary views of team blogs according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[91] Example of screens of the team blogs include a team blog visitor display area 710, a comment writing area 720, a tag writing area 730, a comment writing date area 740, a pre- written comment area 750, and a related product area 810, as shown in FIGs. 7 and 8.

[92] The team blog visitor display area 710 is an area on which visitors to the team blog are displayed in the form of images, and about 20 visitors may be output at one time on the team blog visitor display area. If a corresponding image of any visitor on the team blog visitor display area 710 is selected, it is possible to move to the blog of the corresponding visitor.

[93] The comment writing area 720 is an area on which all users can write comments, and on which a comment about the extracted information of interest can be input. The tag writing area 730 is an area on which all users can write a tag, and on which a tag about the information of interest can be set.

[94] The comment writing date area 740 is an area on which a date of a registered comment is output, and the pre- written comment area 750 is an area on which content of the registered comment is output.

[95] The related product area 810 is an area on which related product information for information of interest is extracted and output from the shopping service provision server 130 by the team blog provision server 142.

[96] FIGs. 9 and 10 are exemplary views of a team blog according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[97] An example of a screen of the team blog includes a sorting standard area 910, as shown in FIGs. 9 and 10.

[98] The sorting standard area 910 is an area on which kinds of the link information of interest 510 output to the team blog are selected. Herein, the kinds of the link information of interest 510 include a purchase postscript, product evaluation, Q&A, and price information, as shown in FIG. 9.

[99] For example, when the user selects the purchase postscript in the sorting standard area 910, the link information of interest 510 may output information about purchase postscript. When the user selects Q&A in the sorting standard area 910, the link information of interest 510 may output information about the Q&A.

[100] That is, the team blog provision server 142 can perform a control function such that a specific item alone of the information of interest can be output on the opened team blog based on a preset sorting standard.

[101] While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Industrial Applicability

[102] As described above, the present invention is applicable in the filed of a method and a server for providing a team blog service by using shopping information, in which, when a user makes a request for opening a team blog for a specific keyword or subject in the process of providing a user with a blog service, team blog setting request data is transmitted to a user terminal, team blog setting response data (blog title, URL information, keyword information, and image information) is received from the user terminal to open a team blog, information of interest related to the team blog setting response data (product evaluation, purchase postscript, Q&A information, and price information) is extracted from a shopping service provision server, link information of interest is created by adding corresponding link information to the information of interest, and the created link information of interest is periodically output on the opened team blog. Therefore, it is possible to extract information of interest related to a specific keyword designated by a user, and share the extracted information of interest with multiple users through the blog, thereby creating an additional community with visitors.

[103] Although several exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described for illustrative purposes, 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 as disclosed in the accompanying claims.