Advertising method and advertising device

An advertising device for broadcasting advertisements to user-operated, network-interconnected computers, including a first computer operated by a first user and a second computer operated by a second user, the advertising device comprising:

• status administration means for administrating the status of users including the first user and the second user, and for receiving from the first computer and broadcasting to the second computer the status of the first user;
• an advertising database for correlatively recording resource identification information specifying resources on the network with advertising information including image data for the advertisements;
• advertising acceptance means for accepting from the computers one selected from
• unregistered advertising information to be recorded in said advertising database and designations of already registered resource information included in the resource identification information, and
• unregistered resource identification information to be recorded in said advertising database;
• storing means for storing in said advertising database information accepted by said advertising acceptance means;
• resource receiving means for receiving from the first computer first resource identification information specifying a first resource included in the resources the first user is using;
• extraction means for extracting from said advertising database first advertising information included in the advertising information and corresponding to the first resource identification information received by said receiving means;
• and
• broadcast means for broadcasting to the second computer said first advertising information extracted by said extraction means.

An advertising program for making function a computer for broadcasting advertisements to computers on a network, operated by users, including a first computer operated by a first user and a second computer operated by a second user, the advertising program making the computer function as:

• status administration means for administrating the status of the users including the first user and the second user, and for receiving from the first computer and broadcasting to the second computer the status of the first user;
• an advertising database for correlatively recording resource identification information specifying resources on the network with advertising information including image data for the advertisements;
• advertising acceptance means for accepting from the computers one selected from
• unregistered advertising information to be recorded in said advertising database and designations of already registered resource information included in the resource identification information, and
• unregistered resource identification information to be recorded in said advertising database;
• storing means for storing in said advertising database information accepted by said advertising acceptance means;
• resource receiving means for receiving from the first computer first resource identification information specifying a first resource included in the resources the first user is using;
• extraction means for extracting from said advertising database first advertising information included in the advertising information and corresponding to the first resource identification information received by said receiving means;
• and
• broadcast means for broadcasting to the second computer said first advertising information extracted by said extraction means.

An advertising display method for utilization by user-operated, network-interconnected computers including a first computer operated by a first user and a second computer operated by a second user, the advertising display method including:

• a status broadcast step of transmitting, from the first computer to an advertising computer administrating status of users including the first user and the second user, status of the first user for allowing broadcast to the second computer;
• a resource detection step of detecting resource identification information specifying a first resource the first user is using, being a resource on the network;
• a resource transmission step of transmitting to the advertising computer first resource identification information detected in said resource detection step;
• an advertising reception step of receiving from the advertising computer first advertising information relating to the first resource identification information, and including advertising image data;
• and
• an advertising display step of displaying as the first user status the advertising image data included in the first advertising information.

An advertising method using a status information administration system wherein a plurality of user terminals is interconnected via a network, information on user status sent from one of the plurality of user terminals is acquired and administrated for each user, look-up requests for status information designating at least one user are received, and administrated user status information correlated with the users is sent to requester user terminals, the advertising method comprising:

• a step of detecting information identifying a network resource requested from one of the plurality of user terminals, and correlatively recording the detected information with user information identifying a user using the user terminal;
• a step of accepting a status information look-up request designating at least one user from one of a plurality of user terminals, acquiring network resource identification information correlatively recorded with the user designated by the status information request, and acquiring and sending to the look-up requestor user terminal advertising data correlatively stored for each network resource on receiving requests in advance from an advertiser terminal device;
• and
• a step of updating advertising data look-up conditions for each consulting user or for each advertising data item, and, in accordance with the look-up conditions, generating incentive information for a user and reporting it to the user, or calculating an advertising fee for an advertiser and reporting invoice data on the advertising fee to the advertiser's terminal, when it is detected in the requestor user terminal that the advertising data has been consulted.