Netzero, Inc.

Other

Yuichiro Itakura

Yuichiro Tsutsui

Nobuyuki Fujita

To provide a terminal with which a user can safely make payments using a communication network. The terminal has a browser for communicating with the World Wide Web or other public computer network and a message viewer for communicating with a private network. The browser allows for ordering goods from a host computer connected to the World Wide Web, for receiving a bill for the goods from the World Wide Web, and for transmitting the bill to the message viewer. The message viewer allows for paying the bill through the private network.

Information provider, terminal and system and recording medium for the terminal

An information providing system, which transmits a passive image.such as an advertisement while providing a requested image. The passive image and the requested image, for example, information from the Internet , are transmitted from the information provider to the terminal and displayed separately on the display . The whole passive image is displayed in the front of the display

System for displaying two independent images received from network

A message searching and system and a terminal, which display messages to terminal users based on their individual characteristics profile, even when a plurality of users use the same terminal and even when users copy and use the same program. The system includes a message user database for storing records defining user characteristics profiles of terminal users, and a transmittal condition database for storing searching conditions for each message which may be transmitted to the terminal. This system detects a necessity to revise the user characteristics when communicating with the terminal, and revises the user characteristics if necessary. This system reads user characteristics from the message user database, and searches for appropriate messages from the transmittal condition database based on the user characteristics and characteristics associated with each message identifier. The message user database stores each user's birth date and the last system communication date. The user's characteristics profile is updated based on various conditions. For example, if the date obtained by adding a predetermined period to the user's birth date is after the last communication date with the user, the characteristics profile is revised.

Message searching system and terminal

In the communication network for distributing messages such as advertisements to terminal users, an information providing system provides the suitable information to each user. The system includes a terminal connected to a communications network, a user database for storing the characteristics of each user, a message database for storing messages, and a transmittal condition database for storing the user characteristics of the class of suitable recipients for each message. A message searcher searches for messages from the transmittal condition database based on the characteristics read out from the user database. A reader reads the retrieved messages from the message database and a transmitter transmits the messages to the terminal. An adder increases the value of a parameter associated with each user when the transmitted message is displayed on the terminal. A detector detects whether the user is active, and a stop means prevents the value of the parameter from being increased when the user is inactive.

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Chiba, Japan

Yuichiro Itakura