Abstract:
An information offering system stores information on products and services along with attributes describing these products and services. Individual users are allowed to automatically register information on their products and services with the information offering system. By this method, the information offering system advertises products and services. Because the registration is done automatically by each offeror of a service or product, the efforts of a central administrator entering this information becomes unnecessary, thus making it possible to advertise more products and services efficiently.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application is based upon and claims priority from Japanese Patent Application 9-013099 filed Jan. 7, 1997, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to an information offering system for providing information or services on a computer network. 
   2. Description of the Related Art 
   In recent times, with the rapidly evolving complexity of the Internet, many enterprises, organizations and individual computer users are making available a large amount of information or services, such as sports, business, and leisure, on the networks using their own home pages. 
   Enterprises and organizations are offering, for the purpose of business or sales promotion, information about self-manufactured products (e.g., contents of games, in the case of a game developing company) and an access window for downloading of self-developed software using their own home pages. Meanwhile, individual users and organizations are offering, using their own home pages, various services, such as information introducing the strategy for newly developed games, forecasting information of horse races or information about a particular hobby. 
   An ordinary network user having a particular hobby corresponding to a home page of a person or organization, as explained above, in order to get the information about their own hobby, will be interested in accessing home pages related to the hobby. Therefore, there is now a commercial potential for using these home pages as an advertisement medium because ordinary users are beginning to access home pages offering useful information about particular hobbies. 
   Regarding advertisements on the Internet, it is more effective to place an advertisement, as in advertisements placed in more traditional media, in areas where there are likely to be seen and heard by people who are interested in the information or service appearing in that advertisement. 
   Accordingly, with the reason explained above, in the case of placing an advertisement for a product or service on the Internet, a person in charge of the company which is planning to place the advertisement makes a survey of all home pages which provide centralized access to information about the product or service to be advertised. Thereafter, the person in charge makes a request by mail or telephone to the owner of such home page to place an advertisement there. In this case, there is no problem when the person in charge of the company is familiar with information about the product or service and he can identify the home page having the highest access rate related to the product or service of concern. 
   However, if the person in charge is not familiar with the relevant information, it is a very difficult for him to identify a home page having a high access rate. In addition, even when he has some knowledge about the relevant information, it is difficult to identify desirable home pages, because retrieving software on the Internet often retrieves home pages that cannot be used. Moreover, it is essential to register the uniform resource locator (URL) of a home page along with the attribute of the home page for it to be possible for the home page to become retrievable by the retrieving software. Furthermore, personal home pages are often not registered. 
   Therefore, using the currently existing methods, the success of advertisements on the Internet has been a consequence mainly of the amount of work done by the administrator in charge of the company placing the advertisement. Consequently, it has been difficult to increase the number of places advertisements are displayed. 
   An advertisement on the Internet is formed of digital information making it possible to distribute such information through the network. Therefore, it is also possible to increase such advertisements by storing the advertisements in a server on the Internet. Namely, if it is possible for an Internet user who has made access to a home page on a server to register an advertisement for display on the user&#39;s own home page, the workload of the person responsible for getting the advertisements displayed can be reduced. 
   Moreover, as explained previously, a user who has accessed a particular home page may be interested in an attribute of that home page. Therefore, if viewing of an advertisement on the Internet can be increased among those having a particular hobby, the company can further reduce the work involved in Internet advertising, resulting in more efficient advertising. However, to increase distribution of advertisements, it is necessary to give an incentive to users to register their home pages to encourage them to register an advertisement pointing to a company&#39;s home page. 
   On the other hand, presentation of the advertisement in a home page requires revision of the contents of the home page. Although a personal home page is hosted by a server of an Internet service provider, the Internet service provider cannot freely revise the contents of the home page. Therefore, it is essential to get approval of the owner of the home page, because such revision is allowed only by the owner of the home page. Since revision of a personal home page will require access to the server of the Internet service provider, at least the communication ID and password for establishing communication with the Internet service provider are required. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The first object of the present invention is to provide an information offering system on a computer network which allows an information offeror to register and update a home page. 
   The second object of the present invention is to provide an information offering system on a computer network for allowing a user to access a home page from an advertisement by branching or linking to the location of the home page. 
   To achieve the first object, the information offering system of the present invention for providing offered information on a computer network comprises a memory unit to store entrance information about entrance to the offered information, an input accepting unit to accept input of identification information for display information and permission to add the entrance information to the display information by an offeror of the display information and an update unit to update the display information identified by the identification information to include the entrance information when permission is received by the input accepting unit. 
   Moreover, to achieve the second object, the information offering system of the present invention for providing offered information on a computer network comprises a memory unit to register identification information about display information together with attributes of the display information and a branching unit to branch, upon reception of a desired branch instruction, to generation of desired information based on the identification information in the memory unit, routing information indicating routing to the information offering system, and the attributes stored in the memory unit. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a system configuration diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart of the first embodiment. 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart of setting the entrance information for the home page. 
       FIG. 4  is a data management diagram of the session ID and routing information. 
       FIG. 5  is a display of setting the entrance information. 
       FIG. 6  is a data format diagram of the registered database for management of Earliest. 
       FIG. 7A  is a display of a home page on PC 01  prior to updating to show entrance information. 
       FIG. 7B  is HTML source that generates the display in  FIG. 7A . 
       FIG. 7C  is updated HTML source after the addition of the entrance information to the HTML source illustrated in  FIG. 7B  by the management software  44 . 
       FIG. 8  is a display example on personal computer PC 01  having received a JAVA applet. 
       FIG. 9A  is a display of the home page before setting of the entrance information. 
       FIG. 9B  is a display of the home page after setting of the entrance information. 
       FIG. 10  is a system configuration diagram of the second embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 11  is a flowchart of the third embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 12  is a data format diagram of the database for administrating the extracted URL. 
       FIG. 13  is a data format diagram of the database for administrating the entrance information. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be explained hereunder with reference to  FIGS. 1-12 .  FIGS. 1-9  illustrate the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 10  illustrates the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  FIGS. 11 and 12  illustrate the third embodiment of the present invention. 
   The first embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to  FIGS. 1-9 .  FIG. 1  shows a system configuration in relation to the first embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , a personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) is connected by a modem  2  and an analog line  5 , such as a telephone line, to a server  3  (IP 01 ) of an Internet service provider. In  FIG. 1 , the modem  2  is illustrated in a housing separate from the housing of personal computer PC 01 , i.e., as an external modem, but the modem  2  may be in the same housing as personal computer  1  (PC 01 ), i.e., the modem  2  may be an internal modem. Alternatively, the connection between personal computer  1  and the server  3  (IP 01 ) may be by a digital line, such as an ISDN line and appropriate interfaces, such as terminal adapters. The server  3  (IP 01 ) of the Internet service provider is connected to the server  4  (T 01 ) for offering information or service via the digital lines  6  (e.g., ISDN line) and Internet  7 . 
   The server  3  (IP 01 ) is generally composed of a modem  31  for communication with the analog lines, a management database  32  for administrating personal home pages and member information, management software  33  for controlling or administrating accesses by members of the Internet service provider using information of the management database  32  and a communication server  34  for mediating accesses to the Internet from the members of the Internet service provider. 
   On the other hand, the server  4  (T 01 ) is composed of an http demon (httpd)  41  and cgi program  42 . The http demon administrates the server T 01  by a routine which accepts an http request from a user and controls the server system indirectly based on the user request which should not be controlled indirectly by a user. Moreover, common gateway interface (cgi) program  42  is a program having a cgi for providing various services responding to the requests from users. In the following examples, the methods of the present invention are performed by the management software  44  and the hard disk  45 . 
   Operations of the present invention will be briefly explained conforming to the flowchart in  FIG. 2 . A particular example explained below is the case where an owner of personal computer PC 01  sets the entrance information of a service Z offered from the server T 01  to his own home page, i.e., display information under the control of the Internet service provider IP 01 . The following steps refer to  FIG. 2 . 
   In step S 01 , the communication ID and password are transmitted to the server  3  (IP 01 ) of the Internet service provider from personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) to establish communication between the server  3  and personal computer  1 . 
   In step S 02 , the home page in server  4  is accessed after searching various home pages via server  3  of the Internet service provider. At the time of access, personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) transmits to the server  4  (T 01 ) the variable HTTP_REFERER indicating through which server the access was made to server  4  (T 01 ). For example, as shown in  FIG. 4 , when personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) has accessed server  4  (T 01 ) from the home page designated by “http://www.beef.provider-a.or.jp/a01/pc01.htm”, this URL is substituted into the variable HTTP_REFERER which is then transmitted to the server  4  (T 01 ). In this example, the variable HTTP_REFERER indicates the home page of the owner of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ). 
   In step S 03 , the management software  44  assigns a session ID for identifying communication to administrate this access of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ). The browser of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) sends the session ID before the session ends. In the example shown in  FIG. 4 , “680075” is the session ID and it is administrated together with the variable HTTP_REFERER received in step S 01 . The communication of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) can be discriminated from communication having other session IDs by transmitting the relevant session ID to the server T 01  during the session. For example, the management software  44  in the server T 01  assigns the session ID for the session of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ), and sends the session ID to personal computer  1  (PC 01 ). So, when the browser of personal computer  1  (PC 01 ) sends an order (e.g., branching to a page of  FIG. 5 ), the browser sends the order with the session ID to the server T 01 . 
   In step S 04 , the management software  44  determines whether HTTP_REFERER is registered in the registered database (see  FIG. 6 ). In other words, the management software  44  determines whether the URL of the home page on server T 01  stored in the variable HTTP_REFERER exists in the registered database ( FIG. 6 ). The information shown in  FIG. 6  is administrated in the hard disk  45 . For instance, in  FIG. 6 , the URL corresponding to the management number 0001 is “http://www.provider-a.or.jp/a01/pc10.htm”. The contents of the home page relates to “POPS”. The record with management number 0001 also has an e-mail address of “pc10@tomato.provider-a.or.jp” for the owner of the home page. The owner of a home page is a person who can authorize revision of the contents of the home page. Contents of the registered database of  FIG. 6  are based on the contents of input at the preset display of the entrance information to the home page shown in  FIG. 5  (explained later). 
   In step S 05 , when access is made from a home page that is already registered, branching is made to contents corresponding to access from a home page registered in the database. The contents corresponding to registration are, for example, premium contents for the person who has accessed from a home page which is already registered. 
   In step S 06 , when access is made from a home page not yet registered, the method branches to contents corresponding to access from an unregistered home page. Below it will be assumed that the variable HTTP_REFERER corresponding to the session ID “680075” of PC 01  is explained under the assumption that it is not yet registered in the registered database illustrated in  FIG. 6 . 
   In step S 07 , the method proceeds to the display for recommending registration. As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the display for registering the URL of the home page sets the entrance information to a service Z, its attribute (for example, a kind of service such as baseball, soccer, etc.) and an e-mail address or other destination information of the home page owner (namely, a person who can revise the source of the home page). The registered information is assigned a unique management number and is then stored in the registered database ( FIG. 6 ) on the hard disk  45 . 
   In other words, in the display of  FIG. 5 , the owner of personal computer PC 01  registers the required-items for registering the entrance information of a service Z to his own home page. In  FIG. 5 , the URL “http://www.beef.provider-a.or.jp/a01/pc01.htm” of the owner of PC 01 , the attribute “jazz”, and the e-mail address of the owner of the home page, “pc01@tomato.provider-a.or.jp” and the other items are written. Thereafter, the “Submit” button is clicked to transmit the contents to the server T 01 . 
   In step S 08 , the management software  44  acquires the relevant source in HTML format from an area within the server (IP 01 ) designated by the URL via the digital line  6  and Internet  7  and adds the entrance information of a service Z to the source acquired (corresponding to  FIG. 3  and  FIGS. 7A-7C , explained later). Thereby, registration of the entrance information by a third party eases the work load of the person in charge of the company offering service Z, i.e., offered information about a service or product, where the entrance information provides a link to the offered information. 
   Next, modification of a home page to add entrance information to the service Z on the server IP 01  will be explained with reference to  FIG. 3  (corresponding to step S 08  of  FIG. 2 ). 
   In step S 081 , the management software  44  acquires the HTML source in the management database  32  of the Internet service provider IP 01  via the digital lines  6  and Internet  7 , based on the URL “http://www.beef.provider-1.or.jp/a01/pc01.htm” registered in step S 07  of  FIG. 2 . An example of the HTML source acquired corresponds to the HTML source in  FIG. 7B . The HTML source does not yet have the entrance information to the service Z.  FIG. 7A  is a display of the home page produced by an Internet browser using the HTML source before update illustrated in  FIG. 7B . 
   In step S 082 , the management software  44  adds entrance information for the service Z to the HTML source acquired from server  3 .  FIGS. 7A-7C  indicate how the management software  44  adds the entrance information of service Z to the HTML source. The management software  44  having acquired the relevant HTML source retrieves the entrance information having the same service type as that input in step S 07  from the entrance information database ( FIG. 13 ) in the hard disk  45 . The entrance information is added to the HTML source at a position that does not obliterate any existing contents of the display generated by the HTML source. This is easily accomplished since there is no limit to the length of the display generated by the HTML source and the area of the display containing visible images can be determined by the management software  44 . Alternatively, the owner of the home page generated by the HTML source may designate an area for advertisements to be displayed. 
     FIG. 13  shows the structure of the entrance information database for administrating the entrance information in the hard disk  45 . The entrance information database as shown in  FIG. 13  stores the name of a GIF file (image file) playing the role of a button for the entrance information, the URL of the branching destination when the button is clicked and a type of service. 
   In this example, since the service type “jazz” is input in step S 07 , the management software  44  reads the record for that type of service from the entrance information database ( FIG. 13 ), including that the GIF file is “entrance.gif”. The management software  44  updates the HTML source acquired in step S 081  as shown in  FIG. 7C  on the basis of the record read from the entrance information database. 
   Namely, the management software  44  adds the entrance information to the HTML source to provide a link to the URL of the record read from the entrance information database, together with a tag (corresponding to &lt;right&gt; in the example of  FIG. 7C ) indicating where to insert the entrance information. In the example of  FIG. 7C , the entrance information is set at the right end before tag &lt;/HTML&gt;) of the source acquired. The HTML statements added by the server T 01  means that it jumps to the URL following the “a ref=”, when the image file designated by the URL following “img src=” is clicked. When the entrance information is added at the left side, the tag &lt;left&gt; is added to the HTML source, and when added at the center, the tag &lt;center&gt; is added. 
   In step S 083 , the management software  44  adds the acknowledge button to the updated HTML format source (in this example, corresponding to the source after update in  FIG. 7C ), and transmits it to the e-mail address with a JAVA applet (trademark of Sun Microsystems, U.S). The JAVA applet is a program which transmits the advertisement information added to the HTML format source using the Internet file transfer protocol (ftp) to the URL acquired in step S 07  of  FIG. 2  (display of  FIG. 5 ), when the acknowledge button is clicked. 
   In this example, since only one corresponding entrance information is assumed in step S 082 , only one acknowledge button is given. However, in general, two or more corresponding items of entrance information may exist in step S 082 . Therefore, on the occasion of setting several items of entrance information, an acknowledge button may be provided for each entrance information or a simultaneous acknowledge button to set all entrance information may be provided. 
   In step S 085  of  FIG. 3 , the JAVA applet requests input of the communication ID and password for making access to the Internet service provider IP 01 . Input of the communication ID is not always requested when HTTP_REFERER matches the URL to be updated as in the case of the first embodiment. In this case the communication between personal computer PC 01  and the Internet service provider IP 01  is already established (S 01  of  FIG. 2 ) and the communication ID and password for the service provider are already input. Input of the communication ID, etc. is required, as in the case of the second embodiment explained later, when HTTP_REFERER and the URL to be updated belong to different servers. 
   When the acknowledge button is not depressed at step S 084 , the JAVA applet terminates the process. Therefore, the HTML source updated in the management software  44  is not reflected on the management database  32 . 
   In step S 085 , the JAVA applet described above adds, when the “Submit” button in the dialog box of  FIG. 8  is clicked, the communication ID and password input in the same dialog box to the updated HTML source. 
   In step S 086 , the JAVA applet transmits the HTML source with advertisement information added, by ftp to the URL acquired in step S 07  of  FIG. 2  (display of  FIG. 5 ) with the communication ID and the password. 
   In step S 087 , the management software  33  in server  3 , having received the transmission information from personal computer  1 , confirms the right to revise the home page by checking the communication ID and password and thereafter updates the HTML source by overwriting the HTML statements to add the entrance information for the service Z. 
     FIGS. 9A and 9B  show the home page of the owner of PC 01  as displayed by an Internet browser before ( FIG. 9A ) and after ( FIG. 9B ) the setting of the entrance information to the service Z. In  FIGS. 9A and 9B , the difference between the home page before and after the setting of the entrance information is the addition of the image file indicating entrance to the service Z located at the lower right of the home page illustrated in  FIG. 9B . This difference corresponds to the HTML statements added by the server T 01  in  FIG. 7C . The entrance button to the service Z in  FIG. 9B  corresponds to the image “cgi-bin/entrance.gif” of  FIG. 7C . 
   Here, the routing through its own home page has been explained above, but routing through the home page of another user is also possible. In this case, it is necessary to previously obtain the destination of the home page owner (e-mail address) from the information about the relevant home page. In the display shown in  FIG. 5 , the URL of the home page of a user other than the owner and the e-mail address of the owner of the home page are obtained, so that a user wishing to revise another&#39;s home page can get permission from the other user. 
     FIG. 10  shows a system configuration in relation to the second embodiment of the present invention. The elements of  FIG. 10  having the same reference numerals as  FIG. 1  are identical to the elements of  FIG. 1 . In  FIG. 10 , the owner of personal computer PC 01  has contracted with a plurality of Internet service providers (e.g., IP 01 , IP 02 ) and the owner of personal computer PC 01  makes access to the server T 00  via the Internet service provider IP 01  to revise the home page HP 02  in the management database  32  of the Internet service provider IP 02 . Namely, in  FIG. 10 , HTTP_REFERER is different from the URL of the home page which is the object of update. 
   In  FIG. 10 , the owner of personal computer PC 01  can receive the service Z offered by the server T 01  having installed the software in relation to the present invention via the owner&#39;s home page HP 02  or the home page of another person under the control of the Internet service provider IP 02 . The entrance information to the service Z is set to the home page HP 01  of the owner of PC 01  under the control of the Internet service provider IP 01 . 
   This case is basically the same as explained above in regard to the first embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, the session ID and HTTP_REFERER (routing information) are administrated in the hard disk  45  in the server T 01  as shown in  FIG. 4  and the registered URL, etc. is also administrated as shown in  FIG. 6 . 
   However, this case is different from the first embodiment in that the URL of the home page HP 02  under the control of the Internet service provider IP 02  is stored as the routing information in HTTP_REFERER. Furthermore, the URL of home page HP 01 , input at the setting display of  FIG. 5  as the identification information for the display information (home page HP 01 ) to which the entrance information will be added, is under control of the Internet service provider IP 01 . 
   Another difference is that the second embodiment requires input of a communication ID and password when the source of the updated home page HP 01  is received together with the JAVA applet ( FIG. 8 ). In this case, since personal computer PC 01  is accessing the server T 01  via the Internet service provider IP 02 , communication with the Internet service provider IP 02  has already been established. However, the source of the updated home page HP 01  is under the control of Internet service provider IP 01  to which communication is not yet established. Therefore, in this case, as shown in  FIG. 8 , input of the communication ID and password required for accessing the Internet service provider IP 01  must be obtained. In this regard, the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, it is not necessary to input a communication ID because communication with service provider IP 01  has already been established. By contrast, in the second embodiment, it is necessary to input a communication ID because communication with Internet service provider IP 01  has not been established. 
   Otherwise, the second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment already explained. In  FIG. 10 , the home page HP 02  used for routing is designated as a personal home page under the control of the Internet service provider for the purpose of this explanation, but it is of course possible that the routing home page may be a home page offered by a company or organization on the server IP 02 . In addition, in  FIG. 10 , the home page HP 01  in which the entrance information is set has been described as a personal home page under the control of the Internet service provider for the convenience of explanation, but it is also of course possible that a home page offered by a company or organization having a server could be used. 
     FIG. 11  shows a flowchart for explaining operations of the third embodiment of the present invention. The system configuration used in the third embodiment may be any system configuration, including as shown in  FIG. 1  or  FIG. 10 . However, operations of the third embodiment will be explained using the reference numerals appearing in the system configuration of  FIG. 1  and contents of  FIGS. 2-9 . 
   In the third embodiment of the present invention, persons viewing the home page displaying the entrance information for the service can easily link to multiple URLs with the same attribute as that of the routing information, when the management software  44  has received an instruction to provide such links during access to the home page under the control of the server T 01 . In this embodiment, since the links are easily accessed, this will encourage more users to access home pages on related subject matter. Meanwhile, it is preferable for those who have issued a request to link to another home page, i.e., a free branching instruction, because the link or branching is made, based on the routing information, to a home page with information in which the person who issued the command is interested. Therefore, the person who issued the command may find his or her expectation fulfilled and something new may be found. 
   In step ST 01  the home page under the control of the server T 01  is provided with a “retry button” at a desired position to issue a free branching instruction to branch to randomly selected related information. When the owner of personal computer PC 01  transmits an instruction to the server T 01  by clicking the “retry button” on the display, the management software  44  recognizes issuance of the free branching instruction. 
   In step ST 02 , the management software  44  obtains the routing information of the relevant session from the management data shown in  FIG. 4  on the basis of the session ID given to this session. For example, when the session ID is “680075”, the management software  44  obtains the routing information “http://www.beef.provider-a.or.jp/a01/pcol.htm”. 
   In step ST 03 , the management software  44  judges whether the routing information obtained from the registered database ( FIG. 6 ) matches the routing information in step ST 02 . When the routing information obtained in step ST 02  does not match the routing information from the registered database, in step ST 04  the management software  44  branches to a display recommending registration. 
   When it is determined in step ST 03  that the routing information obtained in step ST 02  matches the routing information in the registered database, in step ST 05  the management software  44  extracts routing information from the registered database having the same attribute as the routing information (URL) previously obtained from the registered database. The management software  44  assigns consecutive numbers for the routing information (URLs) extracted from the registered database and uses a work database on the hard disk  45  to maintain pointers to entries in the registered database that have the same attribute. 
     FIG. 12  shows an example of management of the work database created in response to clicking on the “retry button” when the attribute is “jazz.” The work database on the left side of  FIG. 12  is created for each session (in this case session ID “670075”) in which the retry button is clicked. Each entry in the work database corresponds to an entry in the registered database with an attribute that matches the attribute in the registered database record containing the URL in HTTP_REFERER. The work database is composed of consecutive numbers used for management and pointers to the records of the registered database ( FIG. 6 ) having matching attributes. 
   In step ST 06  the management software  44  generates a random number within the range of consecutive numbers of the work database. In the example of  FIG. 12 , the random number is generated within the range from 1 to 531, because the number of records in the work database, i.e., the number of records in the registered database with the attribute “jazz” (excluding the record with URL in HTTP_REFERER, “http://www.beef.provider-a.or.jp/a01/pc01.htm”), is  531 . 
   In step ST 07  the management software  44  uses the random number generated in step ST 06  to identify a URL pointed to by the work database record having a consecutive number corresponding to the random number. The management software  44  also transmits HTML source indicating a jump to the URL associated with the session ID (“680075”). Thereafter, the management software  44  deletes the management data ( FIG. 4 ) for the session ID (“680075”). The Internet browser running on personal computer  1  receives and executes the HTML source and jumps to the designated URL. 
   In the first embodiment, an advertisement may be set in the home page on the server of a company via the company LAN. Moreover, in the second embodiment, it is also possible that a user sets the entrance information to his own home page under the control of an Internet service provider via the company LAN. 
   In the above explanation, the present invention is installed on the system, but the present invention may also be embodied as instructions on a memory medium before it is installed on the system. In this case, the memory medium includes a unit corresponding to the management software  44  explained above. However when the memory medium is installed on the system, the system is equivalent to that explained above. Therefore the same explanation is not repeated here. 
   As will be apparent from above disclosure, the present invention provides the following benefits. 
   First, since the entrance information can be registered by the third party having the home page, the burden on the service offeror will be eased because the work is shared for expanding the entrance information. 
   Second, since branching to the home page can be made easily, references thereto are likely to increase and consequently the access rate can be improved. Accordingly, advertisements on the Internet can be increased by giving incentive for opening of the home page.