Patent ID: 7831577

Claim:
A content search and display system comprising: content storing means in which many contents are stored; search condition specifying means to be operated by a user for specifying a search condition; content searching means for searching one or more contents, which meet at least part of the search condition, among the many music contents, based on the search condition specified by the user; and search result displaying means for displaying a result of a search carried out by the content searching means on a display screen, the content searching means including: operating situation detecting means for detecting an operating situation of the search condition specifying means during searching; condition adding/modifying means for adding or modifying the search condition in the course of searching in accordance with the operating situation detected by the operating situation detecting means; search result accumulating means for cumulatively storing a search result based on the search condition specified by the user or the search condition added or modified by the condition adding/modifying means, and content mark displaying means for defining a plurality of mark display regions on the display screen, and sequentially displaying a plurality of content marks, which respectively correspond to the many music contents stored in the content storing means, in each of the plurality of mark display regions in such a manner that the content marks are spaced to each other and moving from one side to the other side in a certain direction in each of the mark display regions, wherein the search condition specifying means is configured to operate a pointer according to the user's operation, the pointer making the content searching means operable to search when the pointer is displayed on the display screen and is enabled; the operating situation detecting means is configured to detect the operating situation, based on a co-relation between the pointer moving on the display screen and the content marks displayed in the mark display regions; and the condition adding/modifying means is configured to add or modify the search condition so as to search the contents that correspond to the content marks displayed in the mark display region and are overlapped with the pointer, when the pointer is placed in one of the mark display regions and is enabled.