Patent ID: 7725467

Claim:
An information search system comprising: an information processing apparatus, comprising: extraction means for analyzing electronic mail associated with a user, the extraction means comprising: means for grouping the user's electronic mail into topics; means for extracting from the user's electronic mail interest words corresponding to the topics for obtaining information about a television program; means for generating topic files for the topics, the topic files including word vectors containing the interest words and including feature vectors containing weights of the interest words, the weights indicating the degree of relevance of the interest words to the topics; and means for calculating evaluation values for the topics based on the weights of the interest words and for selecting topics with an evaluation value above a threshold; and means for sending a request to search television program information based on the interest words corresponding to the selected topics; and means for receiving television program information identified in the search; an information search apparatus in communication with the information processing apparatus via a network, the information search apparatus comprising: means for accumulating the television program information; means for searching the accumulated television program information for television program information associated with the interest words corresponding to the selected topics in response to the search request; and means for sending the television program information identified by the search to the information processing apparatus.