Patent ID: 7069262

Claim:
An information processing apparatus for providing position indicative of a position of a home page having at least one object and being present on a network, the apparatus comprising: a database storing discrimination assigned to the object and said position information of the corresponding home page; collections means for receiving a search request from a terminal, the search request including discrimination information assigned to the object from the home page and the position information of the home page and for registering the collected discrimination information and position information in said data base, wherein said collection means collects related information related to said object and register said position information and related information corresponding to said discrimination information in said database; receiving means for receiving a search request from a terminal, the search request including discrimination information assigned to the object; search means for searching the database for and ding said position information corresponding to the discrimination information of the search request; preparing means for preparing a list of said position information found by the search means; issue means for issuing new discrimination assigned to the object and storing said new discrimination on said database when said discrimination information has not previously registered in said database; addition means for adding a degree of importance of the object; and transmission means for transmitting said list of position information and said new discrimination information to said terminal; wherein said preparing means prepare the list of said position information arranged in order to the degree of importance; wherein said related information includes a keyword used to search for discrimination information assigned to said object and the apparatus further comprises: interface means for receiving said keyword transmitted from said terminal; and reverse processing means for search said discrimination information corresponding to the keyword received from said interface means; wherein said transmission means transmits the search result including said discrimination to said terminal for use in creating said search request.