Patent ID: 8923654

Claim:
An information processing apparatus that displays, for each group, images that are divided into groups so that each group contains at least one of the images, the apparatus comprising: image-data storing means for storing image data representing the images; group-attribute-information storing means for storing group attribute information indicative of, for each one of the groups, a respective event and sub-event associated with that group; display controlling means for controlling processing for displaying the particular images associated with each group; search-key extracting means for extracting a search key based on a state at a time that the display controlling means issues an instruction for starting the processing for displaying the images for each group; and searching means for searching for respective groups associated with the search key extracted by the search-key extracting means by searching the group attribute information stored by the group-attribute-information storing means or synonyms associated with the group attribute information; wherein the display controlling means controls display of a library of the groups so that the respective groups associated with the search key and found by the searching means are displayed at topmost positions in the displayed library, and wherein when the display controlling means issues the instruction for starting the processing for displaying the particular images associated with each group, the search-key extracting means extracts, as the search key, (i) a currently popular keyword obtained from a number of rankings of search keywords from a number of Internet search engines, or (ii) a user keyword which matches a user's preference to information contained in an electronic program guide in a predetermined period of time.