Patent ID: 8306872

Claim:
A search supporting system comprising: a combined product database in which attribute information of product items acquired from an image medium is accumulated for each same category; a combination information database in which, for each of the product items, combination information with another product item of a different category that is used in combination with the each of the product items is stored; a product item database in which attribute information of product items that are sold is stored; a similar-item searching device that selects image data of a product input by a user and a candidate group of product items of which attribute information is the same as or similar to that of the image data from the combined product database; a combination searching device that, in correspondence with each of the product items of the candidate group, searches for other product items that are combined with the each of the product items from the combination information database; and a product-item searching device that searches for image data of a product item that is the same as or similar to the image data of the another product item of the combination that is selected by the user from combinations of the product item and the another product item from the product item database based on the attribute information of the image data and outputs the image data of the another product item as a recommended product.