Patent ID: 7127452

Claim:
An image search apparatus comprising: referring means for referring to a keyword table in a memory, wherein the keyword table includes a plurality of keywords associated with a plurality of different images, wherein at least one of the plurality of different images is associated with at least two of the keywords having different levels of importance with respect to the one image, wherein at least one of the at least two keywords associated with the one image also is associated with at least another of the plurality of different images, and wherein the one keyword has a plurality of levels of importance so that the one keyword has one level of importance associated with the one image and another level of importance associated with the another image; search means for searching said plurality of different images according to an input search query related to the one keyword; acquiring means for acquiring said plurality of levels of importance of the one keyword based on the images searched by said search means; and output means for outputting said plurality of images searched by said search means in an order according to said plurality of levels of importance of the one keyword acquired by said acquiring means.