Webpage update management device and method

Abstract

To provide a webpage update management device and method, which enable webpage update management in such a way that a user can check an update history of a webpage easily and quickly.SOLUTION: The present invention provides a webpage update management device for managing webpage updates and a webpage update management method implemented by the webpage update management device, the method comprising regularly or irregularly acquiring information on each webpage within a monitoring range, comparing information on a designated webpage within the monitoring range acquired at two different points in time to detect differences, and displaying the detected differences.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 11

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a Web page update management device and method, and is suitable for application to, for example, a Web page update management device that manages updates to Web pages. [Background technology]

[0002] In order to keep the system running normally or to take action before an abnormality occurs, system administrators and users need to be sure to obtain notification information about updates and service terminations regarding the system that is released by the system vendor as appropriate.

[0003] On the other hand, system notification information is often not directly communicated to administrators or users, but is instead published on a specific web page on the vendor's website or is communicated only by updating an existing web page.

[0004] Therefore, in such cases, system administrators and users must periodically open the web pages of the website and check whether new notice information has been posted by comparing them with past content. However, such checking work requires a great deal of effort and time, which is problematic.

[0005] To solve this problem, technologies are used that use mechanisms such as difference detection to detect updates to websites.

[0006] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology that can efficiently detect and notify updates to documents that are updated irregularly and have a hypertext structure, and Patent Document 2 discloses a technology that creates a change history that reliably associates document changes with the purpose and reason for those changes. Patent Document 3 also discloses a technology that can easily grasp the contents of document updates. Furthermore, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a technology related to an algorithm for detecting differences between two documents. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-143418 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-251666 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-25620 [Non-patent literature]

[0008] [Non-Patent Document 1] Investigating Myers` diff algorithm:Part1of2, [Retrieved September 6, 2023], Internet<URL:https: / / www.codeproject.com / Articles / 42279 / Investigating-Myers-diff-algorithm-Part-1-of-2> Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0009] By using the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is possible to effectively monitor updates to documents with a hierarchical structure without increasing the workload of the user. However, the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the problem that it can only detect updates when hypertext is added to a document, and is unable to grasp updated parts including parts other than the hypertext of the document, display the update history, or compare any versions.

[0010] Furthermore, while the technology disclosed in Patent Document 2 makes it possible to create a document update history, it is not compatible with documents on the Internet, and creating an update history for this type of document requires a person to input update information.

[0011] Furthermore, according to the technology disclosed in Patent Document 3, while the information of the monitored object is automatically acquired and the latest update details can be grasped by a notification function when each document is updated, it is not possible to grasp the change history of each document, including the changes made in past updates. Another problem is that it is necessary to keep the latest person in charge assigned as the recipient of update notifications.

[0012] In addition, no matter which of the techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 is used, it is not possible to make a comparison between any two points in time or to display a change history.

[0013] Furthermore, according to the technology disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, although it is possible to grasp the differences between the two documents by selecting the document data to be compared, it is not possible to grasp the update history of each document.

[0014] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and aims to propose a web page update management device and method that can manage web page updates so that users can easily and quickly check the update history of a web page. [Means for solving the problem]

[0015] In order to solve this problem, in the present invention, a web page update management device that manages updates to web pages is provided with an information acquisition unit that acquires information about each web page within a monitoring range periodically or irregularly, a difference detection unit that compares the information acquired by the information acquisition unit at two different times for a specified web page within the monitoring range to detect differences, and a display unit that displays the differences detected by the difference detection unit.

[0016] In addition, the present invention provides a web page update management method executed by a web page update management device that manages web page updates, which includes a first step of periodically or irregularly acquiring information about each of the web pages within a monitoring range, a second step of comparing the information acquired at two different times for a specified web page within the monitoring range to detect differences, and a third step of displaying the detected differences.

[0017] According to the web page update management device and method of the present invention, the update history of a specified web page that was performed during the period between two different times is displayed as the difference between the information obtained at these two different times. [Effects of the Invention]

[0018] According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a Web page update management device and method that can manage updates to a Web page so that a user can easily and quickly check the update history of the Web page. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a Web page update management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a setting information table. [Figure 3] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a site information table. [Figure 4] 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a monitoring target information table; [Figure 5] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a site acquisition information table. [Figure 6] 10 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an update history information table. [Figure 7] 10 is a diagram showing an example of the screen configuration of a target Web page selection screen. [Figure 8] 10 is a diagram showing an example of the screen configuration of an update history list screen. [Figure 9]10 is a diagram showing an example of a screen configuration of an acquisition timing selection screen. [Figure 10] 10 is a diagram showing an example of the screen configuration of a comparison result screen. [Figure 11] 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a Web page monitoring process. [Figure 12] 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a site information acquisition process. [Figure 13] 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a site information analysis process. [Figure 14] 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a difference detection process. [Figure 15] 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of a comparison process. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0021] In the accompanying drawings, functionally identical elements may be designated by the same reference numerals. The accompanying drawings illustrate specific embodiments in accordance with the principles of the present invention, but these are for understanding the present invention and are not to be used to interpret the present invention in any way as being limiting.

[0022] Furthermore, although the present embodiment has been described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the present invention, it should be understood that other implementations and configurations are possible, and that configurations and structures may be modified, such as by addition or deletion, or various elements may be substituted without departing from the scope and spirit of the technical concept of the present invention. Therefore, the following description should not be interpreted as being limited thereto.

[0023] Furthermore, as will be described later, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented as software running on a general-purpose computer, as well as dedicated hardware or a combination of software and hardware.

[0024] In addition, information such as programs, tables, files, etc. that realize each function can be stored in storage devices such as memory, hard disks, or SSDs (Solid State Drives), as well as recording media such as IC (Integrated Circuit) cards, SD cards, or DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs).

[0025] In the following explanation, each piece of information of the present invention will be explained in "table" format, but this information does not necessarily have to be expressed in a table data structure, and may be expressed in a data structure such as a list, DB (Database), queue, or other format. Therefore, to indicate that it does not depend on the data structure, "table," "list," "DB," "queue," etc. may be simply referred to as "information."

[0026] In the following description, each page provided by a website will be referred to as a "web page." Therefore, a "website" is a collection of one or more related web pages.

[0027] Furthermore, in the following explanation, the information on one web page will be referred to as "page data," and the information on an entire website consisting of one or more related web pages will be referred to as "site information." Therefore, site information is a collection of page data for one or more related web pages. However, the page data for one web page may also be referred to as site information.

[0028] (1) Configuration of the Web page update management system according to this embodiment In Figure 1, reference numeral 1 indicates the entire web page update management system according to this embodiment. This web page update management system 1 is configured to include a web page update management device 2 and one or more web servers 3. The web page update management device 2 and each web server 3 are connected to each other via a wired or wireless network 4 configured from the Internet, a wireless communication network, or the like.

[0029] The Web page update management device 2 is composed of a general-purpose computer device equipped with a calculation unit 10, a memory 11, a storage device 12, a site information acquisition unit 13, a site information output unit 14, an input device 15, and an output device 16.

[0030] The calculation unit 10 is a processor that controls the overall operation of the Web page update management device 2, and is configured with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), etc. However, the calculation unit 10 may be configured with multiple CPUs or GPUs, etc.

[0031] The memory 11 is composed of semiconductor memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used as a working memory for the calculation unit 10. The storage device 12 is composed of a large-capacity nonvolatile storage device such as a hard disk drive or SSD, and is used to store various programs and data that needs to be stored for a long period of time.

[0032] The programs stored in storage device 12 are read into memory 11 when Web page update management device 2 is started up or when necessary, and the programs read into memory 11 are executed by calculation unit 10, thereby performing various processes as the entire Web page update management device 2, as described below. However, some programs, such as the OS (Operating System), may be stored in a non-volatile storage area of ​​memory 11 from the beginning.

[0033] The various programs stored in storage device 12 are provided to Web page update management device 2 via removable media such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) or flash memory, or via a network. Therefore, when providing various programs to Web page update management device 2 via removable media, it is necessary to provide Web page update management device 2 with a drive that reads the programs from the removable media.

[0034] The site information acquisition unit 13 is a functional unit that has the function of acquiring, as site information, page data of each web page within the website provided by each web server 3. The page data of a web page is assumed to be an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) file containing the characters and images that make up the web page, but is not limited to this, and may be any format of data as long as it is a file that allows comparison of text and images. The site information output unit 14 is a functional unit that has the function of outputting the page data of the web page acquired via the site information acquisition unit 13 to the outside. The site information acquisition unit 13 and the site information output unit 14 are configured from the same communication device, such as a NIC (Network Interface Card).

[0035] However, the user may download the page data of the Web page to a removable medium and provide it to the Web page update management device 2. In this case, the site information acquisition unit 13 and the site information output unit 14 are configured from a drive corresponding to the removable medium.

[0036] The input device 15 is a device that allows the user to perform various operations on the Web page update management device 2, and is composed of, for example, a mouse, a keyboard, or a microphone. The output device 16 is a device that the Web page update management device 2 uses to present necessary information to the user, and is composed of, for example, a display device such as a liquid crystal display, an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display, or a projector. Note that instead of the input device 15 and the output device 16, a touch panel that integrates these functions may be used.

[0037] (2) Web page monitoring function according to this embodiment Next, we will explain the web page monitoring function according to this embodiment, which is installed in the web page update management device 2. This web page monitoring function periodically acquires and accumulates page data for each web page within a monitoring range previously specified by the user in a website to be monitored (hereinafter referred to as a monitored website) previously specified by the user, and based on the page data acquired for the same web page on two different dates and times, extracts the content of updates to that web page that were made between these two dates and times as update history information, and presents the extracted update history information to the user.

[0038] In practice, in the case of the present Web page update management device 2, the user sets in advance the range of Web pages to be monitored within the monitored website (hereinafter referred to as the monitoring range) and the monitoring cycle (hereinafter referred to as the monitoring cycle). In this embodiment, the user can set the monitoring range for the monitored website to be the range from a starting Web page (hereinafter referred to as the starting Web page) to a Web page at a desired depth.

[0039] Note that "depth" here refers to the number of traversals from the starting web page of the monitored website to that web page, in other words, the depth of the hierarchy. For example, the depth of a second web page linked to a first starting web page is "1," the depth of a third web page (excluding the first web page) linked to that second web page is "2," and the depth of a fourth web page (excluding the first and second web pages) linked to that third web page is "3."

[0040] When the Web page update management device 2 starts monitoring a monitored website, it accesses each web page within the monitoring range of the monitored website set by the user at the monitoring cycle set by the user as described above and acquires the page data of each web page. Hereinafter, the timing of acquiring the page data of each web page within the monitoring range that arrives at the monitoring cycle will be referred to as the acquisition timing, as appropriate. The Web page update management device 2 also stores the acquired page data of each web page as site information of the monitored website, in association with the acquisition date and time.

[0041] Furthermore, the web page update management device 2 compares the site information of the monitored website acquired as described above with the site information of the monitored website acquired at the acquisition timing of the previous monitoring cycle, and extracts and stores the difference between these two pieces of site information for each web page.

[0042] Then, in response to a request from the user, the web page update management device 2 displays on the output device 16 the difference in page data for each web page for the two most recent monitoring cycles extracted as described above, or the difference in page data for web pages in the monitoring range acquired at the timing of acquisition of any two monitoring cycles, as the update history of that web page for that period.

[0043] As a means for realizing the web page monitoring function of this embodiment as described above, the storage device of the web page update management device 2 stores a web page monitoring program 20, a site information acquisition program 21, a site information analysis program 22, a difference detection program 23, a scheduler program 24, and a screen operation program 25, as well as a setting information table 26, a site information table 27, a monitored information table 28, a site acquisition information table 29, and an update history information table 30, as shown in FIG.

[0044] Site information acquisition program 21 is a program having a function of executing a process (hereinafter referred to as a site information acquisition process) for acquiring page data of each web page within a monitoring range of a monitoring target website designated in advance by a user. Site information acquisition program 21 stores the acquired page data of each web page in site information table 27 as site information.

[0045] Site information analysis program 22 is a program that has the function of executing a process (hereinafter referred to as site information analysis process) that analyzes the site information stored in site information table 27 and extracts all URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of other web pages within the monitoring range that are linked to each web page whose page data has been acquired by site information acquisition program 21. Site information analysis program 22 stores the URLs of each extracted web page in monitoring target information table 28.

[0046] The site information acquisition program 21 accesses the web page at the next depth (next layer) within the monitoring range based on the URL extracted by the site information analysis program 22, and acquires the page data of that web page.

[0047] Difference detection program 23 is a program that has the function of comparing page data of the same Web page acquired by site information acquisition program 21 on two different dates and times, and executing a process of detecting the difference between the two pieces of page data (hereinafter referred to as difference detection process). Difference detection program 23 stores the detected difference in update history information table 30 as history information of updates to the Web page made between the two dates and times (hereinafter referred to as update history information).

[0048] The scheduler program 24 is a program that has the function of notifying the Web page monitoring program 20 of the execution timing of the above-mentioned site information acquisition process, site information analysis process, and difference detection process so that these processes are executed at a predetermined monitoring period.

[0049] The web page monitoring program 20 is a program that has the function of controlling the site information acquisition program 21, the site information analysis program 22, and the difference detection program 23 so that they each execute the above-mentioned site information acquisition process, site information analysis process, or difference detection process at the execution timing notified by the scheduler program 24.

[0050] Furthermore, the screen operation program 25 is a program having a function of visually displaying the update history information detected by the difference detection program 23 as described above on the output device 16 in response to a request from the user. In practice, the screen operation program 25 generates various screens, which will be described later with reference to Figures 7 to 10, in response to user operations and displays them on the output device 16.

[0051] Meanwhile, the setting information table 26 is a table used to store and retain the above-mentioned monitored websites, the monitoring range and monitoring cycle for the monitored websites, and the like, which have been set in advance by the user, and as shown in Fig. 2, is configured with a starting URL column 26A, a monitoring range column 26B, a monitoring start time column 26C, a monitoring cycle column 26D, and a previous timing column 26E. In the setting information table 26, one entry (column) corresponds to the monitoring range of one monitored website. Therefore, if there are multiple monitored websites, multiple entries will be provided.

[0052] The origin URL field 26A stores the URL of the origin web page of the corresponding monitored website set by the user, and the monitoring range field 26B stores the depth of the monitoring range starting from the origin web page.

[0053] The monitoring start time field 26C stores the first time when monitoring of the monitored website is to begin, and the monitoring cycle field 26D stores the monitoring cycle for the monitored website. The previous timing field 26E stores the date and time (date and time of acquisition) when site information (page data for each web page within the monitoring range) was previously acquired from the monitored website.

[0054] Therefore, in the example of Figure 2, the monitoring range of the monitored website set by the user is the group of web pages starting from the web page with the URL "https: / / root.com" up to a depth of "2", and the user has pre-set that monitoring of the monitored website should start at "4:00", and thereafter site information should be obtained from the monitored website every "1440" seconds, and the last time site information was obtained was at "2023 / 08 / 25 18:00:00".

[0055] Site information table 27 is a table used to accumulate and store site information (page data of each web page in the monitoring range) of monitored websites acquired by site information acquisition program 21, and as shown in Fig. 3, is configured with an acquisition date and time column 27A, a URL column 27B, a depth column 27C, and a file entity column 27D. In site information table 27, one entry (row) corresponds to page data of one web page in the monitoring range acquired at one acquisition timing of the monitoring cycle.

[0056] The URL column 27B stores the URL of the corresponding web page, the file entity column 27D stores the file of the page data of that web page, the acquisition date / time column 27A stores the date and time when the page data of that web page was acquired, and the depth column 27C stores the depth of that web page from the corresponding origin web page.

[0057] Therefore, in the example of Figure 3, the site information table 27 stores file data of a file that stores page data of a web page (originating web page) with a URL of "https: / / root.com," which is the starting point (depth of "0") of the corresponding monitored website, file data of a file that stores page data of a web page with a URL of "https: / / 1-1.com," which is a depth of "1" from the starting web page, and file data of a file that stores page data of a web page with a URL of "https: / / 1-2.com," which is a depth of "1" from the starting web page, and it shows that the page data of these web pages were all obtained on "2023 / 08 / 25 18:00:00."

[0058] The monitored target information table 28 is a table used to store and manage the URLs of each web page within the monitoring range extracted from each web page of the monitored target website by the site information analysis program 22, and as shown in Fig. 4, is configured with a URL column 28A, a depth column 28B, an acquisition source URL column 28C, and an acquisition date and time column 28D. In the monitored target information table 28, one entry (row) corresponds to the URL of one web page within the monitoring range extracted from the web pages of the corresponding monitored target website.

[0059] The URL field 28A stores the URL of the corresponding web page, and the depth field 28B stores the depth of the web page from the corresponding starting web page. The source URL field 28C stores the URL of the web page from which the site information analysis program 22 acquired the URL of the web page, and the acquisition date and time field 28D stores the date and time when the site information analysis program 22 acquired the URL of the corresponding web page.

[0060] Therefore, in the example of Figure 4, for example, the URL "https: / / 2-2.com" extracted by the site information analysis program 22 as the URL of a web page within the monitoring range is the URL of a web page that is "2" deep from the starting web page, and is shown to have been obtained from the web page with the URL "https: / / 1-1.com" at "2023 / 08 / 25 18:00:04".

[0061] Site acquisition information table 29 is a table used to manage acquired site information by acquisition timing, and is created sequentially for each acquisition timing. As shown in Fig. 5, this site acquisition information table 29 is configured with a URL column 29A, a depth column 29B, a file entity column 29C, and an acquisition date / time column 29D, and corresponds to the acquisition timing at which the stored site information was acquired. In site acquisition information table 29, one entry (row) corresponds to page data of one web page in the monitoring range acquired at the corresponding acquisition timing.

[0062] The URL field 29A stores the URL of the corresponding web page, the file entity field 29C stores the page data file of that web page acquired at the corresponding acquisition timing, the depth field 29B stores the depth of that web page from the corresponding origin web page, and the acquisition date and time field 29D stores the date and time when the corresponding site information was acquired.

[0063] Therefore, Figure 5 is an example of a site acquisition information table 29 that stores site information for monitored websites acquired at "2023 / 08 / 25 18:00:00," and shows that it stores file data for a file that stores page data for a web page (originating web page) with a URL of "https: / / root.com," which is the starting point (depth of "0"), file data for a file that stores page data for a web page with a URL of "https: / / 1-1.com," which is at a depth of "1" from this starting web page, and file data for a file that stores page data for a web page with a URL of "https: / / 1-2.com," which is at a depth of "1" from the starting web page.

[0064] The update history information table 30 is a table used to store and retain, as update history information, differences in the content of the same Web page acquired at two different acquisition times (dates and times) detected by the difference detection program 23, and is configured with a URL column 30A, an acquisition time 1 column 30B, an acquisition time 2 column 30C, a difference type column 30D, and a difference target column 30E, as shown in Fig. 6. In the update history information table 30, one entry (row) corresponds to one piece of update history information for one Web page.

[0065] The URL column 30A stores the URL of the corresponding web page, and the acquisition timing 1 column 30B and acquisition timing 2 column 30C store one or the other of the two dates and times when the difference in the content of the web page was detected, respectively.

[0066] The difference type column 30D stores the type of difference in the content of the corresponding web page acquired at the date and time stored in the acquisition timing 1 column 30B and the acquisition timing 2 column 30C, respectively, detected by the difference detection program 23. The "difference type" here includes "text added" where text is added, "text deleted" where text is deleted, "image added" where an image is added, and "image deleted" where an image is deleted.

[0067] Furthermore, the difference target column 30E stores the specific content of the corresponding part of the difference (that is, part or all of the text that has been added or deleted, or an image file, etc.).

[0068] Therefore, in the example of Figure 6, for example, the differences between the content obtained at "20230825180000" and the content obtained at "20230826180000" for a web page with the URL "https: / / root.com" are the addition of the sentence "However, in the above case..." ("Sentence Added"), the deletion of an image with the file name "qwerty.jpg" ("Image Deleted"), the deletion of the sentence "Therefore,..." ("Sentence Deleted"), and the addition of an image with the file name "Asdfg.jpg" ("Image Added").

[0069] (3) Screen layout Next, we will explain the configuration of various screens that are displayed on output device 16 of Web page update management device 2 by screen operation program 25 (Fig. 1) in response to user operations. Fig. 7 shows target Web page selection screen 40 that is displayed on output device 16 by performing a predetermined operation on input device 15 of Web page update management device 2.

[0070] This target web page selection screen 40 is a screen for selecting a web page whose update history is to be displayed, etc. In practice, the target web page selection screen 40 is configured with a web page list display area 41, a screen selection area 42, and a next button 43.

[0071] A web page list 44 showing the URLs of each web page in the monitoring range registered in the monitoring target information table 28 (FIG. 4) and the titles of these web pages is displayed in the web page list display area 41. The titles of the web pages displayed at this time are extracted from the HTML headers of the corresponding web pages and used.

[0072] In the Web page list display area 41, the user can select a desired Web page as the Web page for which the update history should be displayed by clicking on the row corresponding to the desired Web page from among the Web pages whose URLs are listed in the Web page list 44. The entry (row) corresponding to the selected Web page is then colored in a predetermined color.

[0073] In addition, the screen selection area 42 displays two character strings 45A and 45B, "Update History" and "Compare Two," corresponding to the update history list screen 50, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 8, and the acquisition timing selection screen 60, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 9, respectively, which are prepared in advance as options for the screen to be displayed on the output device 16 after the target web page selection screen 40.

[0074] Furthermore, toggle buttons 46A, 46B are provided in the screen selection area 42 so as to correspond to the two character strings 45A, 45B, respectively. Then, by clicking on the toggle button 46A, 46B corresponding to a desired option among these toggle buttons 46A, 46B to transition the display form of the toggle button 46A, 46B to a selected state, the option corresponding to the character string 45A, 45B can be selected.

[0075] On the target web page selection screen 40, in the web page list display area 41, a desired web page is selected from among the web pages whose URLs are listed in the web page list 44, and in the screen selection area 42, the desired screen is selected by clicking the toggle button 46A, 46B corresponding to that screen, and then the next button 43 is clicked, whereby the update history list screen 50 shown in FIG. 8 (if "Update history" is selected) or the acquisition timing selection screen 60 shown in FIG. 9 (if "Compare two" is selected) is displayed on the output device 16 in place of the target web page selection screen 40.

[0076] The update history list screen 50 is a screen for displaying the difference between the page data acquired at the most recent acquisition timing and the page data acquired at the acquisition timing immediately before that for the web page selected in the web page list 44 on the target web page selection screen 40 (hereinafter referred to as the selected web page), and is configured with an update history list 51, as shown in Figure 8.

[0077] The update history list 51 lists the content of the difference between the two page data ("subject of difference" in Figure 8), the type of difference ("type of difference" in Figure 8), and the dates and times when these two pieces of site information were acquired ("acquisition timing 1" and "acquisition timing 2" in Figure 8) as a set.

[0078] This information is extracted from each entry in the update history information table 30 (Figure 6) in which the URL of the selected web page is stored in the URL column 30A, and in which the date and time of the most recent acquisition timing is stored in the Acquisition timing 2 column 30C and the date and time of the acquisition timing immediately before that is stored in the Acquisition timing 1 column 30B.

[0079] Thus, based on this update history list 51, the user can recognize the content of updates made to the selected web page between the two most recent times that site information about the selected web page was acquired.

[0080] On the other hand, the acquisition timing selection screen 60 is a screen for selecting two acquisition timings for detecting a difference in page data for a web page (selected web page) selected in the web page list 44 of the target web page selection screen 40. This acquisition timing selection screen 60 is configured with an acquisition timing list 61 and a comparison execution button 62.

[0081] The acquisition timing list 61 is composed of a date and time column 61A and a selection column 61B. The date and time column 61A stores the date and time of each acquisition timing at which a change was confirmed among the acquisition timings at which page data of the selected web page was acquired. Note that such acquisition timing corresponds to the acquisition timing stored in the acquisition timing 2 column 30C of the entry in which the URL of the selected web page is stored in the URL column 30A of the update history information table 30 (FIG. 6). Each selection column 61B also has a check box 61C.

[0082] On the acquisition timing selection screen 60, by selecting two desired entries by clicking the check boxes 61C of the two desired entries from among the check boxes 61C provided in the selection column 61B of each entry (row) of the acquisition timing list 61, the dates and times corresponding to the two entries can be selected as two different acquisition timings for detecting the difference in page data. At this time, a check mark (not shown) is displayed in the check box of the selected entry.

[0083] Furthermore, on acquisition timing selection screen 60, by clicking comparison execution button 62, it is possible to cause the Web page update management device 2 to compare the page data of the selected Web page acquired at the two acquisition timings selected as described above (detect the difference between these two pieces of page data). Thus, when the comparison is completed in the Web page update management device 2, a comparison result screen 70 as shown in FIG. 10 showing the results of the comparison executed at this time is displayed on the output device 16 of the Web page update management device 2 in place of acquisition timing selection screen 60.

[0084] This comparison result screen 70 is a screen for displaying the comparison results (differences) of the page data acquired for the selected web page at the two dates and times selected on the acquisition timing selection screen 60 as described above, and is configured with a difference list 71.

[0085] The contents of all the detected differences ("subject to difference" in FIG. 10) and the type of difference ("type of difference" in FIG. 10) are listed as a set in difference list 71. Based on this difference list 71, the user can recognize the contents of updates made to the selected web page between the two dates and times selected on acquisition timing selection screen 60.

[0086] (4) Various processes executed in relation to the web page monitoring function Next, we will explain the specific processing contents of the various processes that are executed in the Web page update management device 2 in relation to the above-mentioned Web page monitoring function. Note that, although the processing entities of the various processes will be explained below as programs, it goes without saying that in reality, the processing is executed by the calculation unit 10 (FIG. 1) of the Web page update management device 2 based on the programs.

[0087] (4-1) Web page monitoring process 11 shows a specific flow of a series of processes (hereinafter referred to as Web page monitoring process) executed in the Web page update management device 2 in relation to the Web page monitoring function of this embodiment. This Web page monitoring process starts at the monitoring cycle set by the user when the monitoring start time arrives after the user has made the various settings described above with reference to FIG.

[0088] When this web page monitoring process starts, the web page monitoring program 20 (FIG. 1) first reads the URL of the origin web page of the monitored website, the monitoring range, and the previous timing from the setting information table 26 (FIG. 2) (S1). The web page monitoring program 20 also sets the current date and time to a variable T (S2).

[0089] Next, the Web page monitoring program 20 stores the URL of the origin Web page obtained in step S1 in the URL column 28A (FIG. 4) of the unused first row entry of the monitoring target information table 28 (S3), and stores "0" in the depth column 28B of that entry (S4).

[0090] Next, the Web page monitoring program 20 sets the value of the variable J, which indicates the depth, to "0" (S4), and then calls the site information acquisition program 21 (FIG. 1).

[0091] When the site information acquisition program 21 is called by the web page monitoring program 20, it accesses all web pages whose depth is the current variable J, acquires the page data of the web pages, and executes a site information acquisition process to register the files of each acquired page data in the site information table 27 (S5).

[0092] Furthermore, when the site information acquisition process by the site information acquisition program 21 ends, the Web page monitoring program 20 calls the site information analysis program 22 (FIG. 1).

[0093] When called by the Web page monitoring program 20, the site information analysis program 22 refers to the site information table 27, and based on the page data of each Web page acquired by the site information acquisition program 21 in step S5, extracts all URLs of linked Web pages contained in these Web pages, and executes a site information analysis process to register the necessary information, including the extracted URLs, in the monitored information table 28 (S6).

[0094] When the site information analysis process by the site information analysis program 22 ends, the Web page monitoring program 20 increments the value of the variable J (by "1") (S7), and determines whether the value of the variable J is within the monitoring range acquired in step S1 (S8). If the Web page monitoring program 20 obtains a positive result in this determination, it returns to step S5.

[0095] Thus, thereafter, the processing of steps S5 to S8 is repeated in the same manner as described above until a negative result is obtained in step S8. Then, each time the processing of steps S5 to S8 is performed, the depth of the Web page from which site information acquisition program 21 acquires page data increases by "1" from the origin Web page.

[0096] If the Web page monitoring program 20 obtains a negative result in step S8 because the value of variable J eventually becomes greater than the depth set by the user as the monitoring range, it deletes entries with duplicate URLs so that there are no duplicate URLs registered in the URL column 28A of the monitored information table 28 (S9).

[0097] Next, the Web page monitoring program 20 extracts the entries of the site information table 27 (Figure 3) by acquisition timing, and generates a site acquisition information table 29 for each acquisition timing that stores the information of each extracted entry, corresponding to the date and time of the acquisition timing (S10).

[0098] Next, the Web page monitoring program 20 selects one entry that has not been processed in step S12 from the entries in the monitoring target information table 28 (S11).The Web page monitoring program 20 then calls the difference detection program 23 (FIG. 1).

[0099] When the difference detection program 23 is called by the Web page monitoring program 20, it executes a difference detection process (S12) to detect the difference between the page data obtained in the previous Web page monitoring process and the page data obtained in the current Web page monitoring process for the Web page whose URL is stored in the URL column 28A (Figure 4) of the entry selected by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S11.

[0100] Thereafter, the difference detection program 23 determines (S13) whether or not the difference detection process of step S12 has been executed for all entries in the monitoring target information table 28. If a negative result is obtained in this determination, the process returns to step S11, and thereafter the process of steps S11 to S13 is repeated while the entry selected in step S11 is successively switched to another entry that has not been processed in step S12.

[0101] When the difference detection program 23 eventually completes the difference detection process in step S12 for all entries in the monitoring target information table 28 and obtains a positive result in step S13, it calls the Web page monitoring program 20.

[0102] When the Web page monitoring program 20 is called by the difference detection program 23, it updates the value stored in the previous timing column 26E of the setting information table 26 (FIG. 2) to the current value of the variable T (S14). After this, the series of processes ends. This completes the current Web page monitoring process.

[0103] (4-2) Site information acquisition process FIG. 12 shows the flow of the site information acquisition process executed by the site information acquisition program 21 called by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S5 of the above-described Web page monitoring process.

[0104] When called by Web page monitoring program 20, site information acquisition program 21 starts the site information acquisition process shown in Fig. 12, and first receives the value of variable j that indicates the currently targeted depth, given as an argument from Web page monitoring program 20 (S20). Then, site information acquisition program 21 extracts all entries with a depth of "j" from among the entries in monitoring target information table 28 (Fig. 4) (S21).

[0105] Next, site information acquisition program 21 selects one target entry that has not been processed in step S23 or later from among the entries extracted in step S21 (hereinafter referred to as target entries in the description of FIG. 12) (S22). Site information acquisition program 21 also accesses the web page of the URL stored in URL column 28A (FIG. 4) of the target entry selected in step S22, and acquires the page data of that web page as site information (S23).

[0106] Next, site information acquisition program 21 determines whether site information (page data) of the web page was acquired in step S23 (S24). If the result of step S24 is negative because the website has moved to another URL, for example, site information acquisition program 21 proceeds to step S26.

[0107] In response to this, if the determination in step S24 is affirmative, site information acquisition program 21 registers the site information (page data) file acquired at that time and other necessary information in site information table 27 (FIG. 3) (S25).

[0108] Thereafter, the site information acquisition program 21 determines whether or not the processing of steps S23 to S25 has been completed for all of the target entries extracted in step S21 (S26).

[0109] If the site information acquisition program 21 obtains a negative result in this determination, it returns to step S22, and thereafter repeats the processes of steps S22 to S26 while sequentially switching the target entry selected in step S22 to other target entries that have not been processed in steps S23 and after. Through this repeated process, for all target entries extracted in step S21, the page data of the web pages corresponding to the target entries are sequentially registered in site information table 27 as site information.

[0110] Then, when the site information acquisition program 21 eventually completes the processing of steps S23 to S25 for all target entries extracted in step S21 and obtains a positive result in step S26, it ends this site information acquisition processing.

[0111] (4-3) Site information analysis processing On the other hand, FIG. 13 shows the flow of the site information analysis process executed by the site information analysis program 22 called by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S6 of the Web page monitoring process.

[0112] 13, and first receives the value of variable j, which indicates the currently targeted depth and is given as an argument from site information acquisition program 21 (S30). Site information analysis program 22 then extracts all entries in site information table 27 (FIG. 3) at that time that have the value "j" stored in depth column 27C (FIG. 3) (S31).

[0113] Next, the site information analysis program 22 selects one target entry that has not been processed in step S33 and subsequent steps from among the entries extracted in step S31 (hereinafter, these will be referred to as target entries in the description of FIG. 13) (S32).

[0114] Furthermore, site information analysis program 22 refers to site information table 27 and determines whether or not a file of page data of the Web page corresponding to the target entry selected in step S31 is stored in file entity column 27D (FIG. 3) of the target entry (S33). If site information analysis program 22 obtains a negative result in this determination, it proceeds to step S36.

[0115] In response to this, if the determination in step S33 is affirmative, site information analysis program 22 extracts all URLs of other web pages that are linked to the web page based on the file stored in file entity column 27D of the target entry (S34). Then, site information analysis program 22 registers each of the URLs extracted in step S34 (hereinafter referred to as extracted URLs) in monitoring target information table 28 (FIG. 4) (S35).

[0116] Specifically, site information analysis program 22 secures an unused row in monitoring target information table 28 for each extracted URL. Then, site information analysis program 22 stores the value of the corresponding target URL in URL column 28A (FIG. 4) of the secured row, and stores (j+1) in depth column 28B (FIG. 4) of that row. Site information analysis program 22 also stores the URL stored in URL column 28A of the target entry in acquisition source URL column 28C (FIG. 4) of that row, and stores the current time in acquisition date and time column 28D (FIG. 4) of that row.

[0117] Thereafter, the site information analysis program 22 determines whether or not the processing of steps S33 to S35 has been completed for all the target entries extracted in step S31 (S36).

[0118] If the site information analysis program 22 obtains a negative result in this determination, it returns to step S32, and thereafter repeats the processing of steps S32 to S36 while sequentially switching the target entry selected in step S32 to other target entries that have not been processed in steps S33 and after. Through this repeated processing, the URLs of other sites that are linked to the web pages corresponding to each target entry extracted in step S31 are sequentially registered in the monitoring target information table 28.

[0119] Then, when the site information analysis program 22 eventually completes the processing of steps S33 to S35 for all target entries extracted in step S31 and obtains a positive result in step S36, it ends this site information analysis processing.

[0120] (4-4) Difference detection process FIG. 14 shows the flow of the difference detection process executed by the difference detection program 23 called by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S12 of the Web page monitoring process described above.

[0121] When the difference detection program 23 is called by the Web page monitoring program 20, it starts the difference detection process shown in Figure 14, and first receives the value of the variable T given as an argument from the Web page monitoring program 20, the string U of the URL currently being targeted, and the variable P representing the date and time when the page data of the Web page at that URL was obtained (S40).

[0122] In this case, the value of variable T is the current date and time set by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S2 of the Web page monitoring process of Fig. 11, and the value of character string U is the URL character string stored in the URL column 28A of the entry in the monitoring target information table 28 (Fig. 4) selected by the Web page monitoring program 20 in step S11 of the Web page monitoring process of Fig. 11. The value of variable P is the date and time stored in the acquisition date and time column 28D (Fig. 4) of that entry.

[0123] Next, the difference detection program 23 identifies an entry from the entries of the site acquisition information table 29 (FIG. 5) in which the value of the variable T acquired in step S40 is stored in the acquisition date and time column 29D and the character string U acquired in step S40 is stored in the URL column 29A, and reads out the file E stored in the file entity column 29C of that entry (S41).

[0124] The difference detection program 23 also identifies an entry from the entries of the site acquisition information table 29 in which the value of the variable P acquired in step S40 is stored in the acquisition date and time column 29D and the character string U is stored in the URL column 29A, and reads out the file F stored in the file entity column 29C of that entry (S42).

[0125] Next, the difference detection program 23 determines whether or not file E was acquired in step S41 (S43). If the result of this determination is negative, the difference detection program 23 determines whether or not file F was acquired in step S42 (S44). If the result of this determination is negative, the difference detection program 23 ends this difference detection process.

[0126] In contrast, if the difference detection program 23 obtains a positive result in the judgment of step S44, it determines that the web page at the URL obtained in step S40 has been deleted between the last time the web page monitoring process of Figure 11 was performed and the current time it is performed, and records this fact in the update history information table 30 (Figure 6) (S45).

[0127] Specifically, difference detection program 23 reserves one unused row in update history information table 30, and stores the character string U in URL column 30A (FIG. 6) of that row, the value of variable T in acquisition timing 1 column 30B (FIG. 6), and the value of variable P in acquisition timing 2 column 30C (FIG. 6). Difference detection program 23 also stores "deleted" as the difference type in difference type column 30D (FIG. 6) of that row, and stores "entire file," which indicates that the entire Web page was deleted, in difference target column 30E. Difference detection program 23 then terminates this difference detection process.

[0128] On the other hand, if the difference detection program 23 obtains a positive result in the determination in step S43, it determines whether or not file F was acquired in step S42 (S46). If the difference detection program 23 obtains a negative result in this determination, it determines that the Web page was newly created between the previous and current executions of the Web page monitoring process in Fig. 11, and records this fact in the update history information table 30 (S47).

[0129] Specifically, difference detection program 23 reserves one unused row in update history information table 30 and stores character string U in URL column 30A of that row. Difference detection program 23 also stores the value of variable T in acquisition timing 1 column 30B of that row and the value of variable P in acquisition timing 2 column 30C of that row. Difference detection program 23 then stores "new" as the difference type in difference type column 30D of that row, and stores "entire file," indicating that the entire Web page was added, in difference target column 30E of that row. Difference detection program 23 then terminates this difference detection process.

[0130] On the other hand, if the determination in step S46 is affirmative, difference detection program 23 compares the Web page based on file E with the Web page based on file F and extracts the differences between them (S48). Note that any existing difference extraction method can be widely applied as the difference extraction method in this case. Then, difference detection program 23 registers each of the extracted differences in update history information table 30 (S49).

[0131] Specifically, difference detection program 23 reserves one unused row in update history information table 30 for each difference extracted in step S48, and stores character string U in URL column 30A of that row, the value of variable T in acquisition timing 1 column 30B, and the value of variable P in acquisition timing 2 column 30C. Furthermore, difference detection program 23 stores a difference type of "text added," "text deleted," "image added," or "image deleted" in the difference type column of that row depending on the content of the difference extracted in step S48, and further stores the text data of the text or image data of the image that is the difference in difference target column 30E of that row.

[0132] Then, the difference detection program 23 thereafter ends this difference detection process.

[0133] (4-5) Comparison process On the other hand, Figure 15 shows the flow of a series of processes (hereinafter referred to as comparison processes) executed by the difference detection program 23 when, after a target web page is selected in the web page list 44 (Figure 7) of the target web page selection screen 40 described above with reference to Figure 7, the option "Compare two" is selected in the screen selection area 42 (Figure 7) and the Next button 43 (Figure 7) is clicked, and as a result, two acquisition dates and times to be compared are selected on the acquisition timing selection screen 60 (Figure 9) displayed on the output device 16 (Figure 1) and the comparison execution button 62 (Figure 9) is clicked.

[0134] 7 to 10 are actually created by screen operation program 25 (FIG. 1) in response to user operations, and are displayed while being switched appropriately on output device 16 of Web page update management device 2. Then, when the user clicks comparison execution button 62 after the series of operations described above, screen operation program 25 notifies Web page monitoring program 20 of this, and upon receiving this notification, Web page monitoring program 20 calls difference detection program 23.

[0135] When the difference detection program 23 is called by the Web page monitoring program 20 in this manner, it starts the comparison process shown in FIG. 15, and first receives two variables X and Y, each representing a date and time, and the character string Z of the URL being targeted at that time, which are given as arguments from the screen operation program 25 (S50).

[0136] In this case, the values ​​of variables X and Y are the two dates and times selected by the user on the acquisition timing selection screen 60 described above with reference to FIG. 9, and the value of string Z is the URL string of the web page selected by the user on the web page list 44 (FIG. 7) of the target web page selection screen 40 (FIG. 7) that was displayed on the output device 16 before the acquisition timing selection screen 60.

[0137] Next, the difference detection program 23 identifies an entry from among the entries in the site acquisition information table 29 (FIG. 5) in which the value of the variable X acquired in step S50 is stored in the acquisition date and time column 29D (FIG. 5) and the character string Z acquired in step S is stored in the URL column 29A (FIG. 5), and reads out the file G stored in the file entity column 29C (FIG. 5) of that entry (S51).

[0138] The difference detection program 23 also identifies an entry from the entries of the site acquisition information table 29 in which the value of the variable Y acquired in step S50 is stored in the acquisition date and time column 29D and the character string Z is stored in the URL column 29A, and reads out the file H stored in the file entity column 29C of that entry (S52).

[0139] Next, the difference detection program 23 determines whether or not file G was acquired in step S51 (S53). If the result of this determination is negative, the difference detection program 23 determines whether or not file H was acquired in step S42 (S54). If the result of this determination is negative, the difference detection program 23 ends this comparison process.

[0140] In contrast, if the difference detection program 23 obtains a positive result in the judgment of step S44, it determines that the web page of URL (Z) acquired in step S50 has been deleted between the last time the web page monitoring process of Figure 11 was performed and the current time it is performed, and stores update history information to that effect in memory 11 (Figure 1) (S55).

[0141] Specifically, the difference detection program 23 generates update history information with the target URL as Z, acquisition timing 1 as X, acquisition timing 2 as Y, the type of difference deleted, and the target of the difference as the entire file, and stores this information in the memory 11. Then, the difference detection program 23 then ends this comparison process.

[0142] On the other hand, if the difference detection program 23 obtains a positive result in the determination in step S53, it determines whether or not file H was acquired in step S52 (S56). If the difference detection program 23 obtains a negative result in this determination, it determines that the Web page was newly created between the previous execution of the Web page monitoring process in Fig. 11 and the current execution of the process, and stores update history information to that effect in memory 11 (S57).

[0143] Specifically, the difference detection program 23 generates update history information with the target URL as Z, acquisition timing 1 as X, acquisition timing 2 as Y, the type of difference as new, and the target of the difference as the entire file, and stores this information in the memory 11. Then, the difference detection program 23 ends this comparison process.

[0144] On the other hand, if the determination in step S56 is affirmative, difference detection program 23 extracts the differences between the Web page based on file G and the Web page based on file H (S58). Note that any existing difference extraction method can be widely applied as the difference extraction method in this case. Then, difference detection program 23 stores each of the extracted differences in memory 11 as change history information (S59).

[0145] Specifically, for each difference extracted in step S58, the difference detection program generates update history information in which the URL is Z, acquisition timing 1 is X, acquisition timing 2 is Y, the type of difference is "text added," "text deleted," "image added," or "image deleted," and the target of the difference is the corresponding text or image, and stores this information in memory 11. Then, difference detection program 23 terminates this comparison process.

[0146] Thereafter, based on the update history information stored in memory 11 in step S55, step S57 or step S59 as described above, the comparison result screen 70 described above in relation to Figure 10 is generated by the screen operation program 25 and displayed on the output device 16 of the Web page update management device 2.

[0147] (5) Effects of this embodiment As described above, the Web page update management device 2 of this embodiment periodically acquires and stores page data for each Web page within the monitoring range of the monitored Web site, and based on the page data acquired for the same Web page at two different dates and times, extracts the updates to that Web page that were made between these two dates and times as update history information, and presents the extracted update history information to the user.

[0148] Therefore, according to the present web page update management device 2, there is no need to manually check whether a web page has been updated, and web page updates can be managed so that the user can easily and quickly check the update history of the web page.

[0149] (6) Other embodiments In the above embodiment, the web page update management device 2 is described as being configured from a single computer device, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the web page update management device 2 may also be configured from multiple computer devices that make up a distributed computing system.

[0150] In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the web page update management device 2 is described as periodically (regularly) acquiring page data for each web page within the monitoring range of the monitored website, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the page data for each web page within the monitoring range of the monitored website may also be acquired irregularly.

[0151] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the information acquisition unit that acquires information about each web page within the monitoring range periodically or irregularly is configured using the site information acquisition program 21 and the site information analysis program 22, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the site information acquisition program 21 and the site information analysis program 22 may be configured as a single information acquisition program.

[0152] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the screen operation program 25, which serves as a display unit that displays the differences detected by the difference detection unit, is configured to display the target Web page selection screen 40, update history list screen 50, acquisition timing selection screen 60, and comparison result screen 70 described above with reference to Figures 7 to 10 in response to user operations. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the screen configurations of the target Web page selection screen 40, update history list screen 50, acquisition timing selection screen 60, and comparison result screen 70 may be other than those shown in Figures 7 to 10. [Industrial Applicability]

[0153] The present invention can be widely applied to various types of web page update management devices for managing updates to web pages. [Explanation of symbols]

[0154] 1...Web page update management system, 2...Web page update management device, 3...Web server, 10...Calculation unit, 16...Output device, 20...Web page monitoring program, 21...Site information acquisition program, 22...Site information analysis program, 23...Difference detection program, 24...Scheduler program, 25...Screen operation program, 26...Setting information table, 27...Site information table, 28...Monitoring target information table, 29...Site acquisition information table, 30...Update history information table, 40...Target web page selection screen, 50...Update history list screen, 60...Acquisition timing selection screen, 70...Comparison result screen.

Claims

1. A web page update management device that manages updates to web pages, an information acquisition unit that periodically or irregularly acquires information about each of the web pages within a monitoring range; a difference detection unit that compares the information acquired by the information acquisition unit at two different times for the specified web page within a monitoring range and detects a difference; a display unit that displays the difference detected by the difference detection unit; A web page update management device comprising:

2. The monitoring range of the web page is: The web page is designated by setting the web page as the starting point and the depth from the web page. The information acquisition unit The information of the web page that is the starting point within the monitoring range is acquired, the acquired information is analyzed, and the URLs of other web pages that are linked to the web page are extracted. Information on each of the web pages within the monitoring range from which the URLs have been extracted is acquired, the acquired information on the web page is analyzed, and the URLs of other web pages within the monitoring range that are linked to the web page are extracted. This process is repeated up to the depth set as the monitoring range, thereby acquiring information on all of the web pages within the monitoring range.

2. The web page update management device according to claim 1, wherein:

3. The two different timings are: The information acquisition unit acquired the information on the web page two times in the past.

2. The web page update management device according to claim 1, wherein:

4. The two different timings are: Any two timings designated by the user among the timings at which the information acquisition unit acquires the information on the web page.

2. The web page update management device according to claim 1, wherein:

5. The display unit As the difference detected by the difference detection unit, the content of the relevant portion and the type of difference are displayed.

2. The web page update management device according to claim 1, wherein:

6. A management method executed by a web page update management device that manages updates to web pages, comprising: a first step of periodically or irregularly acquiring information about each of the web pages within a monitoring range; a second step of comparing the information acquired at two different times for the specified web page within a monitoring range to detect a difference; a third step of displaying the detected difference; A web page update management method comprising:

7. The monitoring range of the web page is: The web page is designated by setting the web page as the starting point and the depth from the web page. In the first step, the web page update management device The information of the web page that is the starting point within the monitoring range is acquired, the acquired information is analyzed, and the URLs of other web pages that are linked to the web page are extracted. Information on each of the web pages within the monitoring range from which the URLs have been extracted is acquired, the acquired information on the web page is analyzed, and the URLs of other web pages within the monitoring range that are linked to the web page are extracted. This process is repeated up to the depth set as the monitoring range, thereby acquiring information on all of the web pages within the monitoring range.

7. The web page update management method according to claim 6, wherein:

8. The two different timings are: The timing of the most recent two times when the information on the web page was acquired 7. The web page update management method according to claim 6, wherein:

9. The two different timings are: Any two timings designated by the user among the timings at which the information on the web page was acquired.

7. The web page update management method according to claim 6, wherein:

10. In the third step, the web page update management device As the detected difference, the content of the relevant part and the type of difference are displayed.

7. The web page update management method according to claim 6, wherein:

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