A high-speed information collection utilizing a meta-information
management unit which manages update information pertaining to documents
which are retrieved by web robots. An information presentation apparatus,
an information collection apparatus including a web robot, and a client
are connected via a network. The information presentation apparatus
presents document information stored in a document storage unit to an
information collection apparatus. The information presentation apparatus
has a meta-information management unit, which generates update
information pertaining to individual documents, and a meta-information
table which records the update information. When the web robot makes a
collection request to the information presentation apparatus, the
meta-information management unit references the meta-information table
and generates a list of updated documents from all of the stored
documents and/or collection targets, and presents the list to the web
which subsequently retrieves only the updated documents.
