May 14th, 2007
Chasing Google Patents: What's the real deal?
Word is “out” about the latest Google “plans,” so says “The Guardian,” thanks to a patent filing “scoop.”
Publicly filed Google patent applications are seductive, holding the allure of an “inside” look at what Google is REALLY up to. But alas, the very public, accessible to anyone, filings do not provide direct roadmaps to the Google future.
"Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them," the company says," and, surprisingly, may actually mean it.
The Guardian, nevertheless, is certain of Google’s intentions:
Internet giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games.
The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.
The plans are detailed in a patent filed by Google in Europe and the US last month.
Google may be on a patent tear of late, but it is also at times a redundant one. Just last month, Google filed for a U.S. patent on “Document Scoring Based on Document Inception Date,” very similar though to a patent application two years ago: “Information retrieval based on historical data."
At the time, in a post titled, “Don’t believe the hype,” GoogleRank said:
We know, and you know, that when a big company (whose copyrighted unique technology is studied, analyzed, debated) files a patent, it is mainly for misleading competitors rather than revealing its secrets.
You don't need to place a copyright on something that nobody can really understand, copy and steal. On something like Google Algorithm, for example (with exception of Pagerank, which has been patented).
Therefore: don't take this Patent (made public on March 2005) as the greatest Google revelation ever. This Patent seems to describe a stereotyped, predictable, standard spamming activity, then the way Google robots are set up to prevent it. Many parts of this patent reveal its misleading intentions rather than true technical issues. It all seems to be realistic and logical.
Turn on your brain, read it twice and you'll feel a strange smell of fried air all around…
Google is known for its culinary skills. Perhaps it has a “short order” patent chef!
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