Google’s NLP in the Address Bar
July 15, 2008
The USPTO published US7401072, “Named URL Entry”. Awarded to Google, the patent discloses a system for performing natural language search on words typed in a browser’s navigation bar. The idea is that when Google Toolbar, Google ig, or a Google-friendly browser is installed on a user’s system, a user can type queries in the navigation bar, not just the search box.
How does this magic work? You will want to read the patent application. My initial thought was that the user would have have a stateful Google session running; for example, Google “ig”, Google Docs, or the Google Toolbar. As I thought about this invention, I wondered, “Will Google introduce its own browser?”
I tried to dig up some useful information about the inventors of this disclosed system and method. What I found was slim pickings. John Piscitello (former Product Manger Google Video) seems to have left the search giant. Xuefu Wang and Breen Hagan are mysteries to me. And Simon Tong, Senior Research Scientist at Google, leaves few biographical traces in content indexed by public search engines.
I find the lack of information about Dr. Tong interesting. He is mentioned in more than a dozen Google patent documents, which qualifies him as a genuine Google wizard. Dr. Tong has received several Google awards for contributions to the firm; for example, the Google Founders’ Award. He does play ping pong very well and enjoys photography. Beyond those facts and his ties to Stanford’s Daphne Koller, I don’t know much about his technical contributions to Google. He did figure as a co-inventor on what I consider a very important Google invention; namely, Large Scale Machine Learning Systems and Methods, 7222127, May 22, 2007. If you have not reviewed this patent document, a half hour with this disclosure may be helpful in understanding Google’s approach to computational intelligence.
My research suggests that when Dr. Tong’s name is on a Google patent document, that document warrants close attention. Almost as interesting is the impact of this invention if Google brings out its own browser. The notion of a walled garden exerts its charms on many because of the control it delivers along with the joys within.
Stephen Arnold, July 15, 2008
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