Google’s Patent Activity
October 31, 2008
Imagine my surprise when I returned from a meeting in a dark, wet central European city to find this headline in my newsreader: “Google’s Looming Patent Hammer in the Cloud.” The article, published by Sys-Con here was picked up by CNet here in the US and ended up in a city better suited for an Alan Furst novel than an addled goose. The hook for these stories is that Google keeps plugging away at what I have called “plumbing inventions.” The “plumbing” is better known as cloud computing, and companies from Rackspace to Intel have decided that the cloud is a major weather system. Thanks to both publications for mentioning me.
I wanted to pick up this theme and add several points that I have been tracking for the better part of seven years. The background and detail for these comments appears in The Google Legacy (2005) and Google Version 2.0 (2007). I recycled some of the information in my Bear Stearns’ Google analyses and for an Outsell report or two in 2007. I don’t have copies of these to distribute, but these writings provide information about what the Googlers are inventing outside the boundaries of online advertising.
First, Google’s emphasis on infrastructure has existed for a decade, maybe longer if you include BackRub. Now that the world and the media have discovered cloud computing, in my opinion, Google’s present lead in infrastructure is old news. The key point is that companies like IBM and Microsoft who want to catch up have to shift into hyperdrive. Google has been moving forward a step at a time without much fanfare. For some companies, Google’s infrastructure lead is measured in years, maybe three or more. That’s a big lead.
Second, Google’s approach has been to trot out the lava lamps and feed visitors gourmet food. The buzz about Google’s ad revenue keeps most analysts for asking the key question, “How does Google get stuff out the door so quickly and display results in less than a second for a user in an Internet cafe in Albania?”
Third, Google does not have as many patents as other companies. I recall that someone told me that IBM and Intel file thousands of patent applications each year. Google files hundreds. One of my duller pastimes is indexing and classifying Google technology. What I documented in Google Version 2.0 is that the company has some tidy clusters of innovation that are useful in understanding what the plumbing can do. In my new monograph about Google and publishing, I will describe some of the “in the wild” glimpses of this functionality. The key point is that Google patents significant inventions; that is, the company is not patent promiscuous, a charge that might be leveled at some other firms’ patent strategies. Therefore, knowing what Google puts in its patent documents is to me interesting. Your mileage may vary.
I am delighted that some of my research is garnering attention. For some of Google’s competitors, the information is arriving too late in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, October 31, 2008
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