Google Continues Its Push to Diversification
August 17, 2011
“Google Parcel Service? Search Company Patents Electronic Shipping Notifications,” reports Geek Wire. That’s right. Google, itself a victim of the absurd patent wars, has claimed an absurd patent. Writer Todd Bishop comments,
Google’s battle against Microsoft and Apple over their use of ‘bogus’ patents promises to result in greater scrutiny of its own intellectual property holdings. And we have a hunch that Amazon.com, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and pretty much everyone else in the shipping business will be highly interested in this new addition to Google’s portfolio. The search giant this week was awarded a patent on electronic shipping notifications, of all things.
It really is as basic as it sounds. The patent abstract describes the process of sending notifications via text messages or email about the progress of a package and its expected arrival time. Patents are supposed to be awarded for novel ideas, ones we wouldn’t expect most people in an industry to conceive of. This one is just a piece of common sense.
Patent controversy aside, though, we have another observation: Google is getting farther and farther away from its roots. This may turn out okay, but maybe not. Remember Google TV?
Cynthia Murrell, August 17, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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[…] Google Continues Its Push to Diversification Beyond Search: The patent abstract describes the process of sending notifications via text messages or email about the progress of a package and its expected arrival time. […]