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Google offers patent search service, Web site registry

Google was live on Thursday with a service enabling Internet users to search through the more than 7 million patents granted in the US.

The beta, or test, version of Google Patent Search lets people sift through patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office as long ago as 1790 by using inventors' names, filing dates, patent numbers or key words.

Searches return information about the inventor and provide patent details online page-by-page.

"We've all heard about the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell -- famous inventors whose creative minds changed the course of history," Google software engineer Doug Banks wrote in a company weblog.

"But there are many more like them and millions of inventions ... from useful everyday items such as adhesive tape and contact lenses to, er, things useful in specific situations, like this shark protector suit or this amusement device incorporating simulated cheese and mice," Banks wrote.

Google Patent Search uses much of the same technology that powers the Mountain View, California-based company's online book search service, so users can scroll pages and zoom in on text and illustrations.

Meanwhile, Google yesterday joined the crowded field of services registering Web site addresses in a move aimed at encouraging more usage of the online search leader's free software products.

The company is offering its latest service in a partnership with GoDaddy.com and eNom, two of the many administrators that help Web sites officially register their names under domains like ".com" and "net."

Google's service will charge a US$10 annual fee and only handle addresses ending in four suffixes -- ".com," ".net," ".biz" and ".info." There are more than 250 other suffixes in the Internet's master directories.

Web sites that register their domains through Google will be automatically set up to work with several other company products, including e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging. The configuration won't prevent the Web sites from using services offered by Google rivals like Yahoo Inc, Microsoft Corp and Time Warner Inc's AOL.
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