Google Patents, Updated | SEO by the Sea Archive

If you took a look at Google’s patent portfolio recently, you might ask yourself, “What kind of company is this?” Is it a search engine or a smartphone company, a memory module manufacturer or a server maker? Does this company own the rights to a weight loss patent titled, “Method Of Assaying Satiety Enhancing Tastants,” or is that accidentally listed by an error from the patent office?

Google acquired many patents over the past few years, either by purchase or by license. Those include a good number of phone related patents from Verizon, patents involving video and streaming data from IBM, as well as hardware-related patents from patent-holding companies. A few of the IBM patents are the kind you might license if you want to develop self-driving cars. There’s been a lot of discussion about Google’s many acquisitions of the past year, with 40 mentioned in their September 30, 2010 10-Q filing with the SEC, and a few more since then. But, Google’s acquisition of 77 granted patents from Verizon, and another 51 granted patents from IBM happened with absolutely no media attention as far as I can tell.

I’ve listed Google’s granted patents below, by category, and then by the name of the company that made the assignment of the patents to Google.

I also listed patents granted to Exaflop, which is likely owned by Google, at the bottom of this post, but I haven’t included them in the statistics below.

There are 809 granted patents listed at the USTPO under Google’s name, and there are roughly another 1,000 or so published pending patent applications for the Search Engine/Phone Company/Memory Module Maker. There are likely several unpublished patent applications that have been filed as well but haven’t been published yet.

Back in October of 2008, I published a post listing all of Google’s granted patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) assigned to the search giant. I updated the post a few times to include newer patents, and the last update was in March of 2009. At that time, there were only 187 granted patents listed as being assigned to Google. That’s a good amount of growth in a little less than a couple of years.

I’ve grouped Google’s granted patents into the following categories:

Advertising Patents (61)
Analytics (7)
Annotations Patents (1)
Audio Patents (2)
Blog Search Patents (1)
Client/Server Patents (15)
Database Management Patents (3)
Design Patents (21)
Distributed Data Patents (3)
Document Presentation Patents (1)
Duplicate Content Patents (14)
Ecommerce Patents (4)
Email and Messaging Patents (38)
Event Modeling Patents (3)
Google Book Patent (13)
Google Desktop Search Patents (13)
Google Finance Patents (1)
Google News Patents (2)
Google TV Patents (3)
Handwriting Analysis Patents (2)
Hardware Patents (57)
Image and Video Patents (80)
Intellectual Property Patents (2)
Language Conversion Patents (1)
Large File Space Indexing Patents (34)
Medical Patents (1)
Modeling and Mapping Patents (37)
Multi-Language Patents (7)
Network Patents (15)
Organizational Communciations Patents (2)
Personal Data Patents (4)
Personalized Homepage Patent (3)
Personalized Search Patents (11)
Phrase-Based Indexing Patents (13)
Radio Patents (11)
Reviews and Recommendations Patents (5)
RSS Patents (2)
Search Display Patents (30)
Search Indexing Patents (118)
Security Patents (5)
Segmentation Patents (3)
Shopping Search Patents (3)
Social Networking Patents (110)
Software Patents (3)
Vehicle Patents (11)
Virtual Machine Task Management Patents (1)
Visual Modeling (1)
Voice Search Patents (4)
Web Authoring Patents (5)
Web Spam Patents (2)
Weight Loss Patents (1)
Wireless and Mobile/Phone Patents (118)

I was also interested in seeing who assigned the patents to Google and looked that up in the USTPO assignment database, and I’ve broken the categories below into sections based upon the companies that assigned the patents to Google (or Exaflop in the last section below).

@Last Software, Inc. (1)
About, Inc. (1)
Access Co., LTD. (6)
ADC Telecommunications, Inc. (1)
Adscape Media Inc. (1)
Applied Semantics, Inc. (3)
ASML Holding N.V. (1)
Carl Meyer (5)
Disney Enterprises, Inc. (2)
DMARC Broadcasting Co. (9)
Doubleclick, Inc. (8)
Falk Esolutions GMBH (1)
Feedburner, Inc. (1)
Google (505)
Gossett and Gunter, Inc. (7)
Green Border Technologies, Inc. (4)
Groupfire, Incorporated d/b/a/ Outride, Inc. (2)
Hitachi (1)
IBM (51)
Infoseek Corporation (9)
Intel Corporation (1)
Invenda Corporation (1)
Keyhole, Inc. (1)
Klipmark Corporation (2)
McCarthy Software, Inc. (2)
Metaram, Inc. (13)
Myriad France SAS (15)
Nevengineering, Inc. (18)
ON2 Technologies, LLC (7)
Ortiz & Lopez, PLLC (1)
Peakstream Inc. (1)
Performics Inc. (1)
Peripheral Vision, LLC (1)
Postini Inc. (16)
Starwave Corporation (3)
The Duck Corporation (On2) (4)
The Weather Channel, INC. (1)
Tudor Empire, LLC (3)
Urchin (4)
Verizon (77)
Wildtangent, Inc. (1)
Zetta Research, LLC (17)

Granted Patents Assigned to Google

Advertising Patents

Unsurprisingly, many of Google’s patents are related to advertising in one form or another. Many of the patents from Google itself focus upon showing ads that are either relevant to where they appear, or in some way to the person viewing the ads.

About, Inc.

Method And System For Providing Advertising Through Content Specific Nodes Over The Internet (US Patent # 7752072)

Adscape Media Inc.

System And Method For Interactive On-Line Gaming (US Patent # 6863612)

Applied Semantics, Inc.

Meaning-Based Advertising And Document Relevance Determination (US Patent # 6816857)
Meaning-Based Advertising And Document Relevance Determination (US Patent # 7698266)

Carl Meyer

Doubleclick, Inc.

Computer Network Based Conditional Voting System (US Patent # 5400248)
Automated Collaborative Filtering In World Wide Web Advertising (US Patent # 5918014)
Method Of Delivery, Targeting, And Measuring Advertising Over Networks (US Patent # 5948061)
Method And Apparatus For Automatic Placement Of Advertising (US Patent # 7039599)
System And Method For Analyzing Website Activity (US Patent # 7085682)
System And Method For Reporting Website Activity Based On Inferred Attribution Methodology (US Patent # 7349827)
Method Of Delivery, Targeting, And Measuring Advertising Over Networks (US Patent # 7827062)
Method Of Delivery, Targeting, And Measuring Advertising Over Networks (US Patent # 7844488)

Falk Esolutions GMBH

System And Method For Delivering Targeted Content (US Patent # 7260783)

Google

Serving Advertisements Based On Content (US Patent # 7136875)
Serving Content-Targeted Ads In E-Mail, Such As E-Mail Newsletters (US Patent # 7203684)
Rendering Advertisements With Documents Having One Or More Topics Using User Topic Interest (US Patent # 7346606)
Using Match Confidence To Adjust A Performance Threshold (US Patent # 7346615)
Determining A Minimum Price (US Patent # 7349876)
Promoting And/Or Demoting An Advertisement From An Advertising Spot Of One Type To An Advertising Spot Of Another Type (US Patent # 7363302)
Real-Time, Computer-Generated Modifications To An Online Advertising Program (US Patent # 7428555)
Detecting Anomalies (US Patent # 7523016)
System And Method For Rating Electronic Documents (US Patent # 7533090)
Pausing One Or More Ads, One Or More Ad Groups, And/Or One Or More Ad Campaigns (US Patent # 7546625)
Diagnostics And Error Reporting For Common Tagging Issues (US Patent # 7644315)
Increasing A Number Of Relevant Advertisements Using A Relaxed Match (US Patent # 7647242)
Serving Advertisements Using A Search Of Advertiser Web Information (US Patent # 7647299)
Content Identification Expansion (US Patent # 7657514)
Providing History And Transaction Volume Information Of A Content Source To Users (US Patent # 7657520)
Content Request Optimization (US Patent # 7657611)
Pricing Across Keywords Associated With One Or More Advertisements (US Patent # 7668748)
Determining And/Or Using Location Information In An Ad System (US Patent # 7668832)
Determining And/Or Using Location Information In An Ad System (US Patent # 7680796)
Method And System For Providing Targeted Documents Based On Concepts Automatically Identified Therein (US Patent # 7697791)
Determining Advertising Activity (US Patent # 7712141)
Methods And Apparatus For Serving Relevant Advertisements (US Patent # 7716161)
Time-Multiplexing Documents Based On Preferences Or Relatedness (US Patent # 7725502)
Managing On-Line Advertising Using Metrics Such As Return On Investment And/Or Profit (US Patent # 7734503)
Method And System For Providing Advertising Through Content Specific Nodes Over The Internet (US Patent # 7752073)
Methods And Apparatus For Ordering Advertisements Based On Performance Information And Price Information (US Patent # 7778872)
Reviewing The Suitability Of Websites For Participation In An Advertising Network (US Patent # 7788132)
Automated Price Maintenance For Use With A System In Which Advertisements Are Rendered With Relative Preferences (US Patent # 7792698)
Flexible Advertiser Billing System With Mixed Postpayment And Prepayment Capabilities (US Patent # 7792743)
Mixing Items, Such As Ad Targeting Keyword Suggestions, From Heterogeneous Sources (US Patent # 7801899)
Approving Transcoded Advertisements In Advertisement Front End (US Patent # 7802280)
Targeted Video Advertising (US Patent # 7806329)
Governing The Serving Of Advertisements Based On A Cost Target (US Patent # 7818207)
Accurately Estimating Advertisement Performance (US Patent # 7818208)
Using Estimated Ad Qualities For Ad Filtering, Ranking And Promotion (US Patent # 7827060)
Generating Landing Page Variants (US Patent # 7831658)
Automated Price Maintenance For Use With A System In Which Advertisements Are Rendered With Relative Preference Based On Performance Information And Price Information (US Patent # 7844493)
Determining Search Query Statistical Data For An Advertising Campaign Based On User-Selected Criteria (US Patent # 7860859)
Systems And Methods For Providing Advertisements In A Communications Network (US Patent # 7873536)
Embedding Advertisements Based On Names (US Patent # 7873621)
Method And System For Detection Of Peripheral Devices And Communication Of Related Devices (US Patent # 7873765)

IBM

Methods, Systems And Computer Program Products For Providing Insertions Based On Calculated Delays In Interactive System (US Patent # 6094677)

Performics

Method And System For Exchanging Data Between Affiliated Sites (US Patent # 7249056)

The Weather Channel, Inc.

Customized Advertising In A Web Page Using Information From The Web Page (US Patent # 7523387)

Analytics Patents

I’ve included Google’s web page Optimizer patents under this umbrella of Analytics since they provide a way to measure the potential impact of changes to a page.

Google

Encoding And Displaying Default Landing Page Content (US Patent # 7739594)
Acquiring Web Page Experiment Schema (US Patent # 7809725)
Starting Landing Page Experiments (US Patent # 7844894)

Urchin

System And Method For Monitoring And Analyzing Internet Traffic (US Patent # 6792458)
System And Method For Monitoring And Analyzing Internet Traffic (US Patent # 6804701)
System And Method For Monitoring And Analyzing Internet Traffic (US Patent # 7610289)
System And Method For Tracking Unique Visitors To A Website (US Patent # 7849202)

Annotations Patent

Google

Only one patent listed here, but I could have included a few others. Many of the patents listed don’t fall neatly into one category or another, and some of Google’s search indexing patents rely upon “annotations” to help rank pages.

Decentralised Web Annotation (US Patent # 7734610)

Audio Patents

Many of Google’s patents involve “multimedia” of one type or another, and there are many listed in the “images and video patents” category that might have been included in this category as well.

Google

Deconstructing Electronic Media Stream Into Human Recognizable Portions (US Patent # 7668610)
Automatic Selection Of Representative Media Clips (US Patent # 7826911)

Blog Search Patents

Back in 2007, I wrote about a pending patent application in a post called Positive and Negative Quality Ranking Factors from Google’s Blog Search (Patent Application). That patent is still pending, but it works nicely with the other Google patent that’s been granted below.

Google

Indexing And Retrieval Of Blogs (US Patent # 7765209)

Client/Server Patents

It was difficult to come up with a category for the following patents. They involve things like signing into and using Google Accounts, and some applications involving the Google Toolbar.

Google

Conflict Management During Data Object Synchronization Between Client And Server (US Patent # 7529780)
Accelerating User Interfaces By Predicting User Actions (US Patent # 7558822)
Context-Aware Processes For Allowing Users Of Network Services To Access Account Information (US Patent # 7577702)
Account Recovery Key (US Patent # 7610491)
Document Access Control (US Patent # 7627569)
Secure Login Credentials For Substantially Anonymous Users (US Patent # 7661128)
Variable User Interface Based On Document Access Privileges (US Patent # 7664751)
Duplicate Account Identification And Scoring (US Patent # 7725421)
Systems And Methods Of Efficiently Preloading Documents To Client Devices (US Patent # 7747749)
User Validation Using Cookies And Isolated Backup Validation (US Patent # 7757080)
Determining A Number Of Users Behind A Set Of One Or More Internet Protocol (Ip) Addresses (US Patent # 7761558)
Dual Cookie Security System (US Patent # 7779103)
Systems And Methods For Managing Multiple User Accounts (US Patent # 7783631)
Methods And Systems For Transferring Client Device Data Over A Network (US Patent # 7801948)
Method And System For Transferring Web Browser Data Between Web Browsers (US Patent # 7805495)

Database Management Patents

Google has more than a few granted patents involving databases. There are many more listed in the category “Large File Space Indexing Patents”

Google

Assimilator Using Image Check Data (US Patent # 7542992)

McCarthy Software, Inc.

Using Multiple Simultaneous Threads Of Communication (US Patent # 7328242)
Methods And Systems For Processing Contact Information (US Patent # 7333976)

Design Patents

Design patents are filed to protect the look at feel of something, and the most important aspects of them aren’t the textual descriptions, but rather the images that accompany them.

Google

Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D528552 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D528553 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D529036 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D529037 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D529920 )
Graphical User Interface (US Patent # D533561 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen (US Patent # D537834 )
Graphic User Interface For A Display Screen (US Patent # D541291 )
Display Device Showing User Interface (US Patent # D561193 )
Display Screen With Graphical User Interface (US Patent # D566716 )
Graphic User Interface Of Page Turning Elements For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D570359 )
Graphical User Interface For Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D591304 )
Graphical User Interface For Display Screen (US Patent # D592219 )
Display Screen With Graphical User Interface (US Patent # D595304 )
Graphical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D599372 )
Grapical User Interface For A Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal (US Patent # D601154 )
Graphical User Interface (US Patent # D607465 )
User Interface For Display Device (US Patent # D619614 )
Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal With Teardrop-Shaped Marker Icon (US Patent # D620950 )
Display Screen Of A Communications Terminal With Teardrop-Shaped Marker Icon (US Patent # D621413 )
Display Screen With Graphical User Interface (US Patent # D621846 )

Distributed Data Patents

There are a few patents filed by Google that provide ways for people to share data, listed here.

Google

Method And Systems For Storing And Distributing Data (US Patent # 7734584)
Sharing User Distributed Search Results (US Patent # 7844603)

IBM

Distribution Of Digitally Encoded Presentations (US Patent # 5838912)

Document Presentation Patents

This particular patent didn’t seem to fit well in any of the other categories.

Peripheral Vision, LLC

Automated Capture Of Technical Documents For Electronic Review And Distribution (US Patent # 5963966)

Duplicate Content Patents

Mostly focusing on duplicate content involving text, there are a few here that involve images, video, and audio as well.

Google

Detecting Query-Specific Duplicate Documents (US Patent # 6615209)
Detecting Duplicate And Near-Duplicate Files (US Patent # 6658423)
Detecting Duplicate And Near-Duplicate Files (US Patent # 7366718)
Detecting Novel Document Content (US Patent # 7451120)
Systems And Methods For Using Image Duplicates To Assign Labels To Images (US Patent # 7460735)
Method And Apparatus For Producing A Signature For An Object (US Patent # 7523081)
Duplicate Document Detection In A Web Crawler System (US Patent # 7627613)
Modular Architecture For Entity Normalization (US Patent # 7672971)
System For Automatically Managing Duplicate Documents When Crawling Dynamic Documents (US Patent # 7680773)
Document Near-Duplicate Detection (US Patent # 7707157)
Document Similarity Detection (US Patent # 7734627)
Detecting Query-Specific Duplicate Documents (US Patent # 7779002)
Approximate Hashing Functions For Finding Similar Content (US Patent # 7831531)
Clustering By Previous Representative (US Patent # 7836108)

Ecommerce Patents

I somehow missed the “Gift registry” patent below when it was granted.

Google

Methods And Systems For Providing A Gift Registry (US Patent # 7603292)
Distributed Electronic Commerce System With Centralized Virtual Shopping Carts (US Patent # 7640193)
Cross Domain Customer Interface Updates (US Patent # 7860751)
Distributed Electronic Commerce System With Centralized Point Of Purchase (US Patent # 7865399)

Email and Messaging Patents

Google has many patents involving email and IM. I included chat-based patents in this section as well. Some of these might play a role in whatever Google’s coming up with involving building a social network.

Google

Method System And Graphical User Interface For Dynamically Updating Transmission Characteristics In A Web Mail Reply (US Patent # 7269621)
Electronic Messages With Embedded Musical Note Emoticons (US Patent # 7424682)
System For Determining Email Spam By Delivery Path (US Patent # 7580981)
Method And System For Activity Based Email Sorting (US Patent # 7587461)
Verbal Labels For Electronic Messages (US Patent # 7627638)
Systems And Methods For Graphically Representing Users Of A Messaging System (US Patent # 7627828)
Methods And Systems For Processing Instant Messenger Messages (US Patent # 7680888)
Integrated Conversations Having Both Email And Chat Messages (US Patent # 7680895)
Methods And Systems For Developing An Instant Messaging Network (US Patent # 7685236)
System For Reclassification Of Electronic Messages In A Spam Filtering System (US Patent # 7693945)
Networked Chat And Media Sharing Systems And Methods (US Patent # 7761507)
Method And System For Generating And Presenting Conversation Threads Having Email, Voicemail And Chat Messages (US Patent # 7769144)
Conversation-Based Email Messaging (US Patent # 7788326)
Email Conversation Management System (US Patent # 7814155)
Time Line Display Of Chat Conversations (US Patent # 7814159)
Displaying Conversation Views In A Conversation-Based Email System (US Patent # 7818378)
Methods And Systems For Processing Offline Chat Messages (US Patent # 7831673)
Voting In Chat System Without Topic-Specific Rooms (US Patent # 7860928)
Chat System Without Topic-Specific Rooms (US Patent # 7865553)

IBM

Method And System For Remotely Managing Electronic Mail Attachments (US Patent # 6256666)

Infoseek Corporation

Method And System For Selectively Blocking Delivery Of Bulk Electronic Mail (US Patent # 6546416)
Method And System For Selectively Blocking Delivery Of Bulk Electronic Mail (US Patent # 7194515)

Postini,Inc.

System And Method For Filtering Electronic Messages Using Business Heuristics (US Patent # 7647321)
Value-Added Electronic Messaging Services And Transparent Implementation Thereof Using Intermediate Server (US Patent # 6650890)
Systems And Methods For Managing The Transmission Of Electronic Messages Through Active Message Data Updating (US Patent # 6941348)
E-Mail Filtering Services And E-Mail Service Enrollment Techniques (US Patent # 7133660)
Value-Added Electronic Messaging Services And Transparent Implementation Thereof Using Intermediate Server (US Patent # 7236769)
E-Mail Filtering Services Using Internet Protocol Routing Information (US Patent # 7272378)
E-Mail Policy Compliance Techniques (US Patent # 7277695)
Value-Added Electronic Messaging Services Having Web-Based User Accessible Message Center (US Patent # 7428410)
Data Storage And Retrieval Systems And Related Methods Of Storing And Retrieving Data (US Patent # 7584264)
Collaborative Web Page Authoring (US Patent # 7584268)
Zero-Minute Virus And Spam Detection (US Patent # 7603472)
Electronic Message Source Reputation Information System (US Patent # 7668951)
Source Reputation Information System For Filtering Electronic Messages Using A Network-Connected Computer (US Patent # 7676566)
Electronic Document Policy Compliance Techniques (US Patent # 7761498)
Source Reputation Information System With Blocking Of Tcp Connections From Sources Of Electronic Messages (US Patent # 7788359)
Electronic Message Source Reputation Information System (US Patent # 7792909)

Event Modeling Patents

In my previous post on Google’s patents, I described these patents as involving “…the use and manipulation of databases, and include the creation of events that can trigger actions without changing the underlying structure of those databases.”

Starwave Corporation

Method And Apparatus For Event Modeling (US Patent # 6341279)
Method And Apparatus For Event Modeling (US Patent # 6578043)
Method And Apparatus For Event Modeling (US Patent # 7373337)

Google Books Patents

A lot, but not all, of Google’s patents that involve Google Books, seem to focus upon ways to scan books.

Google

De-Warping Of Scanned Images (US Patent # 7463772)
Detection Of Grooves In Scanned Images (US Patent # 7508978)
Library Citation Integration (US Patent # 7526475)
Systems And Methods For Glare Removal Using Polarized Filtering In Document Scanning (US Patent # 7561312)
Acquiring And Using Three-Dimensional Information In A Document Scanning System (US Patent # 7586655)
Imaging Opposing Bound Pages At High Speed Using Multiple Cameras (US Patent # 7605844)
Pacing And Error Monitoring Of Manual Page Turning Operator (US Patent # 7619784)
Three-Dimensional Calibration Using Orientation And Position Sensitive Calibration Pattern (US Patent # 7623274)
Automatic Finger Detection In Document Images (US Patent # 7634112)
Movable Document Cradle For Facilitating Imaging Of Bound Documents (US Patent # 7639406)
Three-Dimensional Model Construction Using Unstructured Pattern (US Patent # 7660458)
Computer-Implemented Interactive, Virtual Bookshelf System And Method (US Patent # 7778994)
Query-Independent Entity Importance In Books (US Patent # 7783644)

Google Desktop Search Patents

I’m not sure whether Google is still pursuing their “Google Desktop Search,” but we may see aspects of it appearing in the operating systems that Google has been developing.

Google

Data Structure For Incremental Search (US Patent # 7512620)
Temporal Ranking Scheme For Desktop Searching (US Patent # 7529739)
Web Based User Interface For Selecting Options (US Patent # 7614018)
Combined Title Prefix And Full-Word Content Searching (US Patent # 7617197)
Systems And Methods For Generating Multiple Implicit Search Queries (US Patent # 7664734)
Profile Based Capture Component (US Patent # 7680809)
Systems And Methods For Ranking Implicit Search Results (US Patent # 7693825)
Methods And Systems For Performing An Offline Search (US Patent # 7707142)
Systems And Methods For Providing And Installing Software (US Patent # 7707573)
Methods And Systems For Information Capture And Retrieval (US Patent # 7725508)
Searching For User Interface Objects (US Patent # 7739272)
Systems And Methods For Performing A Directory Search (US Patent # 7761439)
Systems and methods for associating a keyword with a user interface area (US Patent # 7873632)

Google Finance Patents

This patent didn’t fit comfortably into any of the other categories.

Google

Computing A Group Of Related Companies For Financial Information Systems (US Patent # 7873595)

Google News Patents

There may be a few more patents in the Search Indexing Patents section that apply to Google News as well.

Google

Methods And Apparatus For Clustering News Content (US Patent # 7568148)
Systems And Methods For Improving The Ranking Of News Articles (US Patent # 7577655)

Google TV Patents

While these may not be specifically about “Google TV,” they are specifically about TV. Many other patents may fit into this category, such as IBM patents on Video on Demand (VOD). but I placed those in the Images and Video Patents Category.

Google

Log Processing Of Channel Tunes And Channel Tune Times Generated From A Television Processing Device (US Patent # 7743394)
Log Processing To Determine Impression Values Using Reliable Durations (US Patent # 7853969)

IBM

Simplified Tv Viewer Response System And Method Using Special Codes And Subscriber Custom Calling Codes (US Patent # 6584613)

Handwriting Analysis

IBM

Method And System For Automatically Segmenting And Recognizing Handwritten Chinese Characters (US Patent # 6519363)
Handwriting Information Processing System With Charater Segmentation User Interface (US Patent # 6600834)

Hardware Patents

Google’s range of hardware patents is growing. Many of them seem to focus on improving Google’s computing power, but some of them are a little mysterious, like the acquisition of the Metaram memory module patents.

ASML Holding N.V.

Large Field Of View Protection Optical System With Aberration Correctability For Flat Panel Displays (US Patent # 7158215)

Carl Meyer

Energy Storage Circuit For DC-DC Converter (US Patent # 6538906)

Google

Cooling Baffle And Fan Mount Apparatus (US Patent # 6845009)
Cable Management For Rack Mounted Computing System (US Patent # 6870095)
Drive Cooling Baffle (US Patent # 6906920)
Mounting Structures For Electronics Components (US Patent # 7113409)
Modular Data Center (US Patent # 7278273)
Systems And Methods For Automatic Repair And Replacement Of Networked Machines (US Patent # 7302608)
System And Method For Providing Load Balanced Processing (US Patent # 7386616)
Adjustable Monitor Cart (US Patent # 7419170)
System And Method Of Accessing A Document Efficiently Through Multi-Tier Web Caching (US Patent # 7437364)
Systems And Methods For Delay In Startup Of Multiple Components (US Patent # 7475267)
Power Distribution Adaptable To Different Power Supplies (US Patent # 7479045)
Systems And Methods For Detecting A Memory Condition And Providing An Alert (US Patent # 7499996)
Water-Based Data Center (US Patent # 7525207)
Motherboards With Integrated Cooling (US Patent # 7564685)
Interim Power Source (US Patent # 7696643)
Modular Computing Environments (US Patent # 7738251)
Auto-Measurement And Calibration Of DC Resistance In Current Sensing Applications (US Patent # 7741983)
Automatically Detecting A Computer Chassis Type (US Patent # 7768797)
Controlled Power Cycling In Computing Devices (US Patent # 7774633)
Detectable Null Memory For Airflow Baffling (US Patent # 7788421)
Adaptable Computer Rack For Power Distribution (US Patent # 7830043)
Secure Keyboard (US Patent # 7835521)
Methods And Apparatuses For Identification Of Device Presence (US Patent # 7853703)
Systems And Methods For Close Coupled Cooling (US Patent # 7864527)

Intel Corporation

Methods To Deposit Metal Alloy Barrier Layers (US Patent # 7223695)

Metaram, Inc.

Methods And Apparatus Of Stacking Drams (US Patent # 7379316)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Performing Power Management Operations In Conjunction With Only A Portion Of A Memory Circuit (US Patent # 7386656)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Autonomously Performing Power Management Operations In Conjunction With A Plurality Of Memory Circuits (US Patent # 7392338)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Performing Power Management Operations Utilizing Power Management Signals (US Patent # 7472220)
Integrated Memory Core And Memory Interface Circuit (US Patent # 7515453)
Power Saving System And Method For Use With A Plurality Of Memory Circuits (US Patent # 7580312)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Performing Power Saving Operations During A Command-Related Latency (US Patent # 7581127)
System And Method For Power Management In Memory Systems (US Patent # 7590796)
Methods And Apparatus Of Stacking Drams (US Patent # 7599205)
System And Method For Simulating An Aspect Of A Memory Circuit (US Patent # 7609567)
System And Method For Delaying A Signal Communicated From A System To At Least One Of A Plurality Of Memory Circuits (US Patent # 7724589)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Autonomously Performing Power Management Operations In Conjunction With A Plurality Of Memory Circuits (US Patent # 7730338)
Interface Circuit System And Method For Performing Power Management Operations In Conjunction With Only A Portion Of A Memory Circuit (US Patent # 7761724)

Zetta Research, LLC

Bi-Directional DC Power Conversion System (US Patent # 6690585)
Modular Computing System (US Patent # 7054963)
Component For Use As A Portable Computing Device And Pointing Device (US Patent # 7054965)
Electronic Device With Integral Connectors (US Patent # 7247032)
Blended Transfer Function For Computer Pointing Devices (US Patent # 7274355)
Docking Cable (US Patent # 7285021)
Multiple Disparate Wireless Units Sharing Of Antennas (US Patent # 7352332)
Non-Binding Sliding Display For A Handheld Electronic Device (US Patent # 7353053)
Electronic Device With Integral Connectors (US Patent # 7357648)
Keyboard With Variable-Sized Keys (US Patent # 7372454)
Electronic Device With Integral Connectors (US Patent # 7390197)
Docking Module Comprising A Dc-Dc Charger (US Patent # 7462073)
Personal Computing Device Having Single-Cell Battery (US Patent # 7493500)
Combined Outflow Portal For Acoustic And Thermal Energy (US Patent # 7518860)
Docking Cable (US Patent # 7537485)
Method For Protecting A Connection Interface In A Computer-Docking Assembly (US Patent # 7810222)
Logical Battery Partitions Configured By User Interface (US Patent # 7873852)

Image and Video Patents

This seems to be one of the fastest-growing sections of Google’s patent portfolio. The Klipmark patents came to Google through Doubleclick, and the Duck Corporation patents via On2 Technologies.

Google

Building Parallel Hybrid Spill Trees To Facilitate Parallel Nearest-Neighbor Matching Operations (US Patent # 7539657)
Annotation Framework For Video (US Patent # 7559017)
Rollback In A Browser (US Patent # 7633510)
Effects Applied To Images In A Browser (US Patent # 7634715)
Optical Character Recognition Based On Shape Clustering And Multiple Optical Character Recognition Processes (US Patent # 7650035)
Shape Clustering And Cluster-Level Manual Identification In Post Optical Character Recognition Processing (US Patent # 7697758)
Embedded Navigation Interface (US Patent # 7707516)
Methods And Systems For Image Sharing Over A Network (US Patent # 7770004)
Method And Apparatus For Enhancing Object Boundary Precision In An Image (US Patent # 7813582)
Serving Media Articles With Altered Playback Speed (US Patent # 7840693)
Content-Aware Video Resizing Using Discontinuous Seam Carving (US Patent # 7873211)
System And Methods For Detecting Images Distracting To A User (US Patent # 7877382)
Reorganization Of Raw Image Data For Processing (US Patent # 7469059)
Generating, Storing, And Displaying Graphics Using Sub-Pixel Bitmaps (US Patent # 7570828)
Methods And Systems For Identifying An Image As A Representative Image For An Article (US Patent # 7580568)
Distributed Processing When Editing An Image In A Browser (US Patent # 7631252)
Selective Image Editing In A Browser (US Patent # 7631253)
Method And System For Approving Documents Based On Image Similarity (US Patent # 7639898)
High Resolution Replication Of Document Based On Shape Clustering (US Patent # 7646921)
Blocking Of Unlicensed Audio Content In Video Files On A Video Hosting Website (US Patent # 7707224)
Scoring Items (US Patent # 7751592)
Automatic Determination Of Whether A Document Includes An Image Gallery (US Patent # 7788258)
System And Method For Rating Documents Comprising An Image (US Patent # 7801738)
Efficient Rendering Of Panoramic Images, And Applications Thereof (US Patent # 7843451)
Video-Related Recommendations Using Link Structure (US Patent # 7853622)

IBM

Multimedia Distribution Over Wide Area Networks (US Patent # 5568181)
Video Optimized Media Streamer Having Communication Nodes Received Digital Data From Storage Node And Transmitted Said Data To Adapters For Generating Isochronous Digital Data Streams (US Patent # 5603058)
Media Streamer With Control Node Enabling Same Isochronous Streams To Appear Simultaneously At Output Ports Or Different Streams To Appear Simultaneously At Output Ports (US Patent # 5668948)
System And Method For Providing Merchant Information And Establishing Links To Merchants While Presenting A Movie (US Patent # 5696905)
System And Method For Providing Merchant Information And Establishing Links To Merchants While Presenting A Movie (US Patent # 5715400)
Video Data Streamer Having Scheduler For Scheduling Read Request For Individual Data Buffers Associated With Output Ports Of Communication Node To One Storage Node (US Patent # 5761417)
Channel Conservation For Anticipated Load Surge In Video Servers (US Patent # 5768681)
Video Optimized Media Streamer User Interface Employing Non-Blocking Switching To Achieve Isochronous Data Transfers (US Patent # 5805821)
Multi-Node Media Server That Provides Video To Plurality Of Terminals From A Single Buffer When Video Requests Are Close In Time (US Patent # 5808607)
Multimedia Server System And Method For Communicating Multimedia Information (US Patent # 5930493)
System And Method For Enabling A User To Move Between Cyclically Transmitted Image Streams (US Patent # 6177930)
Dynamic Modification Of Multimedia Content (US Patent # 6317795)
System For Seamless Streaming Of Data Stored On A Network Of Distributed Primary And Target Servers Using Segmentation Information Exchanged Among All Servers During Streaming (US Patent # 6377996)
Data Distribution System Using Coordinated Analog And Digital Streams (US Patent # 6675388)
Control And Maintenance Of Multicast Distribution Employing Embedded Displays (US Patent # 6768737)
System And Method For Enhanced Edit List For Recording Options (US Patent # 7212730)
Personal Video Recording With Recovery Of Displayed Storage Space (US Patent # 7248776)
Personal Video Recording With Further Compression Of Recorded Shows (US Patent # 7295753)
Personal Video Recording With Storage Space Requirement Checking (US Patent # 7366398)
Channel Merging Method For Vod System (US Patent # 7373653)
Personal Video Recording With Storage Space Loans (US Patent # 7529471)
Personal Video Recording With Pools And Groups (US Patent # 7532809)
Video On Demand Configuring, Controlling And Maintaining (US Patent # 7540012)
Channel Merging Method For Vod System (US Patent # 7673318)

Klipmark Corporation

Method And System For Collecting And Providing Multimedia Content (US Patent # 7039684)
In-Page Full Screen Internet Video Method (US Patent # 7788583)

Nevengineering, Inc.

Labeled Bunch Graphs For Image Analysis (US Patent # 6222939)
Wavelet-Based Facial Motion Capture For Avatar Animation (US Patent # 6272231)
Face Recognition From Video Images (US Patent # 6301370)
Labeled Bunch Graphs For Image Analysis (US Patent # 6356659)
Video Superposition System And Method (US Patent # 6400374)
Procedure For Automatic Analysis Of Images And Image Sequences Based On Two-Dimensional Shape Primitives (US Patent # 6466695)
Method And Apparatus For Zoomed Display Of Characters Entered From A Telephone Keypad (US Patent # 6473006)
Labeled Bunch Graphs For Image Analysis (US Patent # 6563950)
Wavelet-Based Facial Motion Capture For Avatar Animation (US Patent # 6580811)
Method And System For Customizing Facial Feature Tracking Using Precise Landmark Finding On A Neutral Face Image (US Patent # 6714661)
Method For Optimizing Off-Line Facial Feature Tracking (US Patent # 6834115)
Method And Apparatus For Image Analysis Of A Gabor-Wavelet Transformed Image Using A Neural Network (US Patent # 6917703)
Method And System For Generating Facial Animation Values Based On A Combination Of Visual And Audio Information (US Patent # 6940454)
System And Method For Feature Location And Tracking In Multiple Dimensions Including Depth (US Patent # 7050624)
Method For Generating An Animated Three-Dimensional Video Head (US Patent # 7050655)
Image-Based Search Engine For Mobile Phones With Camera (US Patent # 7565139)
Image Based Multi-Biometric System And Method (US Patent # 7697735)
Mobile Image-Based Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7751805)

ON2 Technologies, LLC

Method And Apparatus For Compression And Decompression Of Video Images (US Patent # 6108383)
Apparatus And Method For Non-Sequential Image Data Transmission And Display (US Patent # 6292837)
Method For Analysing The Content Of A Video Signal (US Patent # 6560366)
Video Compression System (US Patent # 7027654)
Method Of Improved Image/Video Compression Via Data Re-Ordering (US Patent # 7409099)
Video Compression And Encoding Method (US Patent # 7499492)
Video Compression And Encoding Method (US Patent # 7606310)

The Duck Corporation (On2)

System For Manipulating Digitized Image Objects In Three Dimensioins (US Patent # 5999641)
Data Compression Apparatus And Method (US Patent # 6181822)
Apparatus And Method To Digitally Compress Video Signals (US Patent # 6327304)
System For Manipulating Digitized Image Objects In Three Dimensions (US Patent # 6370267)

Intellectual Property Patents

Google

Automated Determination Of Validity Of Complaints (US Patent # 7680675)
Automated Screening Of Content Based On Intellectual Property Rights (US Patent # 7870605)

Language Conversion Patents

Google

Predictive Conversion Of User Input (US Patent # 7506254)

Large File Space Indexing Patents

Google

Leasing Scheme For Data-Modifying Operations (US Patent # 7065618)
System And Method For Encoding And Decoding Variable-Length Data (US Patent # 7068192)
Systems And Methods For Performing Record Append Operations (US Patent # 7107419)
System And Method For Searching An Extended Database (US Patent # 7174346)
Namespace Locking Scheme (US Patent # 7222119)
Large Scale Machine Learning Systems And Methods (US Patent # 7222127)
System And Method For Selectively Searching Partitions Of A Database (US Patent # 7254580)
Document Compression Scheme That Supports Searching And Partial Decompression (US Patent # 7319994)
Large Scale Data Storage In Sparse Tables (US Patent # 7428524)
Highly Compressed Randomly Accessed Storage Of Large Tables With Arbitrary Columns (US Patent # 7496589)
Data Compression Of Large Scale Data Stored In Sparse Tables (US Patent # 7548928)
Storing A Sparse Table Using Locality Groups (US Patent # 7567973)
System And Method For Data Distribution (US Patent # 7568034)
System And Method For Analyzing Data Records (US Patent # 7590620)
Document Treadmilling System And Method For Updating Documents In A Document Repository And Recovering Storage Space From Invalidated Documents (US Patent # 7617226)
System And Method For Dynamically Updating A Document Repository Without Interrupting Concurrent Querying (US Patent # 7634517)
System And Method For Efficient Large-Scale Data Processing (US Patent # 7650331)
Data Reconstruction From Shared Update Log (US Patent # 7668846)
Systems And Methods For Prioritizing Error Notification (US Patent # 7689873)
Index Updating Using Segment Swapping (US Patent # 7702614)
Synchronizing Write Accesses (US Patent # 7720812)
Accelerated Large Scale Optimization (US Patent # 7730074)
Systems And Methods For Replicating Data (US Patent # 7739233)
Scaling Machine Learning Using Approximate Counting That Uses Feature Hashing (US Patent # 7743003)
Large-Scale Data Processing In A Distributed And Parallel Processing Enviornment (US Patent # 7756919)
Low Overhead Thread Synchronization System And Method For Garbage Collecting Stale Data In A Document Repository Without Interrupting Concurrent Querying (US Patent # 7769792)
Methods And Systems For Compressing Indices (US Patent # 7801898)
Database Partitioning By Virtual Partitions (US Patent # 7809769)
Searching Indexed And Non-Indexed Resources For Content (US Patent # 7818324)
Incremental Data Warehouse Updating (US Patent # 7822712)
Maintaining Data In A File System (US Patent # 7827214)
Distributed Aggregation Mapping (US Patent # 7860822)
Garbage Collecting Systems And Methods (US Patent # 7865536)
Efficient Application Hosting In A Distributed Application Execution System (US Patent # 7877482)

Medical Patents

Google

Instrument For Medical Purposes (US Patent # 6684094)

Modeling and Maps Patents

I’ve included patents involving business listings in Google Maps, as well as driving directions patents in this section. I included Google navigation patents in the category on Vehicles.

Google

Address Geocoding (US Patent # 6934634)
Digital Mapping System (US Patent # 7158878)
Methods And Apparatus For Estimating Similarity (US Patent # 7158961)
Generating, Storing, And Displaying Graphics Using Sub-Pixel Bitmaps (US Patent # 7209148)
Method And Apparatus For Customizing Travel Directions (US Patent # 7239959)
Techniques For Displaying And Caching Tiled Map Data On Constrained-Resource Services (US Patent # 7315259)
Markup Language For An Interactive Geographic Information System (US Patent # 7353114)
Using Boundaries Associated With A Map View For Business Location Searching (US Patent # 7373246)
Determining Unambiguous Geographic References (US Patent # 7483881)
Adaptive And Personalized Navigation System (US Patent # 7512487)
Providing Routing Information Based On Ambiguous Locations (US Patent # 7571048)
System And Method For Identifying Bounds Of A Geographical Area (US Patent # 7576754)
System And Method For Identifying Geographical Areas That Significantly Overlap A Map View (US Patent # 7595725)
Generating And Serving Tiles In A Digital Mapping System (US Patent # 7599790)
Methods And Systems For Improving A Search Ranking Using Location Awareness (US Patent # 7606798)
Dynamic Exploration Of Electronic Maps (US Patent # 7616217)
Combined Map Scale And Measuring Tool (US Patent # 7620496)
Markup Language For Interactive Geographic Information System (US Patent # 7643673)
Classification Of Ambiguous Geographic References (US Patent # 7716162)
System For Automatically Integrating A Digital Map System (US Patent # 7730389)
Streaming And Interactive Visualization Of Filled Polygon Data In A Geographic Information System (US Patent # 7746343)
Geographic Coding For Location Search Queries (US Patent # 7747598)
Map User Interface (US Patent # 7779360)
Viewport-Relative Scoring For Location Search Queries (US Patent # 7792883)
Processing An Image Map For Display On Computing Device (US Patent # 7796837)
Indexing Documents According To Geographical Relevance (US Patent # 7801897)
System Using Router In A Web Browser For Inter-Domain Communication (US Patent # 7809785)
Scoring Local Search Results Based On Location Prominence (US Patent # 7822751)
Visually-Oriented Driving Directions In Digital Mapping System (US Patent # 7831387)
Local Item Extraction (US Patent # 7831438)
Searching Structured Geographical Data (US Patent # 7836085)
Business Listing Search (US Patent # 7840407)
Secondary Map In Digital Mapping System (US Patent # 7865301)
Method For Automatic Alignment Of Raster Data With Vector Data In A Geographic Information System (US Patent # 7869667)

IBM

Virtual Map System And Method For Tracking Objects (US Patent # 6377296)
Method And Apparatus For End-To-End Travel Time Estimation Using Dynamic Traffic Data (US Patent # 7236881)

Keyhole, Inc.

Server For Geospatially Organized Flat File Data (US Patent # 7225207)

Wildtangent, Inc.

Method And Apparatus For Distributing And Displaying Maps Electronically (US Patent # 6724382)

Multi-Language Patents

Google

Systems And Methods For Using Anchor Text As Parallel Corpora For Cross-Language Information Retrieval (US Patent # 7146358)
System And Method For Providing Preferred Language Ordering Of Search Results (US Patent # 7451129)
Augmenting Queries With Synonyms Selected Using Language Statistics (US Patent # 7475063)
Systems And Methods For Translating Chinese Pinyin To Chinese Characters (US Patent # 7478033)
Displaying Original Text In A User Interface With Translated Text (US Patent # 7801721)
Fault-Tolerant Romanized Input Method For Non-Roman Characters (US Patent # 7810030)
Simplifying Query Terms With Transliteration (US Patent # 7835903)

Network Patents

Google

Loadbalancing Multiple Files Across Computing Devices (US Patent # 7631310)
Method And Apparatus To Avoid Network Congestion (US Patent # 7675857)
Method And System For Discovering Network Paths (US Patent # 7760735)
Estimating A Dominant Resource Used By A Computer Program (US Patent # 7797692)
Network Transfer Protocol (US Patent # 7817631)
Systems And Methods For Relating Network Traffic Using Traffic-Based Signatures (US Patent # 7881255)
Technique For Regulating Link Traffic (US Patent # 7882231)
Udp Transport For Web Services (US Patent # 7882268)

IBM

Method And Apparatus For Reserving System Resources To Assure Quality Of Service (US Patent # 5581703)
Method And Apparatus For Reserving System Resources To Assure Quality Of Service (US Patent # 5701465)
Representing,Configuring, Administering, Monitoring, And/Or Modeling Connections Using Catalogs And Matrixes (US Patent # 7277931)

Ortiz & Lopez, PLLC

Distributing Packets More Evenly Over Trunked Network Links (US Patent # 7710966)

Tudor Empire, LLC

Method And Apparatus For Reference Establishmemt When Preferences In A Donor Device Are Unavailable (US Patent # 5630159)
Method And Apparatus For Personal Attribute Selection And Management Using A Preference Memory (US Patent # 5633484)
Method And Appararus For Personal Attribute Selection And Management Using Prediction (US Patent # 5814798)

Organizational Communications Patents

Google

Distributed Metrics Collection (US Patent # 7801955)

IBM

Doing Business Employing Linked Trees Having Retrievable Embedded Information (US Patent # 6647394)

Personal Data Patents

Google

Automatically Generating And Maintaining An Address Book (US Patent # 7634463)
Dynamically Autocompleting A Data Entry (US Patent # 7685144)
Method, System, And Graphical User Interface For Meeting-Spot-Related Contact Lists (US Patent # 7797642)

IBM

System And Method For Automatically Generating A Third Party Notification When A Traveler Is Overdue (US Patent # 6691029)

Personalized Homepage Patent

Google

Proxy Server Collection Of Data For Module Incorporation Into A Container Document (US Patent # 7725530)
Remote Module Incorporation Into A Container Document (US Patent # 7730082)
Message Catalogs For Remote Modules (US Patent # 7730109)

Personalized Search Patents

Google

Personalizing Anchor Text Scores In A Search Engine (US Patent # 7260573)
Methods And Systems For Personalized Network Searching (US Patent # 7523096)
Generating Specialized Search Results In Response To Patterned Queries (US Patent # 7593939)
Access Controlled Search Results (US Patent # 7600263)
Variably Controlling Access To Content (US Patent # 7603355)
Personalization Of Placed Content Ordering In Search Results (US Patent # 7693827)
Variable Personalization Of Search Results In A Search Engine (US Patent # 7716223)
Systems And Methods For Providing Searchable Prior History (US Patent # 7730054)
Scalable User Clustering Based On Set Similarity (US Patent # 7739314)
Systems And Methods For Providing Subscription-Based Personalization (US Patent # 7747632)
Systems And Methods For Demoting Personalized Search Results Based On Personal Information (US Patent # 7827170)

Phrase-Based Indexing Patents

Google

Automatic Taxonomy Generation In Search Results Using Phrases (US Patent # 7426507)
Phrase-Based Indexing In An Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7536408)
Semantic Unit Recognition (US Patent # 7580827)
Phrase Identification In An Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7580921)
Phrase-Based Personalization Of Searches In An Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7580929)
Phrase-Based Generation Of Document Descriptions (US Patent # 7584175)
Phrase-Based Searching In An Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7599914)
Detecting Spam Documents In A Phrase Based Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7603345)
Index Server Architecture Using Tiered And Sharded Phrase Posting Lists (US Patent # 7693813)
Information Retrieval System For Archiving Multiple Document Versions (US Patent # 7702618)
Phrase-Based Detection Of Duplicate Documents In An Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7711679)

Infoseek Corporation

Real-Time Document Collection Search Engine With Phrase Indexing (US Patent # 5920854)
Real-Time Document Collection Search Engine With Phrase Indexing (US Patent # 6070158)

Radio Patents

DMARC Broadcasting Co.

Dynamic Data Delivery Apparatus And Method For Same (US Patent # 7313359)
Dynamic Data Delivery Apparatus And Method For Same (US Patent # 7313360)
Dynamic Data Delivery Apparatus And Method For Same (US Patent # 7313361)
Dynamic Data Delivery Apparatus And Method For Same (US Patent # 7315726)
Dynamic Data Delivery Apparatus And Method For Same (US Patent # 7363001)
Method And Apparatus Using Geographical Position To Provide Authenticated, Secure, Radio Frequency Communication Between A Gaming Host And A Remote Gaming Device (US Patent # 7460863)
Dynamic Selection And Scheduling Of Radio Frequency Communications (US Patent # 7647038)
Dynamic Selection And Scheduling Of Radio Frequency Communications (US Patent # 7660557)
System And Method For Providing A Digital Watermark (US Patent # 7672337)

Google

System And Method For Media Play Forecasting (US Patent # 7676405)
Broadcast Monitoring System And Method For Intelligent Optimization (US Patent # 7711313)

Reviews and Recommendations Patents

Google

Identifying Clusters Of Similar Reviews And Displaying Representative Reviews From Multiple Clusters (US Patent # 7558769)
Product Recommendations Based On Collaborative Filtering Of User Data (US Patent # 7590562)
Systems And Methods For Reputation Management (US Patent # 7827052)
Collective Ranking Of Digital Content (US Patent # 7840563)
Method And System For Obtaining Feedback For A Product (US Patent # 7860803)

RSS Patents

Feedburner, Inc.

Method And System For Processing Published Content On The Internet (US Patent # 7640184)

Google

Indirect Subscriptions To Top N Lists Of Content Feeds (US Patent # 7590691)

Search Display Patents

Disney Enterprises, Inc.

System And Method For Selecting Content For Displaying Over The Internet Based Upon Some User Input (US Patent # 6728705)
System And Method For Selecting Content For Displaying Over The Internet Based Upon Some User Input (US Patent # 7424478)

Google

Systems And Methods For Highlighting Search Results (US Patent # 6839702)
Identifying Navigation Bars And Objectionable Navigation Bars (US Patent # 7089490)
Interface For A Universal Search Engine (US Patent # 7447678)
Method And System For Autocompletion Using Ranked Results (US Patent # 7487145)
Web Page Zoom Feature (US Patent # 7487447)
Method And System For Url Autocompletion Using Ranked Results (US Patent # 7499940)
System And Method For Navigating Within A Graphical User Interface Without Using A Pointing Device (US Patent # 7552400)
Data Object Visualization (US Patent # 7555471)
System And Method For Indicating Web Page Modifications (US Patent # 7559016)
Determination Of A Desired Repository (US Patent # 7584177)
System And Method For Providing Text Summarization For Use In Web-Based Content (US Patent # 7587309)
User Interface For Facts Query Engine With Snippets From Information Sources That Include Query Terms And Answer Terms (US Patent # 7587387)
Enhanced Search Results (US Patent # 7624101)
Event Searching (US Patent # 7647353)
Automatic Completion Of Fragments Of Text (US Patent # 7657423)
Systems And Methods For Sorting And Displaying Search Results In Multiple Dimensions (US Patent # 7660822)
Number-Range Search System And Method (US Patent # 7693824)
Search Engine With Fill-The-Blanks Capability (US Patent # 7693829)
Systems And Methods For Providing A Graphical Display Of Search Activity (US Patent # 7694212)
Enhanced Document Browsing With Automatically Generated Links To Relevant Information (US Patent # 7698626)
Generating Query Suggestions Using Contextual Information (US Patent # 7725485)
Labeling Events In Historic News (US Patent # 7739254)
Browseable Fact Repository (US Patent # 7774328)
Displaying Facts On A Linear Graph (US Patent # 7778952)
Generating Structured Information (US Patent # 7788293)
Anticipated Query Generation And Processing In A Search Engine (US Patent # 7836044)
Document Search Engine Including Highlighting Of Confident Results (US Patent # 7836391)
Alternate Methods Of Displaying Search Results (US Patent # 7853606)

Search Indexing Patents

There are a lot of patents listed in this section that could be broken down into smaller categories. I may try to do that in the future.

Applied Semantics, Inc.

Meaning-Based Information Organization And Retrieval (US Patent # 6453315)

Google

Systems And Methods For Customizing Behavior Of Multiple Search Engines (US Patent # 7801876)
Methods And Apparatus For Using A Modified Index To Provide Search Results In Response To An Ambiguous Search Query (US Patent # 6529903)
Information Extraction From A Database (US Patent # 6678681)
Techniques For Finding Related Hyperlinked Documents Using Link-Based Analysis (US Patent # 6754873)
Methods And Apparatus For Using A Modified Index To Provide Search Results In Response To An Ambiguous Search Query (US Patent # 6865575)
Methods And Apparatus For Determining Equivalent Descriptions For An Information Need (US Patent # 6941293)
System And Method For Supporting Editorial Opinion In The Ranking Of Search Results (US Patent # 7096214)
Methods And Apparatus For Providing Search Results In Response To An Ambiguous Search Query (US Patent # 7136854)
Method Of Spell-Checking Search Queries (US Patent # 7194684)
Link Based Clustering Of Hyperlinked Documents (US Patent # 7213198)
Detecting Quoted Text (US Patent # 7222299)
Method And Apparatus For Learning A Probabilistic Generative Model For Text (US Patent # 7231393)
Ranking Documents Based On Large Data Sets (US Patent # 7231399)
Identification Of Semantic Units From Within A Search Query (US Patent # 7249121)
Decompression Of Block-Sorted Data (US Patent # 7254689)
Systems And Methods For Associating A Keyword With A User Interface Area (US Patent # 7272601)
Systems And Methods For Constructing A Query Result Set (US Patent # 7281008)
Systems And Methods For Performing Point-Of-View Searching (US Patent # 7296016)
Methods And Systems For Identifying Manipulated Articles (US Patent # 7302645)
Systems And Methods For Performing In-Context Searching (US Patent # 7305380)
Distributed Crawling Of Hyperlinked Documents (US Patent # 7305610)
Anchor Tag Indexing In A Web Crawler System (US Patent # 7308643)
Methods And Systems For Generating Textual Information (US Patent # 7310633)
System And Methods For Automatically Creating Lists (US Patent # 7350187)
Methods And Apparatus For Increasing Efficiency Of Electronic Document Delivery To Users (US Patent # 7363291)
Method And Apparatus For Characterizing Documents Based On Clusters Of Related Words (US Patent # 7383258)
Identifying Language Attributes Through Probabilistic Analysis (US Patent # 7386438)
Methods And Apparatus For Determining Equivalent Descriptions For An Information Need (US Patent # 7392244)
Named Url Entry (US Patent # 7401072)
Locating Meaningful Stopwords Or Stop-Phrases In Keyword-Based Retrieval Systems (US Patent # 7409383)
Methods And Systems For Capturing Information (US Patent # 7412708)
Method For Searching Media (US Patent # 7437351)
Systems And Methods For Unification Of Search Results (US Patent # 7437353)
Query Boosting Based On Classification (US Patent # 7440968)
System And Method For Providing Preferred Country Biasing Of Search Results (US Patent # 7451130)
Providing Capitalization Correction For Unstructured Excerpts (US Patent # 7451398)
Support For Object Search (US Patent # 7454398)
Methods And Systems For Improving A Search Ranking Using Population Information (US Patent # 7454417)
Object Categorization For Information Extraction (US Patent # 7464090)
Method And System For Query Data Caching And Optimization In A Search Engine System (US Patent # 7467131)
Performing A Parallel Nearest-Neighbor Matching Operation Using A Parallel Hybrid Spill Tree (US Patent # 7475071)
Systems And Methods Of Replicating All Or Part Of A Data Store (US Patent # 7499958)
Methods And Systems For Improving A Search Ranking Using Related Queries (US Patent # 7505964)
Systems And Methods For Information Extraction (US Patent # 7505984)
Managing Urls (US Patent # 7509315)
Method For Detecting Link Spam In Hyperlinked Databases (US Patent # 7509344)
Methods And Systems For Assisted Network Browsing (US Patent # 7516118)
Category Suggestions Relating To A Search (US Patent # 7523099)
Query Rewriting With Entity Detection (US Patent # 7536382)
Search Engine With Multiple Crawlers Sharing Cookies (US Patent # 7546370)
System And Method For Identifying Compounds Through Iterative Analysis (US Patent # 7555428)
Integration Of Multiple Query Revision Models (US Patent # 7565345)
System And Method Of Accessing A Document Efficiently Through Multi-Tier Web Caching (US Patent # 7565423)
Customization Of Search Results For Search Queries Received From Third Party Sites (US Patent # 7565630)
Multiple Index Based Information Retrieval System (US Patent # 7567959)
Merging Objects In A Facts Database (US Patent # 7567976)
Systems And Methods Of Synchronizing Indexes (US Patent # 7581227)
Browser-Based Spell Checker (US Patent # 7584426)
Method And Apparatus For Generating A Preference Ranking (US Patent # 7587391)
System And Method Of Accessing A Document Efficiently Through Multi-Tier Web Caching (US Patent # 7587398)
Determining Document Subject By Using Title And Anchor Text Of Related Documents (US Patent # 7590628)
Method And Apparatus For Reducing Memory Usage By Encoding Two Values In A Single Field (US Patent # 7592930)
System And Method For Enabling Website Owners To Manage Crawl Rate In A Website Indexing System (US Patent # 7599920)
Methods And Systems For Opportunistic Cookie Caching (US Patent # 7600028)
Search Result Ranking Based On Trust (US Patent # 7603350)
Variable-Length Compression Technique For Encoding Or Decoding A Sequence Of Integers (US Patent # 7609000)
Rank-Adjusted Content Items (US Patent # 7610282)
Preferential Ranking Of Code Search Results (US Patent # 7613693)
Inferring Search Category Synonyms From User Logs (US Patent # 7627548)
Determining Query Term Synonyms Within Query Context (US Patent # 7636714)
Information Extraction From A Database (US Patent # 7650330)
Variable-Length Compression Technique For Encoding Or Decoding A Sequence Of Integers (US Patent # 7652596)
Interactive Financial Charting And Related News Correlation (US Patent # 7653582)
Filtering Search Results Using Annotations (US Patent # 7668812)
Identifying Inadequate Search Content (US Patent # 7668823)
Systems And Methods For Inferring Concepts For Association With Content (US Patent # 7673253)
Methods And Systems For Improving Text Segmentation (US Patent # 7680648)
Methods And Systems For Detecting And Extracting Information (US Patent # 7689536)
Programmable Search Engine (US Patent # 7693830)
Aggregating Context Data For Programmable Search Engines (US Patent # 7716199)
Document Ranking Based On Semantic Distance Between Terms In A Document (US Patent # 7716216)
Ranking Documents Based On User Behavior And/Or Feature Data (US Patent # 7716225)
Scheduler For Search Engine Crawler (US Patent # 7725452)
Custom Search Index (US Patent # 7725453)
System And Method For Updating Facts In A Fact Repository (US Patent # 7739212)
Facilitating Searches Through Content Which Is Accessible Through Web-Based Forms (US Patent # 7739258)
Detecting Spam Related And Biased Contexts For Programmable Search Engines (US Patent # 7743045)
Finding Text On A Web Page (US Patent # 7752222)
Learning Facts From Semi-Structured Text (US Patent # 7769579)
Web Crawler Scheduler That Utilizes Sitemaps From Websites (US Patent # 7769742)
Method And Apparatus For Classifying Documents Based On User Inputs (US Patent # 7769751)
Limiting Requests By Web Crawlers To A Web Host (US Patent # 7774782)
Determining Quality Of Linked Documents (US Patent # 7783639)
Method And System For Dynamically Generating Search Links Embedded In Content (US Patent # 7788245)
Systems And Methods For Category-Based Search (US Patent # 7788274)
Entity Name Recognition (US Patent # 7792837)
Systems And Methods For Determining Document Freshness (US Patent # 7797316)
Sitemap Generating Client For Web Crawler (US Patent # 7801881)
System And Method For Determining A Composite Score For Categorized Search Results (US Patent # 7814085)
Automatic Generation Of Rewrite Rules For Urls (US Patent # 7827254)
Identifying The Unifying Subject Of A Set Of Facts (US Patent # 7831545)
System And Method For Displaying Both Time Information Search Results And Internet Search Results (US Patent # 7836041)
Methods And Systems For Efficient Query Rewriting (US Patent # 7840547)
Search Engine Cache Control (US Patent # 7840557)
Sitemap Generation Where Last Modified Time Is Not Available To A Network Crawler (US Patent # 7865497)
Query Revision Using Known Highly-Ranked Queries (US Patent # 7870147)
Representing N-Gram Language Models For Compact Storage And Fast Retrieval (US Patent # 7877258)
Selectively Deleting Clusters Of Conceptually Related Words From A Generative Model For Text (US Patent # 7877371)

Groupfire, Incorporated d/b/a/ Outride, Inc.

System And Method For Searching And Recommending Objects From A Categorically Organized Information Repository (US Patent # 7031961)
Interface And System For Providing Persistent Contextual Relevance For Commerce Activities In A Networked Environment (US Patent # 7089237)

Infoseek Corporation

Document Retrieval Over Networks Wherein Ranking And Relevance Scores Are Computed At The Client For Multiple Database Documents (US Patent # 5659732)
Method For Automatically Selecting Collections To Search In Full Text Searches (US Patent # 5845278)
Performing Automated Document Collection And Selection By Providing A Meta-Index Values Identifying Corresponding Document Collections (US Patent # 5983216)
Methods For Iteratively And Interactively Performing Collection Selection In Full Text Searches (US Patent # 6018733)
Document Retrieval System With Access Control (US Patent # 7031954)

Invenda Corporation

Presentation Of Search Results Using Dynamic Categorization (US Patent # 6385602)

Verizon

Adaptive Ranking System For Information Retrieval (US Patent # 5321833)

Security Patents

Google

Image Distortion For Content Security (US Patent # 7561755)

Green Border Technologies, Inc.

Methods And Systems For Providing A Secure Application Environment Using Derived User Accounts (US Patent # 7191469)
Method And System For Assured Denotation Of Application Semantics (US Patent # 7406542)
Systems And Methods For Secure Client Applications (US Patent # 7694328)
Altered States Of Software Component Behavior (US Patent # 7698713)

Segmentation Patents

Google

Document Segmentation Based On Visual Gaps (US Patent # 7421651)
Agent Rank (US Patent # 7565358)
Methods And Systems For Analyzing Data In Media Material Having Layout (US Patent # 7801358)

Shopping Search Patents

Google

Methods And Systems For Output Of Search Results (US Patent # 7647300)
Method And System To Produce And Train Composite Similarity Functions For Product Normalization (US Patent # 7702631)
Methods And Systems For Information Extraction (US Patent # 7836038)

Social Networking Patents

Google

Methods And Systems For Requesting And Providing Information In A Social Network (US Patent # 7359894)
Location-Based Social Software For Mobile Devices (US Patent # 7593740)
System And Method For Impromptu Shared Communication Spaces (US Patent # 7610287)
Methods And Systems For Providing Blog Information Associated With A Member Of A Social Network (US Patent # 7613769)
Automatic Generation And Recommendation Of Communities In A Social Network (US Patent # 7680770)
Methods And Systems For Triggering Actions (US Patent # 7702653)
Methods And Systems For Controlling Access To Relationship Information In A Social Network (US Patent # 7716140)
Open Profile Content Identification (US Patent # 7730017)
Methods And Systems For Endorsing Local Search Results (US Patent # 7827176)
Method, System, And Graphical User Interface For Identifying And Communicating With Meeting Spots (US Patent # 7831917)

Software Patents

Google

Hypertext Browser Assistant (US Patent # 7421432)
Access To A Target Object With Desired Functionality (US Patent # 7644416)
Autosave Functionality For Web Browser (US Patent # 7882072)

Vehicle Patents

Google

Vehicle Information Systems And Methods (US Patent # 7469827)
Generating Attribute Models For Use In Adaptive Navigation Systems (US Patent # 7680749)

IBM

Method For Representing Automotive Device Functionality And Software Services To Applications Using Javabeans (US Patent # 6236909)
Method And Apparatus For Displaying Information In A Vehicle (US Patent # 6356812)
Method And Apparatus For Presenting Traffic Information In A Vehicle (US Patent # 6442473)
Autonomous Destination Determination (US Patent # 7418342)
Dynamic Vehicle Grid Infrastructure To Allow Vehicles To Sense And Respond To Traffic Conditions (US Patent # 7425903)
Method And System For Sending Events Between Vehicles (US Patent # 7443284)
Systems And Methods For Generating Pattern Keys For Use In Navigation Systems To Predict User Detinations (US Patent # 7487017)
Dynamic Vehicle Grid Infrastructure To Allow Vehicles To Sense And Respond To Traffic Conditions (US Patent # 7782227)
System For Sending Events Between Vehicles (US Patent # 7821381)

Virtual Machine Task Management Patents

Peakstream Inc.

Multi-Thread Runtime System (US Patent # 7814486)

Visual Modeling

@Last Software, Inc.

System And Method For Three-Dimensional Modeling (US Patent # 6628279)

Voice Search Patents

Google

Voice Interface For A Search Engine (US Patent # 7027987)
Method And System For Processing Queries Initiated By Users Of Mobile Devices (US Patent # 7643822)
Automatic Language Model Update (US Patent # 7756708)

Verizon

Word Dependent N-Best Search Method (US Patent # 5241619)

Web Authoring Patents

Google

Web Page Authoring Tool For Structured Documents (US Patent # 7536641)
Methods And Apparatuses For Formatting Web Pages (US Patent # 7581173)
Formatting A User Network Site Based On User Preferences And Format Performance Data (US Patent # 7603619)
Online Content Collaboration Model (US Patent # 7797274)
Web-Page Authoring Tool For Automatic Enrollment In Advertising Program (US Patent # 7840648)

Web Spam Patents

Google

Information Retrieval Based On Historical Data (US Patent # 7346839)
Captcha-Based Spam Control For Content Creation Systems (US Patent # 7680891)

Weight Loss Patents

This may or may not be a mistake on the part of the patent office. Based upon the title, it might not seem to be a Google patent, but when you see terms like “Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient,” you wonder.

Google

Method Of Assaying Satiety Enhancing Tastants (US Patent # 7820208)

Wireless and Mobile/Phone Patents

I wasn’t surprised that this seems to be the quickest growing category in my look at Google’s patents. I suspect that it will continue to grow at a pretty quick rate in the future.

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