Patent Searching Goes Google

Google has rewritten patent search. If you have ever tried to use the U.S. Patent Office's own patent search portal, you will understand how nice this is for both casual Internet meanderers and serious inventors.

One of the worst features of the U.S. Patent Office's application is its handling of images. Whenever you load one it is a roll of the dice whether you'll actually get it or not. The massive database relies on some outdated version of Quicktime that half the computers I have ever been on do not have and are unable to download. Then if you do have the "right" plugin it still screws up on the image loading (just tried it from a new computer and it loads about 1/5 of the page before getting stuck and giving up).

Compare them yourself: Google Patents | U.S. Patent Office

Chalk another one up for the technocrats.