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December 17, 2006

Google Adds More Services to the Homepage

This is strange. Google added two new services to the "More" menu: blog search and the newly-released patent search. I don't know how many people are interested in blog search, but adding patent search is an unwise decision.

Maybe Google should let people customize the list.



Update: I went to google.com using another browser, and the homepage didn't have blog search and patent search. That means it's a limited test.

8 comments:

  1. Maybe it's intelligent enough to know that you have at one time used Patent search, so it adds it to the list. Just like it adds links to your google services such as docs, calendar, etc once you've used them once.

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  2. I'm not seeing it on my page, so you're right that it is a limited run. Kody's point is interesting and not necessarily ruled out by it being a limited trial. Hopefully, google will start adding relevant blog search results to its normal search in the same way it does with news.

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  3. Yeah, its not showing up on mine either. Why is Google patent search an unwise decision? I like the idea of a 'customizable' drop down menu. Doesn't seem it would be that difficult to implement.

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  4. In my "more" menu, Scholar service can be found there.
    http://www.eryi.org/SearchEngines/google-personalized-page-add-patent.html

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  5. rick says: Why is Google patent search an unwise decision?

    Because not many people would use it. Google Finance or Google Scholar have a bigger audience, for example.

    kody says: Maybe it's intelligent enough to know that you have at one time used Patent search, so it adds it to the list.

    I thought about that. The changes are somehow dependent on the cookie, because I can see the new services in Firefox even if I sign out. If it were as you say, Google would chose the services you use the most. I've only used Patent Search 30 min-1 hour when it was launched.

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  6. On the home page I don't see the the blog and Patent search options. But if do a search, they become available in the list, no matter what I search for.

    Why it only shows after doing a search is anyone's guess. I think it has been done in error though.

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  7. To see I'm not talking nonsense, here's another change.

    Google Blog Search and Patent Search have Google's list of services: web, images, video, news...

    Google Patent Search had it from the moment it was launched. For Blog Search, this is new:



    Also this link: google.com/ptshp sends you to Google Patents Search. Google uses names like xyzhp for services linked from the homepage: webhp (web search), imghp (image search), nwshp (news search), frghp (Froogle), grphp (Groups), bkshp (Books).

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  8. Considering that Google can use searches to quantify information, I wonder if Google might be mining patent search information. Inventors who are searching for prior are information about their inventions could conceivably have their confidential information be compromised, and lose their invention or patent.

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