Long considered a dry area of academic research, search technology exploded into the business mainstream about two years ago, when it was realized that search results had the power to influence transactions. Search-engine advertising is now one of hottest segments of the rebounding Internet marketing sector, and helped fuel Yahoo’s earnings growth of 84% last year. The flip side of this newfound respect for search technology is a mad bloom of patents by players in the search market. Companies, having acquired and absorbed many of the smaller players in the search game, are racing to amass search patent arsenals as they prepare for a high-stakes war over the profitable technology that could one day control how most people get information. In addition, search is fast becoming an R&D priority at some of the biggest technology companies, including Microsoft and IBM. "They file patents like they're going out of style," said Jason Weiner, who plans to launch a new search engine called Dipsie later this year. "It's gotten much more important to make sure IP (intellectual property) is protected off the bat."
posted by Marcus Zillman |
4:05 AM
