14 DAY TRIAL // This past week, Google was awarded a new patent that will make the company the legal owner of technology that inserts polls inside search results.
The patent itself is an instant candidate for EFF's Stupid Patent of the Month award, mainly because (read in a sarcastic voice) nobody would have ever thought of inserting a poll on the website they've built before, so it makes sense that Google owns the "poll + search results" combination.
The issue of tech companies receiving legal-binding patents for trivial things, like phones with rounded corners (looking at you, Apple), and drag sliders (now at you, Microsoft), is a problem that has eroded the American patent system and made it a mockery of what it was supposed to be. But we'll leave that discussion for another day.
Another silly patent awarded by US authorities
If you read the patent, it's just a whole bunch of legal terms, pure gibberish that when narrowed down to its essence, it allows Google to insert polls at the top of your search results when you're looking for specific terms.
Many narrow-minded people have quickly hailed Google as innovative, as a company dedicated to the greater good, trying to allow people to vote using their Web browser.
In reality, things couldn't be farther from the truth. If the US had wanted to allow people to vote online, they would have done it for years, since the technology is available, and if you can do taxes online, you could probably vote just as easily.
Did anyone say ads?
This new patent is merely here to block other companies from showing polls in search results in the same way Google does (or pays to do so), effectively acting as a legal shield for a new revenue stream.
Google won't be running polls for popularity contests. The company will likely use this data for its Trends database, its advertising division, or for the benefit of many of its other services.
Theoretically, it could also rent it out if they wished, allowing other companies to run polls and get millions of results within hours, leveraging Google's immense daily traffic, instead of pestering users with polls on their own homepages.
Google will no doubt go by the book in regards to user privacy and provide options for users to opt-out, in some way or form. Just make sure to visit your Google account settings when you start seeing polls you don't want to participate in.
