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Is Google AutoLink Patent-Pending By Microsoft?

Posted by timothy on from the what-would-ben-franklin-do dept.

theodp writes "While Google pooh-poohed any comparison of its controversial AutoLink feature to Microsoft's SmartTag technology, Google's generation of dynamic links to maps and use of ISBN numbers to trigger links to booksellers cover the same territory as Microsoft's 2000 patent application for Providing electronic commerce actions based on semantically labeled strings, whose sole inventor - Jeff Reynar - was the lead SmartTag Program Manager while at MS and is reportedly now a Google Product Manager who's being credited as AutoLink's creator. Reynar's patent applications that have been assigned to Microsoft, including one for Smart Links and Tags, describe a world of 'recognizer' plug-ins that automatically look at every document a user creates, receives or views, transmitting messages to 'action' plug-ins - and even to the plug-ins' authors - that can be used to decide what info you'll be presented with, what options you'll be given, what price you'll pay for goods, and even who you'll be permitted to buy from."

5 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Apple did it first anyway. by mcc · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apple had an API some years before the entire Microsoft "smart tags" mess which allowed programs to sign up to flag certain types of text anywhere in the system and define operations you could do on them. It was an experimental/research thing, like OpenDoc, and I don't believe it ever was allowed into an OS release, you had to download it. The only plugin that this API came with-- and as far as I know the only one that anyone ever bothered making-- was one that recognized URLs and email addresses whenever they were printed anywhere in the system, and turned them into functional hyperlinks. I am afraid I can't remember the exact name, it was something really generic like "Apple Text Activation Services".

    The only thing this patented Microsoft system seems to add is the idea of the link being calculated on a remote server rather than locally; this is a truly trivial step from what Apple's system explicitly did, and one that may not even exactly describe the google toolbar system.

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    Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
  2. Re:Your Rights Online? by laughingcoyote · · Score: 4, Informative

    Software patents gravely affect the rights of every developer out there, where have YOU been living?

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    To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
  3. Re:Your Rights Online? by Goalie_Ca · · Score: 2, Informative

    Surprisingly enough, there are many /.'ers who dev for a living. Sadly, news of such patents affects end users as well.

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    Go canucks, habs, and sens!
  4. How to defeat Google's linking by Everyman · · Score: 2, Informative

    The new toolbar creates links on specific text if no links exist, but you can shield this text with a null link and make the toolbar look like it's broken. Instructions here.

  5. Prior Art by SJ · · Score: 3, Informative

    This patent should not be granted.

    I can't for the life of me remember the name for it, but back in the days of MacOS 9, Apple had some software that would parse any text on the screen and present you with a contextual menu that would be full of links to various things you could do with it.

    It would be able to recognize a physical address and present you with a map. It could recognize email and web addresses in any application. It would add dates to your calendar and any number of other definable things.

    Thats the name...

    Apple Data Detectors.
    http://www.miramontes.com/writing/add-cacm/add-cac m.html

    Would this not be exactly what the SmartTags patent is all about?