Google's Comical New Social Networking Patent

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Google's Comical New Social Networking Patent

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday January 1, 2014 @01:12AM from the i-see-what-you-did-there dept.

theodp writes "GeekWire reports on Google's just-granted patent on creating and sharing social network status updates in the form of comic strips, a la Bitstrips. Google also envisions an educational role for its new invention, which the search giant has dubbed the Self-Creation of Comic Strips in Social Networks and Other Communications. Google explains, 'Aside from humor, such comic strips are also usable for education, for instance in summarizing a real-time conversation between two political leaders as it is happening. By posting such a comic strip on a social network facility such as a social network blog or tweet, others may more readily follow the flow of the conversation than if it had been summarized in plain text.'"

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Google Peanuts by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-01 01:14 · Score: 2, Funny

Charlie Brown tries to kick a beta Google football. Lucy retires it right before Charlie Brown gets a chance to kick it.
microsoft comic chat? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-01-01 01:16 · Score: 1

the world really doesn't need jerkcityr or jerkcity 2.0,...
Once again by smittyoneeach · 2014-01-01 01:17 · Score: 1

Life imitates Dilbert.

--
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Bit strips updates OTHER people's status as your o by MickLinux · 2014-01-01 01:19 · Score: 1

I certainly hope they included in the patent 1) only letting people say what Google wants them to say, 2) Only including comics that are already predrawn with pre-existing text, only the name being different 3) not permitting the mention of anyone without an online existance.
Because those elements are key to their business model.

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Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Microsoft Comic Chat by comm3c · 2014-01-01 01:20 · Score: 3, Interesting

Seems like it did mostly the same thing?
1. Re:Microsoft Comic Chat by gl4ss · 2014-01-01 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  Last time this avenue of research was investigated, it didn't turn out well. Microsoft Comic Chat was responsible for giving the world Comic Sans.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans_MS
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat
  if you're too remember it yourself, the timeline doesn't match. so it existed before comic chat.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Google Legal Chief: Patent Reform a Balancing Act by theodp · 2014-01-01 01:21 · Score: 1

Google Legal Chief: Patent Reform a Balancing Act: "The U.S. patent system makes it too easy for companies to get patents on software."
Re:What does Google get out of this? by MickLinux · 2014-01-01 01:22 · Score: 1

You don't get to say what you want; you get to select from a list of what Google wants you to say. It's part of the new Corporate Free Speech (TM).

--
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I remember this...15+ years ago. by geekmux · 2014-01-01 01:22 · Score: 1

What is described above is essentially MS Comic Chat, which I had fun with back in 1998.
Given the Patent Clone Wars, what I find comical here is that Microsoft hasn't cued up their lawyers yesterday on it.
1. Re:I remember this...15+ years ago. by theodp · 2014-01-01 01:29 · Score: 1
  
  To be more specific, released in 1996 according to its creator,
2. Re:I remember this...15+ years ago. by ledow · 2014-01-01 01:45 · Score: 1
  
  Bloody thing - used to screw up the IRC channels that you tried to use it in (that was the IRC-based one, right?) by pumping tons of metadata about the comic into the channel.
  Most places banned people using it.
3. Re:I remember this...15+ years ago. by gl4ss · 2014-01-01 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  yes.
  #appears as a sexy dude
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
4. Re:I remember this...15+ years ago. by geekmux · 2014-01-01 05:00 · Score: 1
  
  Bloody thing - used to screw up the IRC channels that you tried to use it in (that was the IRC-based one, right?) by pumping tons of metadata about the comic into the channel.
  Most places banned people using it.
  Yes, and today we handle that by crashing servers and building more infrastructure to handle all of the marketing dat, er I mean customers.
  No one bans anything anymore. Too much money in buying and selling our private data these days, and zero regulations preventing it, by lobbyist design of course.
5. Re: I remember this...15+ years ago. by hoifelot · 2014-01-01 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  "No one bans anything anymore." Be careful what you ask for.
6. Re:I remember this...15+ years ago. by MrDoh! · 2014-01-01 11:43 · Score: 1
  
  Was a later version that allowed you to turn off that metadata sent at the beginning of everyline, and it still did a decent job of figuring out stuff and showing expressive characters. Was a neat and fun toy.
  
  --
  Waiting for an amusing sig.
This could be huge, stick with me on this one ... by Grindalf · 2014-01-01 01:24 · Score: 1

Why this could bite Zuck and his “Face Book” wordo box ladder! It could be the fight of the century! Forget mobile wars, this is the big one! Think of the legal fees to be made! I can see it all now :0)

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The purpose of existence is to make money.
Thanks by StripedCow · 2014-01-01 01:28 · Score: 2

Google engineers are brilliant!
They have found the cure against the number 1 killer disease in the US... boredom!
Thank you, Google, for saving us! As a gift in return, you may have a peek at all our personal affairs.

--
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
1. Re:Thanks by DexterIsADog · 2014-01-01 01:43 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Google engineers are brilliant! They have found the cure against the number 1 killer disease in the US... boredom!
  Actually, I think what they are attempting to cure is literacy.
  
  Because god knows Americans are too proud of their command of standard English, and lord their impeccable grammar and spelling over the rest of the world.
2. Re:Thanks by QilessQi · 2014-01-01 06:54 · Score: 2
  
  Judging by the comments on certain internet fora in America, the most common languages currently appear to be:
  1. Vitriol
  2. Snarkese
  3. ALLCAPSISH
  4. $PAmm3R@ni@n!!
  5. LOLspeak and Doge.
  (I'm just kidding. No one speaks Doge.)
  
  --
  Koans and fables for the software engineer
Re:My posts on slashdot never go through by q.kontinuum · 2014-01-01 01:40 · Score: 1

Might be interesting, if it wasn't patented already...

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Trolling is a art!
Give 'em the [patented comic strip] news they want by theodp · 2014-01-01 01:48 · Score: 2

"nstead of giving people the news they need , why not give them the news they want ?"
--Ron Burgundy, Anchorman 2
Okay, I'll say it. by NekSnappa · 2014-01-01 01:57 · Score: 1

How is this patentable?

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I want to shoot the messenger!
1. Re:Okay, I'll say it. by Isarian · 2014-01-01 05:28 · Score: 1
  
  Fair question. How is rectangle with rounded edges patentable? http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/3614506/apple-patents-rectangle-with-rounded-corners
2. Re:Okay, I'll say it. by rockmuelle · 2014-01-01 05:48 · Score: 1
  
  The rectangle with rounded edges was a design patent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent) not a utlitity patent, which the Google patent is.
  I'm not saying the Google patent isn't bad, especially given the clear prior art with MS Comic Chat, but just that it's important to distinguish the types of patents when pointing out the inanity of the system. Design patents are a little easier to accept since they're closer to copyright on physical objects.
  -Chris
3. Re:Okay, I'll say it. by Theaetetus · 2014-01-01 09:05 · Score: 1
  
  The rectangle with rounded edges was a design patent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent) not a utlitity patent, which the Google patent is.
  ... Design patents are a little easier to accept since they're closer to copyright on physical objects.
  Sort of... They're actually closer to trade dress: if you have a distinctive trade dress or a granted design patent, then you can stop someone from using the design, even if they aren't actually copying you and never even saw your design, unlike copyright, which requires actual copying.
  
  I'm not saying the Google patent isn't bad, especially given the clear prior art with MS Comic Chat, but just that it's important to distinguish the types of patents when pointing out the inanity of the system.
  Having read both the Comic Chat article linked earlier, and the patent claims (which you clearly haven't done), I don't know how anyone could say that Comic Chat is "clear prior art"... At least in any way more meaningful than saying that the Model T is "clear prior art" to the Tesla Roadster, since it's prior, and it's in the art, but it sure wouldn't invalidate any patents on the latter.
  That's not to say the patent is necessarily valid... Just that Comic Chat, on its own, doesn't even begin to teach every element in the claims.
Heroine by tepples · 2014-01-01 02:08 · Score: 1

Heroine habit meaning your habit of choosing to play as a female trainer?
Is this an idea by Mister+Liberty · 2014-01-01 02:10 · Score: 1

or is it an implementation?

In unrelated news. Weren't you disappointed too in the New Year's Concert from Vienna?
I expected the NSA Polka and the Surveillance Waltz.

Happy New Year anyway!
Re:Bit strips updates OTHER people's status as you by MasterOfGoingFaster · 2014-01-01 02:20 · Score: 1

After I read TFA, I thought it might be a fun thing - like an XKCD version of Facebook. Then you mentioned Bit Strips, and my vision turned to horror.
God, I hate bit strips. Can't really say why, but it annoying really fast. I think it simply gave the masses yet another reason to say something stupid.

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Place nail here >+
Skip ahead by Reliable+Windmill · 2014-01-01 02:41 · Score: 1

Why not skip ahead and just try to patent the evolution of culture and using the Internet, right away? Fuck you and your stupid patents!

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Signature intentionally left blank.
Ancient commenter Solomon by smittyoneeach · 2014-01-01 03:05 · Score: 1

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Eccl 1:9

--
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
1. Re:Ancient commenter Solomon by FatdogHaiku · 2014-01-01 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  I would point out that one way or another anything that's actually new gets stuck where the sun don't shine... and that's working out pretty well for Doc Johnson...
  
  --
  You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Ladies : don't use Bitstrip in your dating profile by Dr_Barnowl · 2014-01-01 03:34 · Score: 1

.. having been separated last year, I've been hitting the internet dating, including Tinder.
Anyone who uses a Bitstrip as a profile photo gets rejected instantly unless they are very, very compelling otherwise. It just conveys a complete lack of honesty and originality to me..
Re:Bit strips updates OTHER people's status as you by Threni · 2014-01-01 04:17 · Score: 1

Lots of people say they hate them but they never give a reason either. Odd.
Re:Ladies : don't use Bitstrip in your dating prof by Theaetetus · 2014-01-01 08:50 · Score: 1

.. having been separated last year, I've been hitting the internet dating, including Tinder.
Anyone who uses a Bitstrip as a profile photo gets rejected instantly unless they are very, very compelling otherwise. It just conveys a complete lack of honesty and originality to me..
You assume, inaccurately, that they'd not want to be "instantly rejected" by someone that condescending.