[Genealib] Google Patents: A drawback

[Mara Munroe]

I don't know how far back this is supposed to cover, but my
father-in-law's 1960 application is there, and so are patents for the
typewriter circa 1880. 

Mara B. Munroe
Local and Family History Librarian
Oshkosh Public Library
Oshkosh WI 54901-4985

"History is where the evidence leads us; heritage is what we choose to
remember and celebrate."  Edward T. Linenthal
-----Original Message-----
From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Cynthia Van
Ness
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 1:35 PM
To: genealib
Subject: [Genealib] Google Patents: A drawback

Not to rain on everyone's parade, but according to the patents
expert in my library, Google has not enhanced the existing USPTO
database--for example, doing OCR and indexing all existing
patents from before 1976.  They just applied their search engine
to what USPTO already digitized.

Try searching on Koosh ball--you know, those stringy, rubbery
ball toys from the 1980s.  You will not find it because Koosh
was a trade name given to the product after the patent was
granted.  You have to know to look for balls, filaments, and so
on, and browse through 50 or more patents to find the right one.
 This is a search process that even I know little about after
decades in librarianship.  Now picture the average layperson
going at it.

This is a problem with specialized databases that Google's magic
cannot solve: the fact that the language that the end user
brings to the search screen does not necessarily match the
vocabulary used by the creators of the database.


*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com
http://www.BuffaloResearch.com

"Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living.
City living by its definition is crowded.  It is tolerant of other
people.  It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a
hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective
energy that a city generates."     --Robert N. Davis, Jr., May 4, 2004
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