There are already about a thousand things on the internet that I can get wrapped up in to the point where I lose track of time.  Online videos… blogs… Yahoo! Games.  I've spent hours in front of the computer playing around with digital toys.  And I've found another one:  Google Patent Search.

Now before you scoff and call me an uber-nerd, go try it.

Google announced the beta version of Patent Search yesterday afternoon and since then I've been playing around with it.  The Google Book Search blog even posted about it as well, presumably because it uses technology and interface elements that are strikingly similar to Google Book Search.  And I'll be honest… when I first saw the posts, they didn't illicit a lot of excitement.  I thought "ya know… that's a nice new tool… it'll come in handy some day".

And then I went and tried it.

Before I knew what had happened, I'd spent an hour poking around the archived patents available there.  What makes it even more fun for casual lookers like myself is that the main Google Patent Search page displays five sample patents that change each time you refresh the page.  For instance, this morning I came across a patent for the Chistmas tree stand, a brine shrimp hatchery, a chicken breading machine, and a futuristic toy weapon.

Do you see how this could become addicting?

The search works well and I was able to quickly find a patent that I'd already seen by typing in a few keywords.  When you find a patent of interest, the display page features that famous Google less-is-more approach.  The original, scanned patent documents are available to look through as well as a nice, typed version of the abstract and claims section of the patent.  Google Patent Search also gives you the ability to search within the patent and view any citations or references to the patent in other patents.  And, of course, the drawings are also included.  If you'd rather view the information at the US Patent Office's website, there's a quick link to the same patent over there.  That'd be handy if you were going to contact the patent office directly about something.

Patent Search is a good addition to the Google family of specialty searches and it takes Google one step closer to its dream of organizing the world's information.  Other than the obvious professional uses for the tool, I think it's just a blast to play around with.