Patent Law Practice Center

More Fanciful? Google Glasses or Useful Online Reviews?

Two weeks ago Google quietly obtained a patent that might lead you to wonder whether it could revolutionize online ranking systems, making Internet reviews more accurate and meaningful. Of course, this invention was overshadowed by the published Google application titled Optical Display System and Method with Virtual Image Contrast Control, which relates to Google glasses. See U.S. Patent Application No. 20130063486. But Google glasses merely relate to a wearable optical display that resembles a pair of glass lenses resting on a user’s face.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding the cool factor presented by Google glasses, the much cooler and more relevant innovation embodied in U.S. Patent No. 8,396,879 relates to a method of ranking authors and their content in the same framework. I know, far less cool factor, but it could potentially create a completely new ranking system for user comments that helps users distinguish good reviews from bad ones. If Google can pull that off, it would solve so many problems now experienced by companies plagued by hostile, unfair, mean-spirited, damaging reviews. It could also provide a solution for those of us who genuinely want to know what we are going to get or what we might experience.

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