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With its habit of throwing out random upgrades, Google’s always demonstrated a certain ability to surprise us. Now its Chinese competitor, Baidu, has achieved the same effect by launching a patent search service.
Baidu’s edge on Google has often been attributed to its deeper understanding of Chinese culture, and, if we’re to hit upon one less esoteric characteristic, its MP3 search engine. A patent search service just didn’t appear to be in the cards. But it is nevertheless a good idea.
Lynn Qu, who covered the development, points out that Google already offers patent search services in the U.S., so this may have been a matter of Baidu beating it to the punch.
In another piece, Wang Hongjiang states, "Statistics from the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) showed that patent applications accepted by SIPO reached one million after 15 years. It took 50 months for the figure to reach two million, and only 27 months for three million." So maybe Baidu was just responding to a market demand.
Either way, it’ll be interesting to see what effect this release has on search shares in China, and if Google makes any response in the near future.
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