After a five and a half year fight, Google and its attorneys have managed to convince federal bureaucrats to bestow a patent on the company’s iconic home page. We always thought the page was brain-dead simple, but apparently it’s an innovative “graphical user interface (GUI).”..
While other search engines turned into portals (for example altavista), Google’s homepage didn’t change that much over time. In 2004, Google filed a patent for google.com’s design and 5 years later the patent has been granted.
It’s not clear how the company, already under scrutiny from antitrust regulators, will wield the patent against competitors. The Yahoo Search page, depicted at left, bears a striking resemblance to Google.com, while Microsoft’s Bing, which features a photo and several headlines, is more distinct.
