Google Address/Search Bar in Firefox
Sat, July 4th 2009 at 02:50pm
After using Chrome for just a few weeks I have already become accustom to the great address bar functionality it provides. With just one address bar where you can type addresses, searches, without thinking about it is a great thing. Now I am using Firefox 3.5 again I started searching for ways to duplicate the functionality and found something a little disturbing.
It seems that Google has already patented that functionality, and I am not sure how I feel about that.
First I hate patents on basic user interfaces like this. I mean this is an evolutionary design change, just a small step forward build on many other design ideas in all the other browsers. Now Google patents it. Maybe they will not enforce it, maybe they will.
As a programmer (I think I can still call myself that even though I have not coded in a while 
) I think I see writing code more like creative writing that I do building a product. Some great pieces of code can look more like poetry than just a method for making a computer do something.
When people file for patents on code, ideas or methods of doing things it seems more like patenting Shakespeare. Then saying no one can write a love story like Romeo and Julliet every again because that story has been patented. If they do then they can be sued and forced to pay royalties.
At first I was angry at Google, but then I started thinking about it. If Google does not patent it, then Microsoft or Apple probably will. If Microsoft or Apple get their grubby little hands on anything then they hold onto it so tight the whole idea will probably stagnate for years. Much like when Microsoft patented browser plug-ins and everyone had to work around it with less elegant solutions for a long time.
I would rather have Google own the patent than most other companies, but the problem is noone should have to patent anything like this. It just stifles creativity and slows progress. If I wanted to code some extension for Firefox that creates a unified address bar I would not think twice about even starting it. Would I be forced to remove the extension in the future? Could I be sued for it?
In the end I think it all comes back to our badly broken patent system more than Google filing this particular patent. I wonder if the open source community could form a patent group and start file patents just to protect them from other corporations?
Hopefully smarter people than me can figure something out to fix this, because it’s very frustrating as a developer to always have to worry that the simplest piece of code you are developing might be patented already.
