Microsoft is hardly unknown at the patent office, but when it on November 2 handed in over 90 new patents there was one kind that dominated; search engine-related patents. Microsoft usually doesn’t apply for so many patents in this area at the same time so this could very well indicate that it is trying to get back some of the market shares Google once took from it. At Slashdot they’ve gathered some information about the patents, which covers everything from optimizing searches to identifying results which is spam an linking of related requests. It’s hard making in real conclusion from a few patents, but it really seems that Microsoft is spending a lot more time and energy in its search engine than before. After the launch of IE7 it’s time to look over its perhaps most important tool: MSN Search.
