Google nabs patent to monitor your cursor movements

From TechEye:


It's not a long article but it does come with a graphic to show how the system would work. Worth checking out at the link above.

BONUS: Worth checking out the informed and almost-always humorous commentary from SlashDot users HERE.

What will your hover-pic be? I'm planning on hovering my mouse over this picture and see what ads Google decides to provide me with:


If we can't beat the machines, maybe we can drive them insane.

PB

Its shit they are allowed to patent it. I expect this to be held up in court eventually.

On edit: Maybe their implementation is different or something

...allowed to patent is just absolutely idiotic. And figuring out what the fuck is what legally takes up so much money and time it's ridiculous.

PB

Nobody remembers Tiny Elvis, I suppose, the windows program from 1995 or 96. Little Elvis sat on your screen, and commented on what your cursor did from time to time. If you hovered over an icon, for example, Elvis would say something like, "Look at that icon! That sucker's HUGE!" Still available somewhere on the tubes.

So its a bit different from that.

But, its not new. Sounds entirely like AJAX driven functionality, and AJAX has been around for a very long time. Cursor driven AJAX applications that return dynamic content from remote database driven servers isn't ground breaking by any means

Since any web app can detect mousehover, it's not too difficult to use that to do pretty much whatever you want.

Thats why dynamic web apps are becoming useful for business administration software. You can do anything with them now, and make them behave like a normal program without page loads (so you get instant compatibility on all computers, and applications accessible by multiple people from everywhere). A single page can submit information elsewhere, read the result, and display new content.

And here is the problem.... For some people who already use similar technology to query their database and return results, are they now suddenly violating Google's patent? I have plenty of AJAX applications Ive written myself that create popups from remote database driven servers based on keystrokes (not mouse overs). What happens when that technology is patented? How about those that do this with mouseovers? Do they suddenly owe Google money now? What if they did this before Google?

Technology like this expands the internet and makes it work for everyone more. When a single entity start owning easily replicable ideas that are not fresh, and are useful, it will impede the progress of technological developments on the web. Its like taking steps out of a ladder....makes fewer people able to work on getting higher, and higher.

not that familiar with the current state of things. It doesn't sound good, though.

I finally decided to just focus on creating content. It's what I do best, so I don't have to work quite as hard in my old age. I let the young guys do the development. I just provide the words.

More shit popping up on my screen when all I'm trying to do is click a link. All this added busy-ness will only turn me off.

And if that fails I can always disable Javascript.

I'm using Linux, so I don't know if their technology will even work with Linux browsers like Konqueror or Dillo, which I use regularly. Dillo, in particular, cuts through all the javascript, doesn't recognize flash animation...cuts any bloated web site to the bone with just images, links, and text. I couldn't live without it!

Also, I have carpal tunnel syndrome, so I use the mouse as little as possible. I don't hover over anything; just tab to the link and click by hitting the enter button.

So basically, Google can piss off. :evilgrin:

I clicked on this post.