Microsoft patent application -- do Internet searches like Megan Fox does
- TAGS:Bing, Google, Microsoft, patent
- IT TOPICS:Applications, E-Business, Internet, Operating Systems, Web Apps, Windows
Microsoft engineers are working overtime to come up with ways to differentiate Bing from Google and close the market gap between the two search engines. A new Microsoft patent application may never become a Bing feature, but it's an intriguing one: do Internet searches and have the results be filtered by the personalities and interests of a celebrity, including, Microsoft says, Megan Fox, among others.
GeekWire reported today about the patent application. The patent was filed in April 2010, but didn't become public until last week. You can read the application here.
The patent calls for designing a model of a celebrity or other person, including the person's interests, tastes, styles, and so on. As examples, Microsoft cites Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Megan Fox, and Jessica Lange.
Someone could then choose a celebrity, do an Internet search, and the results would be tailored for that celebrity. In Microsoft's example in the patent application, someone would use the Jessica Lange persona, search for a dress and:
...the list of dresses returned to the user may reflect Jessica Lange's style and/or fashion preferences, including, in the example of FIG. 7A, color, fit, designer, cut, etc.
The patent makes clear it's not just celebrities you would be able to do this for, but friends as well, presumably by grabbing information from them from social networking sites like Facebook.
Microsoft files plenty of patents, and this one may not be approved. And even it it is or isn't approved, Microsoft may never use it. I hope they do, though. What kind of search results would one get if one searched as Michele Bachmann? I shudder at the thought.
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