The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology. The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It’s for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.

But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.

So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction. Today, Nortel selected our bid as the “stalking-horse bid,” which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate. In the absence of meaningful reform, we believe it’s the best long-term solution for Google, our users and our partners.

Posted by Kent Walker, Senior Vice President & General Counsel

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Google is about to launch their newest attempt to better social networking by introducing the +1 button to search results. This new feature will allow users to vote for a particular page they take an interest in by clicking the +1 button and sharing it with their network of friends. This addition to Google is much like the popular Like button that has already taken Facebook by storm.

When searching for a favorite vacation destination on Google, all somebody would have to do is click on the +1 button to the right of the link result and it would then be instantaneously shared with their network of friends and others across the web. Also, when a user performs a specific Google search, they will see every site that their friends and others +1’d beside the particular link results that might be of personal interest to them.

In order to be able to use the +1 button and see it in the search results, you will need a Google public profile. This will help users see who recommended a certain restaurant, clothing store, etc. A person’s +1 will be created in a new tab on your Google profile. The user has the option to keep their +1 tab private and just manage them for personal use, or they can share it with everyone they want to.

Social networking has become a huge factor in many successful businesses around the world. Facebook with its Like button and Twitter with its Tweet button have changed the way people are introduced to new information about millions of companies they might be interested in. Now Google’s +1 button will more easily help users to find new companies and see who in their network of friends as well as many other people have visited and +1’d their website of interest.

By having these new social networking features, businesses are able to get more traffic to their site without any expense incurred! The more +1 button clicks by a company’s link in a search result, the more likely they are to have a large amount of visitors to their website each day. Statistics have shown that the correlation between Facebook and Twitter shares (Like button, Tweet , comments) all go hand-and-hand with website rankings and linking root domains. Now with Google launching its +1 button, and soon with the ability to embed +1 on actual website content, the possibilities for companies to grow are virtually endless. Google’s +1 button is still being worked on, but if anyone is interested in learning more about this new social networking feature they can visit Google’s +1 page.

Noell works for Search-Placement Marketing located in South Florida. She enjoys writing about topics such as SEO, social media, and internet marketing. Search-Placement Marketing is an internet marketing firm specializing in SEO, Paid Search, and Social Media Marketing.

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