Anyone who has performed an extensive patent search knows what an arduous task it can be, even with the search features at the Patent and Trademark Office’s website. Well, finally, Google has applied their search technology to the task, in the form of a beta version patent search! You can try it out here. I found it to be worthy of the ‘beta’ moniker – it works well, but some features are still lacking. For example, the ‘read this patent’ buttons weren’t working for me, but if I click on one of the images, I can navigate through the patent pages that way.