By 
After lots of speculation about a Google Phone, or an operating system from Google, we see a patent application published at the US Patent and Trademark Office, and assigned to Google, that primarily focuses upon a user interface for displaying search results on the small screens of handheld devices, and which suggests the use of special shortcuts using the limited keyboards of many phones.
Some of the screenshots from the application appear to infer that this user interface may do more than provide search results, and the description from the application also hints that this user interface may interact with other other software from Google, such as a data processing system that “may be supplied by Google.”
But, the claims listed in the patent filing are limited to describing a user interface that focuses upon search.
This second image hints at more, but the actual claims within the patent filing don’t go that far.
User interface for mobile devices
Invented by Sanjay Mavinkurve, Shumeet Baluja, and Maryam Kamvar
US Patent Application 20080005668
Published January 3, 2008
Filed June 30, 2006
Abstract
A computer-implemented method of displaying information on a mobile device is discussed.
The method includes displaying on the mobile device a first view having a first search result element in an expanded format and a plurality of additional search result elements in a collapsed format, receiving a user input that identifies a selected search result element from the plurality of additional search result elements, and in response to the user input, displaying on the mobile device a second view having one of the plurality of additional search result elements in an expanded format, and the remainder of the plurality of additional search result elements in a collapsed format.
thanks for a future covering! Very interesting.
Just one more Google finger in Google pie
As you suggest, Bill, this patent like so many others from Google is intriguing for what we may be able to read between the lines. 2008 is going to be an interesting year once the wraps are taken off Google’s complete mobile strategy.
@tobto – You’re welcome
@SpostareDuro,
Yep, and they have lots of fingers. Good for them that it’s a big pie.
@Barry,
There are some intriguing parts, indeed. Most of it seems like what we already know, or have seen of how Google works on Mobile devices. It’s difficult to tell exactly what it is between the lines that we’re looking at, but there does some to be some interesting stuff there.
Hopefully we will see a lot more of that mobile strategy in 2008.
[...] By chance, the US Patent Office has already published in 2008 a Google Patent Application on a User Interface for a Phone, which Bill Slawski describes: User interface for mobile devices Invented by Sanjay Mavinkurve, Shumeet Baluja, and Maryam Kamvar US Patent Application 20080005668 Published January 3, 2008 Filed June 30, 2006 [...]