Today search giant Google has been awarded a patent related to their instant search feature, a function which in which users can type a query into the site's search bar and have results appear in real-time.
The description is as follows:
A search system monitors the input of a search query by a user. Before the user finishes entering the search query, the search system identifies and sends a portion of the query as a partial query to the search engine. Based on the partial query, the search engine creates a set of predicted queries. This process may take into account prior queries submitted by a community of users, and may take into account a user profile. The predicted queries are be sent back to the user for possible selection. The search system may also cache search results corresponding to one or more of the predicted queries in anticipation of the user selecting one of the predicted queries. The search engine may also return at least a portion of the search results corresponding to one or more of the predicted queries.
We know that Apple was granted a similar patent for "Immediate search feedback" from within their Safari Google search bar. A patent we wrote about a few months ago: Here.
Everyone wants instant search these days.
[Via Free Patents Online]
Accessories & Apps: Beta Testers Wanted
iOS Firmware/IPSW Download Guide
Legacy iTunes Download Archive
App Store Top Charts
iPhone and Android Resale Value Charts
USA iPhone Carrier Plans Compared
Complete iPhone Jailbreaking Guide 
Complete iPhone Specification Matrix 
My name is Pal Sahota and the company name is Pal Systems Ltd. This is the same technology I invented it in 1989 and I called it search-as-you-type. Google are calling it under a few names including Search-as-you-Type (SayT) see below links.
http://code.google.com/p/search-as-you-type/
And their demo video on
The name of search-as-you-type was coined by me and used as our branded product and this can be clearly seen in the newspaper articles in my blog.
There are also two videos made in 1991 which can also be seen from this blog.
Watching these videos it can be clearly seen that the data is accessed in the same way as shown in the above Google demo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFb87HRbKYQ
My product Autodispens used search-as-you-type everywhere and not just for accessing data. I believe that every type of “real time parsing algorithm” application is covered in this extensive program and this was done in DOS and on the very first PC’s. Am I going to have to pay royalties to use my own product done in 1989!
Until 2008 software in the UK was not patentable but was automatically covered under the copyright law. Is the US undermining UK copyright laws! There are dozens of concepts that I have developed based on this. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is any question you wish to ask me.
My name is Pal Sahota and I think that USPTO should be more accountable if they have made a mistake in issuing a patent because they have not done enough research especially in cases of ‘prior art’. Google recently got a patent for ‘instant’ search United States Patent 7836044. This is ‘prior art’ as this technology was pioneered by me in 1989. The full details are disclosed in my open letter below