Ask 1000 people the question, “Give me an example of a search engine” and chances are more than 900 of them will say, “Google”. It is no secret that Google dominates the search space, so if we looked at the results we would probably find Yahoo as the second company, and probably Bing comes in at third.

According to eBizMBA Ranking (Aug 2014), it is

1. Google,
2. Bing,
3. Yahoo,
4. Ask,
5. AOL.

According to comScore (Feb 2014), it’s:

1. Google,
2. Bing,
3. Yahoo,
4. Ask,
5. AOL

According to Alexa, it’s:

1. Google,
2. Yahoo,
3. Bing,
4. Ask,
5. DuckDuckGo.

Well, as far as traffic is concerned, according to Alexa the highest traffic sites are:

1. Google,
2. Facebook,
3. Yahoo,
4. Youtube,
5. Amazon,
6. Wikipedia,
7. LinkedIn,
8. Twitter,
9. Ebay,
10. Craigslist,
11. and Bing coming in at 11th in the USA, and 23rd Globally.

Looking at this list, I would say Google should be most afraid of one company in the list. Yahoo, and Microsoft (Bing) should also be afraid of one company in the list. Which one is it? Before I tell you, I have to also say, that this company doesn’t even appear in the radar as far as Search Engines are concerned, yet it is the most efficient and most targeted when it comes to products.

So if you haven’t guessed it by now, it is the company that is becoming all things to all people, while still maintaining its focus on bringing all products to all people. Yes, It’s Amazon. It is a search engine, it’s very efficient. When someone goes there, more often than not, they are looking to buy, they are not there just looking up information for their research paper.

It is a site with the richest consumer behavior information. It is a site that can convert the most visitor to it’s own products. Google sends people to other locations, so do Yahoo, Bing and all the others. Ebay is a close cousin, but the products that it sells are not its own, and the way they keep increasing the fees to the sellers, it has become more and more of a problem for the seller.

I would call Amazon, a diamond in the rough. I would call it the most powerful company in the world. They even got the post office to start delivering on Sunday for goodness sakes! I would be afraid of Amazon, more than Yahoo, Bing or DuckDuckGo. (Well, maybe not DuckDuckGo, they are coming up fast. With all the NSA stuff, a lot of people are using it now).

So a word to the wise, I would keep an eye on Amazon. I am amazed at the innovation in the consumer behavior, specially purchasing and motivation, that comes from this company. More power to you Jeff. You are a genius.

Below information is from eBizMBA Ranking . you can go to the actual page by clicking the link on the left.
Notable Note: Compare the monthly visitors of #1, 2 & 3.  1.1 Billion, 350Million and 300 Million. Google in a league all its own.

1 | Google
1 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,100,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1 – Compete Rank | 1 – Quantcast Rank | 1 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

2 | Bing
15 – eBizMBA Rank | 350,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 5 – Compete Rank | 19 – Quantcast Rank | 22 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

3 | Yahoo! Search
18 – eBizMBA Rank | 300,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *8* – Compete Rank | *28* – Quantcast Rank | NA – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

4 | Ask
25 – eBizMBA Rank | 245,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 14 – Compete Rank | 31 – Quantcast Rank | 31 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

5 | Aol Search
245 – eBizMBA Rank | 125,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *250* – Compete Rank | *240* – Quantcast Rank | NA – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

6 | Wow
271 – eBizMBA Rank | 100,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 20 – Compete Rank | *26* – Quantcast Rank | 767 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

7 | WebCrawler
511 – eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 100 – Compete Rank | 759 – Quantcast Rank | 674 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

8 | MyWebSearch
545 – eBizMBA Rank | 60,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *105* – Compete Rank | 1,124 – Quantcast Rank | 405 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

9 | Infospace
892 – eBizMBA Rank | 24,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *66* – Compete Rank | *500* – Quantcast Rank | 2,110 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

10 | Info
1,064 – eBizMBA Rank | 13,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 378 – Compete Rank | 877 – Quantcast Rank | 1,938 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

11 | DuckDuckGo
2,153 – eBizMBA Rank | 13,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,323 – Compete Rank | 3,479 – Quantcast Rank | 658 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

12 | Blekko
2,280 – eBizMBA Rank | 12,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 862 – Compete Rank | 1,461 – Quantcast Rank | 4,518 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

13 | Contenko
2,402 – eBizMBA Rank | 11,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *200* – Compete Rank | *2,500* – Quantcast Rank | 4,505 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

14 | Dogpile
2,421 – eBizMBA Rank | 10,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,734 – Compete Rank | 1,446 – Quantcast Rank | 3,084 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

15 | Alhea
4,300 – eBizMBA Rank | 7,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 451 – Compete Rank | *1,225* – Quantcast Rank | 11,225 – Alexa Rank | September 1, 2014.
The Most Popular Search Engines | eBizMBA

Amazon

When people talk about patents, they feel it’s just free, “Just patent it…” If you talk to an attorney these days, they start at $25,000. Well, which is it? Let me give you an idea.

Do You Really Need A Patent?

The first thing you need to evaluate is, Do You Need A Patent? Coca Cola doesn’t. Google didn’t get one till they were ready to change their search algorithm. The vast majority of products and inventions out there are not patented. Why is that? Well, two reasons, not filing because of intimidation or laziness, but more importantly, not giving others the real secrets of what the secret sauce or process is.

Is It Easy To Reverse Engineer?

So if the product, service or process is easy to reverse engineer, in other words, when you release it to the public, can someone analyze it and make an exact duplicate or maybe even a better unit or process or recipe easily? Then by all means, patent it. If it is not easy to reverse engineer, and you plan on keeping a competitive advantage for a long time (Like Coca Cola, with their formula), then you should not. Keep in mind that a utility patent is only good for 20 years (If filed after June 8, 1995) and a design patent is only good for 14 years.

So if you are an inventor and make less than about $150k/yr (3x the median salary of a regular household of $50k/yr), you can qualify as a Micro Entity. If you make more than $150k/yr, but are an individual, a university, non-profit or a small company (Less than 500 employees), then you qualify as a Small Entity.

So filing and the regular costs, like search, examination and issuance can cost are:

• From $640-$2,560 for a Utility patent
• From $330-$1,320 for a design patent.

Of course to maintain a utility patent beyond 3.5 years, there are maintenance fees (See chart below).

So if you are good in some legalese, drawing figures and do a lot of research and are able to craft the verbiage to file the patent, and you make less than $150k/yr, then you can get away $640. But if you need to have someone draw the diagrams for you, then you have added costs. If you need priority filing, or re-issuance, extension, etc, these numbers change. etc. then these numbers change.

I made a crude chart to give you an idea as to how much the actual costs are.

Of course these change over time, around the time of this post (Sept 2014) these were current numbers from the USPTO site.

To file a provisional patent is  $65 for a Micro Entity, $130 for a Small Entity, and $260 for a Regular Entity. A Provisional patent, of course, is not a patent, it is the right to file a patent and use a prior date. More on Provisional Patents here…

I will explain this in my words, if you want the legal description and all the nuances, then check the USPTO site.

A Provisional Patent is the procedure that replaced the Disclosure Documents Program (DDP Original Explanation here). The DDP was discontinued in 2007. A Provisional Patent is basically named to look like a real patent, it is different than a real patent (Non-Provisional Patent)and the DDP, because you have to put a lot more detail into the Provisional than you needed to in the DDP. The DDP was basically to establish that you had a real date from the USPTO for when you had the idea. Which is not much, but if you had to go to court, it was a little better than sending a letter to yourself (Which is what old-timers did.

Benefit:

The biggest benefit of the Provisional Patent, for me, is that you get an advance filing date. Let me give you an example. If you file a provisional patent on Jan 1, 2014,  then you have till December 31, 2014 to file for the non-Provisional Patent (The real Patent. When you file the Non-Provisional patent, it is as if you had filed it on Jan 1, 2014 (Not Dec 31, 2014). This is an advantage that helps you shop and market the product, process or service for one year and see if there’s any market before doing the full blown patent.

Another benefit is the cost. To file a provisional patent costs:

• Micro Entity – $65
• Small Entity – $130
• Regular Entity – $260

That is all you pay, because it expires in a year. If you don’t file the Non-Provisional by that time, then you lose that priority filing date, and you will have to file the Non-Provisional, or file another Provisional.

Warning:
If you filed your Provisional on Jan 1, 2014, but you have shared the idea with the public before then, (say in Oct of 2013), and it’s Jan 2, 2015 and you have not filed a Non-Provisional patent yet, then there are big issues. If you had shared it, on a website, a public event, or?? it was before filing the first provisional (Jan 1, 2014), then this is the major issue:

• Because the invention is known for more than 1 year, it is in the public domain
• You cannot file another provisional,

what’s worse, is:

• If the first Provisional has expired, now you cannot even file the Non-Provisional patent at this stage. It would have been publicly known for more than 1 year.

So be careful with these issues, while the Provisional has advantages, it does have disadvantages also.

Disadvantage:

• You cannot make major changes to the Provisional or they will consider that a different patent.

If your Provisional is different than the Non-Provisional, then it’s really a different invention right? and needs to be filed differently, with a different filing date. This is to stop people from filing multiple patents as a placeholder and then just coming up with things and in essence backdating the date of the invention.

I hope this helps. I can help you file an application, but the heavy lifting still has to be done by you. You have to describe everything about the invention and get ready to spend some time, maybe 2-3 days writing the descriptions and correcting and making sure you cover all bases, so when you file the actual Non-Provisional, that you don’t get rejected as a very different invention.