Writing in the official Google blog on Wednesday, software engineer, Doug Banks announced that:

"Today, we're excited to be releasing the beta version of Google Patent Search, which makes it easy to search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you. Start your exploration at www.google.com/patents or visit the Advanced Patent Search page to search by criteria, including patent number, inventor, and filing date. You can view images of original patents online."

He continued:

"Google Patent Search uses much of the same technology that powers Google Book Search, so you can scroll through pages and zoom in on text and illustrations just like you can with books."

"It's a natural extension of our mission to make this public domain government information more easily accessible using Google’s search technology. We’re pleased to have started with over 7 million patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and look forward to expanding our coverage over time."

The move has been welcomed by many experts as likely to be more user-friendly than conducting an USPTO search. However, concerns have also been expressed that - at least at the beta stage - it is unlikely to offer an exhaustive search.