Google Invents Original Continuous Search Gestures

A Google patent filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office has been discovered by PatentlyApple, revealing that the company has invented some new gesture controls for search-related functions on future Android devices. Google extensively explained the concept, which essentially allows users to draw a continuous gesture around some content onscreen to automatically initiate a search for that content in Google.

The continuous gesture is a combination of the letter "g" presumably for Google and the letter "o" around whatever graphic or other content that you wish to initiate a search for. The search begins automatically the moment you lift your finger from the display.

These so called "Smart Continuous Gestures" for Android do not have to be drawn in any particular order besides being continuous. This means that you could draw a "g" with the "o" surrounding it or side by side.

Additionally, the gesture isn't limited to initiating searches in Google. By drawing a continuous combination of the letter "s" and "o" around the content you want to search for, a pop-up menu will appear that lets you select from other search engines such as Yahoo or Wikipedia.

You can also search for multiple chunks of content with a continuous gesture of either a "g" or "s" along with multiple "o" figures around the the multiple pieces of content. If your gesture is drawn in such a way that is ambiguous, Google will offer you several guesses for you to choose from. The patent was filed in Q3 of 2011 and only published by the USPTO this month.