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Patent for a single shared profile service

I have faced this problem multiple times. And its damn frustrating. Yes, I'm talking about the ten different places my profile is or was on the web. Google, Google apps account, LinkedIn, Twitter, FB and heaven knows where else. Any change in status or the way I want my profile to be worded, I have to remember and go and update all these places. Its a pain in all the wrong places. Trust me.


Then I thought, someone must be providing such a shared profile service. You update your profile just one place and then push it to all these various social networks and web sites. I searched. Found nothing. I searched hard, asked my friends about this. Nothing! Zilch!! There were a few websites, that were almost there, but not exactly what I wanted. Gravatar has this for one's avatar. So why not something for profiles? Nopes.


Then I had an enlightenment! Why not build this service and provide to the users on the web. I had an even better idea, why not patent it. Provide such a wonderful service that I attract users in thousands and maybe sell my startup. Dreams!! Day dreams!! You usually wake up soon :P 


I searched for a few hours, I finally found that there is already  patent number 7840690 taken out for this idea. Way back in 2008, by the Go Daddy Inc group. Exactly the same stuff :(


Damn! Double Damn!


Well if the US is taken, there are other countries. Why, India doesn't even recognize the concept of a software patent, the concept was squashed way back in 2005! Or maybe the whole concept of patent is not in the spirit of open source. Open Source is good isn't it?


So finally, is someone out there who is already building this service? Can they please publish it at the earliest? Anyways, me -- I'm now waiting for the next great idea.
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