How do I send a web idea to Google or Yahoo?

Suppose I have what I think is a good idea for Google or Yahoo, how do I go about sending it to them. Google for example has an email address

bizdev@google.com

but if you send to it you get a stock reply

"Thank you for your note. While we are not able to personally respond to all proposals, please be assured that we review every email we receive. If our proposal matches our current business and technology development needs, a Google representative will be in touch with you shortly. In the event that we do not identify an immediate match, we will keep your proposal on record for future consideration."

It seems from this that you have to send your idea upfront and open, but then how are you to protect the idea. What's to stop them simply saying "We were thinking along those lines anyway", or "keeping the proposal on record" until they release something similar?

Post it to googlecommunity.com, I hope they'll respond it.

If it's that good an idea why do you want to tell them? Patent it then sell it to them. People are much more willing to buy into things they have to pay for, anyway ... when you send an e-mail to any company consider it is being read by a clerical staffer who is probably making around $30,000/year give or take $10k. This person probably could care less about the actual business model, and it is unlikely anyone would take them seriously if they said "an anonymous e-mailer just wrote with a great new strategy!" Not happening ... you need a phone.

I'm not sure that this is something that could be patented, but thanks for pointing it out.


I'm not sure in the case of Google if it's perceived as just some anonymous mailer. Their website has a specific email asking for business proposals, but I get the impression that big companies don't sign non-disclosure agreements because if they have genuinely thought of the idea already they can't then use it. Seems a real Catch-22.

maybe it isn't google or yahoo you need to speak to ...

there could be other players in the field, willing to pay bucks upfront or after. Medialint is right you need to ring someone.

If they don't sign your NDA, tell em nothing

Thanks a lot guys.

I actually looked into patenting it, but it actually can take years for a patent to come through, and $10,000 at least with no guarantee it will be granted anyway.

Maybe, I'll look for other companies. Any ideas? I don't live in the States, so this is not as dumb a question as it looks

Hi alienskin,
I am curiuos about the status of your idea. Could you finally sell it to any corporation?

First make sure "no patents already registered for the similar idea", if it is original, you should patent it before disclosing the idea to someone.

I used to suggest doing a patent search in the Patent and Trademark office database but Google seems to have improved the search process.

... mmm, why would that be ... would one think ..
hat.tinfoil.status=On;

Put your product in operation, register a domain name to get a first use date established ASAP, or if you have documentation that proves an even earlier first use date, take that documentation, seal it in an envelope and mail it to yourself with a datestamp from the post office ... DON'T OPEN EVER. You may need in the future to prove a date.

Actually, I was talking to some friends who are lawyers, and they say that the timestamps don't hold up in court as real evidence a lot of the times. All that it proves is that you're able to send an unsealed envelope to yourself. This method has never held up in court, and never will (IMO).

But if you do a registered mailing for ~$10.00 the post office will seal with timestamps all over every seam of the envelope and keep a log in their system of the parcel's exact weight and the time in which the registered mailing has taken place. This can at least be used as a temporary measure until you can get the money to copyright your work with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Though timestamps are hard to fake, nothing is impossible, even faking a postal stamp.

Right Eric. The "poor man's copyright" doesn't hold up in court, and a "poor man's trademark" would be idiotic.

Get your NDA out, write a very high level abstract, make sure there's no detail which would betray your system or methodology and send it off to whomever. Whoever comes back, not a word until you have the signed NDA, and register it with your lawyer/notary public before talks commence

It could get you a job with Google somewhere, which may be worth way more than a few thousand dollars in the long term.

If you have the time to spend on it to bring it to fruition, it may take longer, but a commercial open source approach might be an idea, but you'd have to split receipts with other developers, and if you don't know them that well, that can bring more headaches than it solves.

Sorry for the delay is response, I was on vacation ...