Google Wants Patent On Splitting Restaurant Bills 196
theodp writes "In a classic example of parody coming to life," writes GeekWire's Todd Bishop, "a newly published patent filing reveals Google's ambitions to solve one of the most troublesome challenges known to humanity: Splitting the bill at the end of a meal." In its patent application for Tracking and Managing Group Expenditures, Google boasts that the invention of six Googlers addresses 'a need in the art for an efficient way to track group expenditures and settle balances between group members' by providing technology that thwarts 'group members [who] may not pay back their entire share of the bill or may forget and not pay back their share at all.'
Bistromathics (Score:5, Informative)
I think Douglas Adams worked this one out a while back:
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Bistromathics [wikia.com]
The third and most mysterious piece of nonabsoluteness of all lies in the relationship between the number of items on the check, the cost of each item, the number of people at the table and what they are each prepared to pay for.
You'd have thought that Google, of all people, would have checked to see whether there was an app for that already...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=restaurant+bill+app [lmgtfy.com]
Not a problem in a lot of places . . . (Score:5, Informative)
In a lot of places in Europe, the waiter/waitress does it for you. Like in Germany, for example.
Re:Not a problem in a lot of places . . . (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, the waiter simply asks, "Separate checks?"
Also, the tip is included in the meal prices.
We still give tips.
However, not everything is better in Europe: a glass of water might cost €2. Even McDonalds charges €0.60 (~ $1) for a cup of tap water.
Hint for americans: The water served is usually mineral water from a well known spring and not like the bottled water you get in big plastic cans (If you ask you can get tap water for free (excellent quality here, on par with mineral water, but better tasting usually). This water is priced like the other drinks. So if you really want to do something for your water and electrolyte balance feel free. I don't like the taste of it.
6,50€ for an excellent (italian, arabic, indian, thai, ...) meal (lunchtime offer, ~11€ in the evening) in a real restaurant plus 1,50€ for fresh juice or a beer and 1€ for an espresso does seem like a nice package. Having to look for restaurants with free seats indicates that the pricing is reasonable (Every second building has a restaurant in it here).
Tapwater in Germany (Score:4, Informative)
The quality of German tapwater is highly monitored and thus the water usually is microbially and chemically at least as clean as bottled water. There is dispute whether it is even monitored /better/ than bottled water.
The risk of contaminating it with a filter is way higher than drinking it directly from the tap. You might have some issues with lead piping in old houses if you have soft water, though.
Concerning taste YMMV, some places have harder water, some temporary add some chlorine after heavy rain, but usually it's tasty.
Over all your warning is complete bollocks.
Re:"Innovation" (Score:2, Informative)
Google offers a financial bonus to employees who get patents. The program started when Google found itself and its partners on the receiving end of some major patent lawsuits from other big corporations, and Google realized it didn't have much to fight back with. So for Google, it is strictly defensive. Whether it will still be defensive in 10 years or 20 years is up to your best guess. I'm sure many other people started defensively too.
The patent system is complete and utter horseshit. Don't focus on the companies trying to deal with - focus on the lawmakers who let the horseshit stand.