Google announced a new search feature on Thursday, allowing internet users to search through millions of U.S patents issued over the past 200 years.

The patent search site, launched as a beta on Wednesday night, is designed to sift through approximately 7 million U.S. patents by a variety of categories including filing date, issue date, patent number and inventor.

The Mountan View Calif.-based firm's new tool looks back at inventions all the way to the 1790s but does not include patent applications, international patents or U.S. patents issued since mid-2006.

The company said in its official blog that it is continuing to expand the functionality.

More on the Web:

http://www.google.com/patents

Google Patent