Wifi USB Antenna question

Hi, I have a cheap USB adapter and after I read several articles, I want to add an external antenna to the USB. I opened it and it looks like it has no antenna of its own (or it has a small antenna, I don't really know). Anyway there are two plates at the end marked as ANT1, so I'm guessing that's the place for the antenna cable to go. One of the plates is bigger, I guess that's the ground. So here are the pictures and can someone tell me if that's really the place for the antenna. Thanks.

Attached Images

  

Yes, those plates are the antenna. The size and geometry of wifi antennas are determined by the targeted wavelength, and in this case by the limit of available space. There usually isn't a ground as with many radio antennas, but perhaps a dipole.

If you soldered to the plates, you wouldn't be adding an antenna so much as altering the geometry of the existing antenna.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with such a microscopic connection; but would rather put the dongle at the end of a short USB cable, then find or make a parabolic dish, and mount the dongle so that the antenna area is at the focus.