All a-Google

The search engine giant Google has thrown a wobbler over the use of its name as a verb.

The company has issued a series of letters to media organisations complaining about the violation of its trademark. Apparently it's okay to say you googled Britney Spears if you used Google, but not if you used (say) Yahoo. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has an entry for the verb 'to google' : "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet." (Interestingly, the Merriam-Webster has placed the verb in lowercase to avoid confusion with Google the brand.)

The search engine giant's concern apparently lies in not wanting their trademark to achieve ubiquity in the way that sellotape and hoover are now routinely used interchangably with sticktape and vacuum cleaner. They believe this genericising would devalue their brand.

Here's two examples of what the Google letters think is acceptable and unacceptable usage of their brand:

Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.
Inappropriate: He googles himself.

Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.
Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.

Aside from issues of brevity, the assumption that Internet users would call searching on a.n.other search engine 'googling' seems highly unlikely. I suspect this move has made Google look extremely petty in the eyes of the world. Does anyone seriously think that Yahoo might start selling its search service with references to 'how easy it is to google for information on Yahoo'? Clearly this is Google's fear.

Unlike, say Sellotape or Hoovers where it would be perfectly possible to use the product without noticing the name, the user is face to face with the company logo everytime they use the search engine. Brand association is extremely high. It would be pretty hard to form an association between Dogpile and Google, so I contend that useage is directly linked. If I say I googled something, I mean I ran a search in Google, and not Yahoo, Dogpile, All the Web etc etc.

I googled the word 'Googled' and got 1,400,100 matches. Here's another one.

Laughing at Your Own Jokes is Bad

I do those You Gov polls. One day, when I am a very old man, I may have completed enough surveys they actually have to send me a cheque. Fortunately, I don't really do it for the cash. I do it because my opinions are just *so* fantastic...

No, hang on...

Today's survey was a right old hotchpotch of subjects, including television. I know it's very bad form to laugh at your own jokes, but some of the questions were just asking for it and I couldn't help myself...