Stop saying "Google", says… Google..

For some obscure reason Google have gone slightly bonkers. Why? Well, people all over the globe are becoming more and more familiar with the terms “Googling” and “Googled” plus you’ll find people saying, “I’ll Google it”. The change from “Google” as a trademark to “Google” as a verb would seem to be a great achievement in much the same way that vacuum cleaners became “Hoovers” with people “Hoovering up”.

Ahh but no, Google don’t see it quite the same way. Due to the nature of their business they no longer want “Google” to be used in this way as it restricts their business to just “searching”, which isn’t all they do now.

A spokeswoman for Google said..

“We think it’s important to make the distinction between using the word Google to describe using Google to search the internet and using the word Google to generally describe searching the internet. It has some serious trademark issues.”

I’m confused. Sure, in a way I can see their point. Google isn’t just a search engine, but to have the entire planet saying, “I’ll Google it later” or “I just Googled for it”, is a massive compliment. To have people using your company name as a verb is something that most people never achieve. They should value it greatly.

Link – silicon.com