According to a recent article, "google" is coming into the language. But let us preface this discussion carefully.
quote:But Google Inc. wants to protect its big-G, trademarked name rather than see it used as a little-g, generic term.
In late February, for example, a Google lawyer e-mailed Paul McFedries, who chronicles new words on his Word Spy Web site. McFedries, working from his home computer in Toronto, is tracking googlespeak.
The attorney asked him to include the trademark with his definition of the verb "to google" or take the word off his site. A mini-brouhaha ensued, with some lexicographers outraged at the request.
However, McFedries decided to comply, and the Web Spy definition of "google" includes: "Note that Google is a trademark identifying the search technology and services of Google Technologies Inc."
"I don't blame them for trying to do what they did," McFedries said. "But it is interesting they're trying to shut the language door after the Google horse already has bolted."
Noting that Google is a trademark identifying the search technology and services of Google Technologies Inc., let me list the terms noted in that article
vanity googler - one who googles his own name, to see what others will find when they google him or her, assuming that he or she rates being googled.
revenge googling — online dissing of a former beau after a relationship gone bad. ungoogle - to try to combat revenge googling
googlespeak - the lexicon of google terms
google bomb - to push a Web site high in a list of Google search results. The search engine bases a site's position on several factors including the number of links to that site, so google bombers create lots of web pages with links to a particular site so it will rise to the top of search results.
googlewhacking - a quirky online word game using the search engine
Some peripheral notes from the article: In Spanish, "googleando" (goo-glay-ahn-doh), for "googling" is just as much goofy fun to say. And the noun on a Swedish blog: "Google-dansen." Google dances.
Unlike Tinman, I'm not dead; I'm either a big-name shrink in the UK or a student at MIT. The real me is down about hit #64. Now, I suggest that you UK beer quaffers organise a proper wake for our dear departed Tinman. We'll have a good many toasts to our late friend, may he rust in peace.
Arnie, I am so jealous! You can't find me until page 10, unless you put my name in with "nursing" or "dyspnea", in which case I am second and first on the list, respectively. My name is hogged by someone who has written books on the Guggenheim Museum.
I also am proud to anounce my own googlebility, the result of a contribution to a newsletter sent out to people who enjoy (surprise, surprise) the English language.
It was through this tiny link to the internet that TrossL was able to track me down (and very thankfully so, from my point of view) after some 10+ years of non-communication.
I'm surprised that the old cartoon makers haven't filed an injunction against Google for trademark infringement. After all, Barney Google, ca. 1930s, was around loooong before web searches existed. Do any other of you remember this cartoon character - or am I REALLY that old?
If you put in the search phrase "Travel Industry Training" - which is what I do - you will find my site right at the top. I have to thank my site designer for this, though. How he did it I don't know but did it he did!
Don't try searching for Travel Industry Training by its initials, though. You'll get plenty of hits (around 6 million the last time I checked) but none of them my site.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
quote:How he did it I don't know but did it he did!
Interesting, because our webmaster recently told me that the next generation of webmasters are all going into Web marketing, where they work for you to get your name at the top of Google...for oodles of money!
Arnie, I haven't heard Google used like that yet, but I am sure it's coming. People here use "google" as a verb all the time.
Nice site, Jerry. Loved the colors! Perhaps we should rain on Mr. Google's parade and suggest the trademark lawsuit, Asa.
I get no end of people 'phoning me to say that they can improve my position on the search engine listings.
I always ask them to check to see where I am at present and then, when they find that I'm usually at the top, ask them just how they feel they can improve on my placing!
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
If I put my (real) name in, I get about 5 pages of recipes to every proper mention, becuase of Graham flour. I also get a hit for the preface of a book I once reviewed for a vanity publishers. Thet are my words exactly, but I don't think I have been paid again for them.
Vanity Googler here too - I appear at number 6, because my name is mentioned as part of the company tech support team, and our website has been firmly pushed as far up the listings as we can manage...
To my amazement I'm hit number five when I google for Robert Hale. I don't know how I did that. I haven't done anything in particular to get there and I'd have expected lots more from the publisher of the same name to be ahead of me.
If I google my real name it's even worse - 32,000 hits. Approximately.
Alas, That's what comes of having the fifth most common surname in the United States. And I know that's a true fact because I read it in a comic book in 1949.
As "C J Strolin," I'm #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #7 out of a smaller group with almost all the hits referring to language websites of one sort or another. Having an uncommon last name is a benefit sometimes.
I once, in my desperate attempt to find wordcraft in Google, found it listed, waaaay far down, where they also cited Bob Hale and arnie! I think it was from a post on the FOTA board. Strange what kind of things you can find from googling.
Unfortunately, though my name isn't that common, there is someone by my name who has published lots of art books. Therefore, not only are those books found, but also references to them and critiques of them. Consequently, I am a Google peon. I think I should hire a Web marketer!
I should mention that my vanity googling is done under my real name; a search under "arnie" throws up plenty of Arnies, but nothing for me (in the first dozen pages, anyway). I was mildly surprised that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arnold Palmer, probably the two most famous Arnies, don't get all that many mentions.
