"googleling" Considered Bad

Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 10:42 pm

Found this at Ars I thought it was quite funny, but it has a good point:

Google's great, yadda yadda yadda. The problem is that Google is so great that it's unique name is becoming a verb. You can now talk of googling something, or even being googled yourself. Google isn't pleased, however. The company has rolled out lawyers to keep "google" out of the dictionary, unless, that is, the dictionary makes it perfectly clear that "Google" is a trademark. The word, it seems, is going the way of Kleenex, Xerox, and Coke, and in the case of the UK & Ireland, Hoover (it still drives me nuts to hear vacuuming described as hoovering).

Paul McFedries, who runs the lexicography site Word Spy, received a stiffly worded letter from the firm after he added "google" to his online lexicon. The company asked him to delete the definition or revise it to take account of the "trade mark status of Google". He opted for the latter.

Of course, for now I suspect that when most people talk of googling, they're actually talking about using Google, not just any search engine. But if the history of language is any indicator, that won't stay true for long.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 10:59 pm

Saying "googling" is not accepted in my book....

Of course, I don't think that really matters to anyone.

I also say not to split an infinitive, but what do I see? I see things like "To boldy go where no man has before" (Or something like that).

What is happening to the English language?

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:02 pm

I need go hoover my bed tomorow because of the cat hair.

First time I hear that one!

Or, I need to go use the Xerox to get a copy (even though it's actually a Canon) .

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:04 pm

I need go hoover my bed tomorow because of the cat hair.
First time I hear that one!

Me too!

I avoid using brand names to identify things. I just don't like doing it.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 12:15 am

Actually I do it often without thinking of it, and we probably all do.

How often do we say "I will go get a kleenex".

In quebec, they call cameras a kodak, I always find that funny too.

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manadren_it · Post by **manadren_it** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:51 am

I tend to not call things by a brand name, except in circumstances when I am actually refering to the item of that particular brand.

down here, we have the problem of people calilng every carbonated beverage known to man "coke" .. even if it's a pepsi

making it even more strange is the fact that coke shares it's name with a certain controlled substance. So when someone asks for a coke, do they really want a coke, or a pepsi, or some other drink, or an illegal substance? Well I'm sure you can rule out the latter in most situation, unless you happen to be some kind of drug dealer or something...

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 1:46 pm

lol that is funny! We just call it pop here, or in french "gassed beverage" (boisson gazeuse)

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 3:39 pm

boisson gazeuse

**Adds to small--but growing--French vocabulary**

Thanks, Red!

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megaspaz · Post by **megaspaz** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 5:08 pm

i thought google was a real word.... like, i'm googleling at your sister right now... she's hot!

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 5:12 pm

megaspaz wrote: i thought google was a real word.... like, i'm googleling at your sister right now... she's hot!

Isn't that "goggling"?

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=goggling

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megaspaz · Post by **megaspaz** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 5:16 pm

i guess. but both googleling and goggling will work for me.

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wldkos · Post by **wldkos** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:14 pm

hahah @ spaz... Google wants to keep the trademark, correct? Otherwise every other search engine can use googleling to describe their search engine. I understand it I think.

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:28 pm

Yep, that's probably what it is. Technically they have the right if it's a registered trade mark, they could start sewing people for using it.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:58 pm

Wouldn't its trademark only be "Google" though? I mean, "Googling" is a different word....

EDIT: I guess the fact that "Googling" comes from the word "Google" is enough....

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 7:00 pm

they could start sewing people for using it.

That would hurt!

I know what you meant, but I couldn't resist...

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 7:37 pm

oh, miss spelled? Somehow I think it would require a needle instead of a laywer, probably cheaper.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 7:40 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: oh, miss spelled? Somehow I think it would require a needle instead of a laywer, probably cheaper.

Yeah, probably!

Sewing/Suing, who cares? English is too messed up to care!

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megaspaz · Post by **megaspaz** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 10:10 pm

well i don't care what any lawyer says! if i want to go googleling at yer sister, i'm gonna be googleling at yer sister!

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Wren · Post by **Wren** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 5:33 pm

You're all just gooleicious...how in the heck would you spell that correctly?

It sounds good anyway!

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 7:30 pm

Wren wrote: You're all just gooleicious...how in the heck would you spell that correctly? It sounds good anyway!

Yep, that sounds neat!

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manadren_it · Post by **manadren_it** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 7:54 pm

well great googlely moogley ... crap. now I'm going to be sued by google and squaresoft

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 8:07 pm

But first, I'm just going to go google for some legal information on this...

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