Google Guidelines For Good Googling
The official Google blog has some commentary on how to use Google in a sentence, responding to the fact that “google” is now considered a word in many prominent dictionaries. Their basic guidelines:
- Using Google as a noun - Fine, obviously. That just means you’re calling Google by name.
- Using Google as a verb, to refer to using the Google search engine - Also fine, since it is accurate (although Google won’t admit that it wishes you didn’t even use it for that).
- Using Google as a verb, to refer to using a search engine other than Google - No good. If you are using Yahoo, or searching on Wikipedia, or Technorati, or anywhere else, and you say you Googled it on Yahoo, you are being inaccurate, at best.
While Google’s right, that saying you Googled on Yahoo sounds strange, and that saying that is inaccurate based on Webster’s definition of Google, they could have had more fun with it. Yes, the blog post notes that a New York Times story from May described someone as “Googling” something back in 1996, two years before there was a Google, and includes this quote:
I just love Google, they’re soooo cute and cuddly and adorable and awesome!
… but still, I feel like there’s more they could do. I mean, seriously, if you say you Googled something, and you didn’t actually use Google, you sound like a dope. Google should encourage users to call out their friends when they use Google in a silly fashion, and thus force them to stop talking like an idiot, or start using Google. That way, everybody wins.
Me, I’m just praying Google isn’t considering lawsuits to protect its verb.
By the way - It is socially acceptable to say you TiVo’d something when you didn’t use TiVo. TiVo is a cooler word than DVR, and it isn’t as popular as you think.
Also, if Google is a noun (technically, a proper noun) and a verb, can it be an adjective as well, as in:
That is some Googleable information!
Or is use of the term “adjective” incorrect? Damn, what am I, a writer?
this post is so stupid it’s just ‘pid’. and google actually trying to enforce how people use the term ‘google’? assinine. fascist. pid.
i guess we’re all in danger, now that we ask for tylenol and aspirin and coke and cola and about a thousand other things.
well, i guess we served some ads.
Comment by Peter | October 26, 2006
I actually thought the post was pretty good. In fact, I thought they were on the verge of a great tagline with “You can only “Google” on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to “search” on Yahoo or any other search engine.”
Something like … “You can only Google with Google Search Engine; everything else is just searching.” That’s kinda catchy.
Comment by Nicholas | October 27, 2006