Google (verb)

Etymology

The first recorded usage of google was as a gerund, on July 8, 1998, by Google co-founder Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: "Have fun and keep googling!". Its earliest known use as an explicitly transitive verb on American television was in the "Help" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (October 15, 2002), when Willow asked Buffy, "Have you googled her yet?".

To prevent genericizing and potential loss of its trademark, Google has discouraged use of the word as a verb, particularly when used as a synonym for general web searching. On February 23, 2003, Google sent a cease and desist letter to Paul McFedries, creator of Word Spy, a website that tracks neologisms. In an article in The Washington Post, Frank Ahrens discussed the letter he received from a Google lawyer that demonstrated "appropriate" and "inappropriate" ways to use the verb "google".

It was reported that, in response to this concern, lexicographers for the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary turned to lowercase the actual entry of the word, google. They maintained the capitalization of the search engine in their definition, "to use the Google search engine to seek online information" (a concern which did not deter the Oxford editors from preserving the history of both "cases"). On October 25, 2006, Google sent a request to the public requesting that "You should please only use 'Google' when you're actually referring to Google Inc. and our services."

means it is something that cannot be "googled"i.e. it cannot be easily found using a web search engine, especially Google. If a word or phrase is ungoogleable, it means it cannot be googled. In 2013, the Swedish Language Council attempted to include the Swedish version of the word () in its list of new words, but Google objected to the definition not being specifically related to Google, and the council was forced to remove it immediately to avoid a legal confrontation with Google.

References

References

1. Burns, Enid. (June 19, 2007). "Top 10 Search Providers, April 2007". SearchEngineWatch.com.
2. "Google - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com.
3. "How Google Became a Verb". The Lingua File - The Language Blog.
4. (January 13, 2003). "2002 Words of the Year". American Dialect Society.
5. Bylund, Anders. (2006-07-05). "To Google or Not to Google".
6. Harris, Scott D.. (July 7, 2006). "Dictionary adds verb: to google". [[San Jose Mercury News]].
7. Page, Larry. (July 8, 1998). "Google Search Engine: New Features". Google Friends Mailing List.
8. Arthur, Charles. (2012). "Digital Wars: Apple, Google, Microsoft and the Battle for the Internet". Kogan Page Publishers.
9. McFedries, Paul. (February 23, 2003). "Google trademark concerns". American Dialect Society Mailing List.
10. Duffy, Jonathan. (2003-06-20). "Google calls in the 'language police'". [[BBC News]].
11. Frank Ahrens. (August 5, 2006). "So Google Is No Brand X, but What Is 'Genericide'?". [[The Washington Post]].
12. Noon, Chris. (July 6, 2006). "Brin, Page See 'Google' Take Its Place In Dictionary".
13. Krantz, Michael. (October 25, 2006). "Do you "Google?"". The Official Google Blog.
14. (March 27, 2013). "Who, What, Why: What is 'ungoogleable'?". [[BBC]].
15. Fanning, Sean. (March 26, 2013). "Google gets ungoogleable off Sweden's new word list". [[BBC]].
16. Williams, Rob. (March 26, 2013). "'Ungoogleable' removed from list of Swedish words after row over definition with Google: California based search engine giant asked Swedish to amend definition". [[The Independent]].