thegenius1
12th July 2006, 12:44 PM
Google is officially a verb.
Google Inc.'s eponymous search engine became a sanctioned part of the English language Thursday, when "google" — with a small "g" — earned an entry among the 165,000 or so terms in the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
Google risks losing the value of its corporate trademark, he pointed out, if it becomes part of everyday speech.
Google appreciates the problem. In its 2005 annual report to investors, the Mountain View, Calif., company noted that "there is a risk that the word 'Google' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word 'search.' If this happens, we could lose protection for our trademark, which could result in other people using the word 'Google' to refer to their own products."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fi-google7jul07,0,5674422.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Google Inc.'s eponymous search engine became a sanctioned part of the English language Thursday, when "google" — with a small "g" — earned an entry among the 165,000 or so terms in the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
Google risks losing the value of its corporate trademark, he pointed out, if it becomes part of everyday speech.
Google appreciates the problem. In its 2005 annual report to investors, the Mountain View, Calif., company noted that "there is a risk that the word 'Google' could become so commonly used that it becomes synonymous with the word 'search.' If this happens, we could lose protection for our trademark, which could result in other people using the word 'Google' to refer to their own products."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fi-google7jul07,0,5674422.story?coll=la-home-headlines