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I wondered why citizens needed MIT's help to look up their officials in Google, and found that in fact the project didn't involve our favorite search engine at all. (Or at least the article didn't identify any area of Google participation.) Rather, the techies at MIT are trying to build a database of info on government that they hope will offer Google-like retrieval and reliability.
I'm sure Google loves being recognized as a synonym for large, accurate, and easily accessed information banks, but I suspect their attorneys might have appreciated a clarification of the use of their trademarked name. Then again, perhaps any publicity is good publicity... even if you have nothing to do with the news in question. ;)
Saying that using a pop-culture word in a news story is "bad journalism" is "bad posting". Is it a "bad practice" to say "im going to Xerox this, rather than "I am going to go make a copy of this document"?
Once an organization has caused a product name to be commonplace in everyday conversation, they have succeded in securing a place of the marketplace. Google should feel proud and honored that CNN (three letters that are also very commonplace throughout the world) has used the term "google" when describing another entity in a similar marketplace.
Google is dominant in the search engine marketplace nowdays, who knows how long that may last, but they are, and CNN recognized this in the news story. Googles marketing techniques have been so succesful that "Google" may one day soon end up in the dictonary. I would LOVE if my domain name was in the dictonary........
Saying that using a pop-culture word in a news story is "bad journalism" is "bad posting".
Completely disagree. I think this statement
Google is dominant in the search engine marketplace nowdays, who knows how long that may last
Suggests that it may just be a temporal trend.
I was also under the impression from reading the headline that Google had some involvement.
Owner edit - somehow managed to post the entire post preview form along with my comments.
Back to this thread,
Look at the Ford Pinto. The Ford Pinto was short lived, but its noise was heard. The Ford Pinto is still known today as being the unsafe car that would blow up if you were hit from behind, however it was only on the market for a couple years.
The Pinto was a popular term for a shoddy car in the 80s, 90s, and today. The Pinto is long gone; however a huge population still knows what it is. Pinto was a registered trademark of Ford, similar to the word "Google" being a trademark of Google Inc.
Just because something is short lived has no bearing on if it will be a publicly known term. To say that just because I think that Google will not be "at the top" for a long time, does not discount the fact that it can be a well known term around the world.
The fact is Google is a well known term throughout the world. If it was not, an organization such as Cable News Network, with a history of great reporting and professionalism (CNN has won many awards for its material and practices) would not add the word "Google" to a headline.
The best way to avoid alienating your audience is to use language that the audience can relate to, CNN did just this by using the word Google.
It isn't a synonym. "Googling" means doing a search for someone at Google. Not ATW, not MSN, not Alta Vista. At Google - that's Googling.
It's not only bad journalism, it's tacky journalism. It smacks of being an amateurish attempt to use a colloquialism inaccurately just to make journalistic brownie points. Didn't see a by-line, it must be a trainee junior reporter whose editor had mercy on him.
No concrete, defined definition for "Googling" exists. Individual interpretations of what it SHOULD mean exist, but by no means have these been made official by anyone of authority (Webster’s Dictionary?)
You are quick to discount someone elses definition of what "googling" means, and replace it with your own individual perception. You say,
"It isn't a synonym.”Googling" means doing a search for someone at Google. Not ATW, not MSN, not Alta Vista. At Google - that's Googling."
WOOOH! Wait a minute, you tell RogerD that his definition is WRONG, but yours is somehow the official definition?!
So you say it only means searching for SOMEONE? I cannot say i am "googling my destination for spring break?" (See how anyone can find something wrong with someone else’s interpreted definition?)
The majority of the population does not see Google as anything but another search engine. Before you pass judgments about the most successful news organization in the world, I would entertain the thought of a little research, and what "googling" means to people besides yourself.
Some would argue that the first rule of EFFECTIVE marketing is being able to understand your audience, as stated in my post earlier.
"It isn't a synonym.”Googling" means doing a search for someone at Google. Not ATW, not MSN, not Alta Vista. At Google - that's Googling. "
Wow, I was not aware that you were the editor of Webster’s. You seem to have an exact, concrete definition of "Googling", yet I can't find it in the dictionary..........strange.
"Googling" can mean different things to different people. Just because you are knowledgeable about Google, and see it more than just "any old search engine", does not mean that the majority of people view it as that. CNN is viewed in hundreds of countries from America to Zaire, how does your definition of "google" reign true over all of them?
Note, too, some people claim you can only use the verb google to refer to a Google search. That makes sense, but how people use language often isn't sensible (how dull that would be!). Google is being used in a more general way. For example, one person told me that their daughter said she was "googling for her other sock."
[wordspy.com...]
Or how about Googling your email?
[oreillynet.com...]
Previous CNN use of Googling:
[cnn.com...]
[edited by: digitalghost at 3:34 am (utc) on July 8, 2003]
I've heard people say:
"I'm Googling for a good parking place".
"I'm Googling the jukebox for decent tunes".
"We Googled ten bars and ended up 404". (404 means SOL in this case ;) )
"We're Googling the dyno to see if we can find another pony or three".
"Google the channels".
And many other instances in which "Googling" and "Googled" are simply used to imply "search" or "searched".
The last thing Google wants is a high profile case in which they are forced to "make an example" of someone. Knowing the nature of the 'net, being "Googled" could take on a much more sinister meaning.
[edited by: digitalghost at 4:17 am (utc) on July 8, 2003]
No matter how you shake it, it's a lousy article.
A trite or overused expression or idea: “Even while the phrase was degenerating to cliché in ordinary public use... scholars were giving it increasing attention” (Anthony Brandt).
By calling the title "cliche" you seem to detract from your original reason for expressing distaste for the title while making the case that "google, googling and googled have already passed into common usage. ;)
Now you tell us - shouldn't voice be consistent thoughout an article, including the title?
Additionally, the article speaks to a common desire, which is to use the same techniques the government uses to turn the tables on them.
If you can "Google" anyone then the idea of "Googling" the Feds is appealing. The inaccuracy you describe only works if your definition of "google" is the one being used.
I don't see that as being any more sensational than using "Google News" as the title of a forum that's main thrust is simply Google "discourse".
But GIA hopes useful, fair information will dominate just as useful Web sites rise to the top on the search engine Google (which ranks sites by popularity)
*cough*
This is a very subjective conversation.
google, coke, xerox, etc. changes in the mainstream lexicon are subject to current and past pop-culture staples. people who like pepsi hate it when soda is refered to as 'coke'.
google is a verb and a noun.
we will look back on the year that google was added into the dictionary, and say 'remember when we had to type a word into a website, and all this spam (ehem) came up?'
relax. i think that a lot more people than you realize not only use google, but also use google as a verb.
;)
I've heard people say:"I'm Googling for a good parking place".
"I'm Googling the jukebox for decent tunes".
"We Googled ten bars and ended up 404". (404 means SOL in this case )
"We're Googling the dyno to see if we can find another pony or three".
"Google the channels".
If I said any line using "Googling" or "Googled" with nearly all of my offline friends, they would look at me like I was completely nuts and go "HUH?"
I can see why Google is so paranoid about losing their trademark. In many writer's trade publications, companies such as Kleenex and Xerox take out huge ads just to educate writers on the finer points of Kleenex versus tissue, and Xerox versus photocopy, because if it is overused as a generic term, those companies could lose their very pricey trademark.
Oh yeah, my friends would look at me like I had suddenly become a Geek right in front of their eyes, so...
When I wanna hear usage, I hang out in coffee shops and net cafes and listen to the college kids talk and I spend a lot of time listening to the 12-17 year-olds talk after they pop a game into the Playstation.
Google is never going to stop kids from using the word Google any way the kids want to use the word.
Why is it inappropiate to the subject matter? Your defintion of "Googling" may differ from someone elses. For my defintion of gooling, the title makes perfect sense.
Look at DG's previous post about specific instances that he has seen the word "Google, Googling, etc" used. I would argue that some of these uses are independent of the Google Search engine, and represent a broader sense of the word "googling", by meaning "to search or lookup", and not only in the Google Search Engine.
We Googled ten bars and ended up 404!
Why does this sound like webmasters on the town? ;)
It does seem that the meaning of the verb Google hasn't quite coalesced. Certainly, the most common meaning is to check someone/something out at Google, as in googling your date. DG's examples, though, show that the verb is growing in popularity and meanings, at least in the techie subculture. (And we all know that geeks are the real trendsetters, right? ;))
The exmples I pulled were from various people, not sure if any of them were techies but I know one certainly isn't. I was just eavesdropping, listening to the dialogue. "Google the Channels" came from a guy in his fifties that was getting upset with his baseball teams's performance. My sister-in-law was the one that was "googling for a parking place" and it was three college guys explaining to their friends why they were late that were Googling bars. ;)
It's the kids that range from 10 to 15 though that seem to twist words most frequently to fit their own definition. A twelve year-old sister to her ten year-old brother, "Why don't you Google your brain for a clue"?
It's not just Google that is finding its way into the language. I overheard one young girl telling her friend not to pay any attention to her brother, "he's on a slow connection" and one of my favorites, from a neighbor's kid, "I blue-screened during the algebra test".
