Is Google a household name yet?

Like Yahoo?

[PFOnline]

I was considering putting "Google" in those colorful letters above the Google Adsense ad's on my site, but was wondering, in your guys' opinion:

Is Google a household name yet? Like, I would guess pretty much everyone has heard of Yahoo and knows what it is, but what about Google?

I wouldn't want to confuse my visitors, if they've never heard of Google, they would wonder what it means.

[PFOnline]

What I mean is, is it a household name, not like "Pepsi" but a household name among most internet users.

[tedster]

No doubt -- the name Google is used on TV shows, in movies and novels, and also by my great aunt. She goes to Google to type in URLs, just like she does with Yahoo. She told me that they're the same thing "but Google is easier".

[edited by: tedster at 3:54 am (utc) on Aug. 9, 2003]

[PFOnline]

Thanks ted, I feel comfortable putting it up now knowing that a majority will know what it is, and not just some weird word. :)

[chiyo]

Agree with Tedster. But, I'm not sure if you can use their logo!

[mack]

In a friends house the other night. He has talking about a new car he was interested in. He went to computer to show me pictures. First thing he did was goto google, clicked on images and typed in the type of car. This is from a general surfer.

Google is an easy tool to use for specific searches. People just like it beause they know they will find what they are looking for faster without the clutter of the portals.

He wants to chat he goes to yahoo, he wants to find something he goes to google.

Mack.

[PFOnline]

Hmm, it's not the exact picture logo (if that makes a difference) it looks like this:

Google

And go's right above the Google Adsense ads.

I think it would be OK? I can't imagine Google getting mad, as it's kind of giving there logo and likeness "exposure" if you will.

[mack]

You might want to have a look here
[google.com...]

"If you would like to include a link to Google on your web page, feel free to use one of our official logo "stickers" below. If you would like to use the Google logo for some other purpose, please review our Google Permissions page."

My take on that is you can use any of the logos for a link but you need permision to use them for anything else.

Mack.

[chiyo]

yep i think it has mostly to do with google wanting to protect their brand, of which a logo is one of the important elements.

In general, a logo is "owned" by the copyright holders, and you should ask for permission if you display it, and to receive various conditions and limitations to its display of they agree.

Companies are far more concerned about others publishing "altered" logos as it can confuse or reduce the consistency and integrity of their brand.

If it came to court, (which it wont!), there would be a lot of discussion i guess on whether your interpretation of the logo has the same elements of their logo, including things like colors and form etc, and whether it is "recognisable" as such. Just using a text based "interpretation" of it may not be enough to argue that you are not using their logo without permission.

[edited by: chiyo at 4:55 am (utc) on Aug. 9, 2003]

[mack]

why not just use the tiny powered by google logo. It is available from the page I linked to in my last post.

Mack.

[lgn]

You got the 20 million page views a month needed to host adsense.

If I had that many page views, I would be a multi millonare, and I wouldn't worry about such questions.