"Google" gets 2nd for Word of the Year 2002

Gets all votes for most useful word

[brakthepoet]

I thought others might be interested in this little bit of news. The American Dialect Society voted google (verb) as the #2 word for 2002, while weapons of mass desctruction got #1 for the second year in a row. Google received all of the votes for Most Useful Word. Interesting that it has not only become a force on the web, but also pretty powerful and common in the North American dialects.
[americandialect.org ]

[SlyGuy]

I'm pretty sure that "Google" would top my personal list of words for 2002. I didn't notice how much I use it, until I got lost enroute to a ski resort this winter. I phoned a friend and asked him to "Google" the name of the resort for me, for directions.

I've managed to assimilate it into my vocabulary without notice. Anyone else?

- Chad

<sidenote> I'm sure that the #2 spot on my personal list would be the words "yes, dear..." </sidenote>

[vitaplease]

notice that Google is voted for as a verb!

[Tor]

Does that mean to Google or not to Google? ;)

[troels nybo nielsen]

> to Google or not to Google?

That's the question.

[Grumpus]

"Weapons of Mass Desctruction" is a word? I'm gonna have to go back to school.

G.

[Janettadine]

I saw "Maid in Manhattan" over Christmas, and when her little boy asked a question, Jennifer Lopez' character responded "you can google it when you get to school". ;)

[stuntdubl]

It scares me that "to google" has become a verb.

[volatilegx]

I have never heard anybody use "google" as a verb in speech. I've seen it on TV, but it was obviously just an attempt to be "hip". I think it would be a stupid thing to say.

[EquityMind]

On prime time TV on FOX last year for the series 'PUSH Nevada' a bad guy on the show is responding to a lackluster response to a background investigation stating 'I could have Googled him myself if I wanted that kind of info'.....

[vitaplease]

I have never heard anybody use "google" as a verb in speech

"google me" and "google it" check them in Google (noun ;))

Even in my tulip country Holland, I heard unpronouncable verby versions of Google..

[hakre]

there are already plenty variations of the verb:

my site googled out - banned from index
where should i google today? - lazy day in office

etc. i think it's because many people type the word in or click the hotlink, so they imagine a sort of action with the word google.

[tedster]

I can't think of any other web entity got this far into the psyche and the language -- not even those who very much tried to (Yahoo TV spots come to mind). And they did it mighty fast, when oldtimers on the web were busy "playing portal" or whatever was the flavor of the month.

[Brett_Tabke]

The branding power they have been able to pull out of their namesake is just incredible. And to think they passed up "http://a-really-cool-fast-search-engine.com"...

who knew? lol

[Chris_R]

I can remember early in my Internet Career Sitting around a table with two friends trying to think up a domain name for one of our businesses.

We spent hours on this and one of them pointed out - how important is this name stuff really when a site called "yahoo" can be so popular.

Google
eBay
Yahoo
Lycos
Amazon
Netscape
Altavista

Seems like other than a few like weather.com and cars.com does the most popular keyword have a decent relevant site.

Even the more popular adult sites like t** h** and p****** k**** don't have names that mean anything about the site.

[EquityMind]

When I was raising venture capital for a start up during the heyday, it seems the venture capitalists liked you even more if you had a wierd name because it caused name recognition. The going figure to 'brand' a site back then was $30 million according to the VC's...of course that was before Google and having a serps advantage :)

Who knew?