Friendly reminder from Google: we don't want to be just anyone's verb

This summer, Google was both blessed and cursed with becoming a verb in the Oxford and Merriam-Webster english dictionaries. When it happened, Google thumped the trademark drum pretty hard, reminding people that "Sure, I'll google that" is fine when in reference to using their search engine, while "Oh! I googled that on Yahoo! and couldn't believe what I found!" will land you on their naughty list.

Interestingly, the search company just reviewed these intended uses of their name and trademark on their blog, reminding us which scenarios turn their lawyers' frowns upside down. While a lot of this might seem like the company is splitting hairs - after all, everyone in this day and age knows who Google is, right? - the original CNET article I linked contains trademark horror stories from the likes of Aspirin, Xerox and even more recently: Rollerblade. All suffered trademark woes because their names became common verbs that referred to their particular industries, instead of their specific products.

Could Google go the way of kleenex? Time will only tell, but let's hope not. The company has done a lot for search and the internets as we know them, and I would hate to see their contribution reduced to a lowercase 'g.'

Tags: google, merriam, name, oxford, slang, term, trademark, vocabulary, webster