You hear it in movies, on TV shows, among your friends, and you probably even say it yourself: “I Googled it.” Google, however, wants you and the rest of the world to stop using "Google" as a verb for looking up anything on the Internet — unless you actually used Google’s search engine to do so. Google’s laser focus on how its name is used even extends to Sweden, where the country’s Language Council wanted to add the word “ungoogleable” to a list of new words meaning something that can’t be found online using a search engine…..any search engine. Google objected, asking for changes showing the expression specifically refers to Google searches and a disclaimer saying Google is a registered trademark. With Google being the leading search engine, there’s little doubt that we mean Google when we say we Googled something. Ironically, because of Google’s significant brand recognition, the company has started down the path of becoming synonymous with search engine services, and becoming generic threatens a company’s legal right to a trademark. Google pointed out that aspirin was originally a trademark of Bayer, escalator was originally a trademark of Otis Elevator Company, and even the word zipper was once owned by B. F. Goodrich. Now, because of their fame, they merely refer to a class of products we see every day and don’t identify with any particular source. Google is afraid that if their name is allowed to be used as a verb, they will go down that same path to obscurity. In 2002, when Willow Rosenberg (played by Alyson Hannigan) used “google” as a verb on Episode 4 of Season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, everyone knew that Yahoo, Lycos and Jeeves were cooked.
