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Dec. 28, 2006 at 1:48pm Eastern by Barry Schwartz
Google Ranks Second In Merriam-Webster's Word Of 2006 List
Gary Price reports Google, the verb, was the second most popular word in Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year survey that just came out.
Merriam-Webster published the top ten words over here. The top word is "truthiness" by Stephen Colbert.
I wonder how Google is feeling about this given efforts this year to get people not to use Google as a word.
Answer? They don't have a problem, since the definition is about doing a search on Google itself. From a recent blog post at Google:
Usage: 'Google' as verb referring to searching for information on, um, Google.
Example: "I googled him on the well-known website Google.com and he seems pretty interesting."
Our lawyers say: Well, we're happy at least that it's clear you mean searching on Google.com. As our friends at Merriam-Webster note, to "Google" means "to use the Google search engine to find information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web."
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By Barry Schwartz
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Reader Comments
Well the Google legal team needs something to do before the anti-trust case happens. I mean, Google's "don't be evil" motto is about as trustworthy as Microsoft was a decade ago. Sure, they haven't reached a true monopoly yet and they aren't abusing their power yet...but it's getting closer each year. All Google needs to do is to get a bit pushier with the Google Pack and it's other less than stellar non-search junk and it will be well on its way to some fun Microsoft-style anti-trust litigation.
If such litigation doesn't happen, well then something is going to happen to shake up Google. It happens to every company. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, Microsoft got anti-trusted, and Google is going to get...who knows? No matter what, in the next few years something like that is bound to happen. It always does.
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Truthiness, Google, and the American way.
Google lawyers are fuming I am sure.