Google Is a Verb
The Oxford American Dictionary (OAD), one of the "big five" American dictionaries, will officially annoint "google" as a verb when its new edition is released next month.
I google, you google, we google, oh to google in the spring!
Companies typically resist having their name turned into "real" words beginning with a lower-case letter. When Xerox transmogrifies to the verb to xerox, and Google becomes google, there are negative implications for trademark protection of the word. But this is the kind of problem we all should have!
Related links: New York Times article mentioning the inclusion of "to google" in the upcoming OAD, and noting generational changes in the land of lexicons (the editors are young and use Google to help decide if a word is ready)
Building Research Tools with Google ("Google" is used as a lower-case verb in the first chapter)
Posted by Harold Davis at March 19, 2005 08:27 AM
