>> Oh, and did you notice the title of the post?
Yep: << Do you "Google?" >>
Did they change that from "Google!" or something? (If not, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at...) Either way, it's interesting that they used to have the exclamation mark after their name like Yahoo! does. |
No single company will be able to control language. Google may want to stop certain usages of the word, or they may want to only pretend to want to stop certain usages and actually encourage usage (as Xooglers.com once pondered), but I think it's doomed to fail in either case, and frankly, looks kinda uncool. |
Aha – I've just thought, Ionut...
Did you mean it was like a play on Yahoo!'s "Do you Yahoo?" slogan? |
>> Did you mean it was like a play on Yahoo!'s "Do you Yahoo?" slogan?
Yes, of course. |
I wonder if ridiculing the Yahoo trademark was their intent or a Freudian slip...
<<The YAHOO!, Yahoo! logo, YAHOO! (in Chinese characters), YAHOOLIGANS!, Yahooligans! logo, Jumpin' Y Guy logo, DO YOU YAHOO!?, Y!, Y! logo, MY YAHOO!, Y! and Star logo, YAHOO! YODEL, YAHOO! EVERYWHERE, YAHOO! GROUPS, YAHOO! MAIL OUTPOST, YAHOO! VISION, Eyeballs logo, 12 DAYS OF GIVING, 1800MYYAHOO, ACCENTRIC, BETTER JOBS FOR A BETTER LIFE, BINGO, BROADCAST.COM, CAMP YAHOO!, CORPORATE YAHOO!, CYBERSET, EGROUPS, FANTASY CAREERS, FOR ALL THAT SURFING YOU NEED THE RIGHT BOARD, FORTIFIED WITH YAHOO!, FUTUREBUILDER, GAMEPROWLER, GameProwler logo, GEOCITIES, GeoCities logo, GEOCITIES (in Chinese characters), GET LOCAL, Hexagon Design, HOPE FOR THE HOLIDAYS, HOTJOBS, HOW DO YOU MOVE YOUR MONEY?, HUMAN COUPON, IMVIRONMENTS, INKTOMI, INTERNET AT THE SPEED OF YOU, INVOLVEMENT BRANDING, IPO ROW, JT'S BLOCKS, LIVING ROOM ACTIVE, MATCHCAST, NAVAL COMMAND, PERMISSION MARKETING, PERSONAL EDGE, PERSONAL NOTES HOSTED BY DAVE KOZ, RESLEX, RESUMIX, ROCKETMAIL, SAFETY SHIELD, SCALING THE INTERNET, SHOPFIND, SOFTSHOE, SPORTSTREAM and Design, Star Design, STATTRACKER, THE BIG PICTURE, THE EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL'S JOB BOARD, THE ORIGINAL TEXAS YA-HOO CAKE CO. and Design, THE WEB'S HOTTEST JOBS, TOKI TOKI BOOM, TRAFFIC CONTROLLER, TRAFFIC SERVER, TURN IT ON, VALUELAB, VIVASMART, WEB CORPS, Web Corps logo, WORD RACER, WORDAHOLIC, WORKWORLD, WWW.HOTJOBS.COM, YEF, and YOUR HOME ON THE WEB trademarks and service marks and other Yahoo! logos and product and service names are trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. (the "Yahoo! Marks"). Without Yahoo!'s prior permission, you agree not to display or use in any manner the Yahoo! Marks.>> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ |
They made fun of Yahoo and others here:
"You can only "Google" on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to "search" on Yahoo or any other search engine." |
I can understand their concern as far as inappropriate use of their product's name, but they are approaching it all wrong. The tone of their blog post leaves the impression that they've got a serious stick up their butt or something. |
Ugh. I love Google and have been a huge fan for almost a decade now...I always have loved the laid back and relaxed style they seem to do business. That being said, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Reading it, I I feel like they are basically saying "ha ha, we are your buddies, your friends, use the word Google and we will sue you with everything we got". Ugh. |
<<"You can only 'Google' on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to "search" on Yahoo or any other search engine.">> It sounds so weird to say "I googled him on Yahoo", as of 2006, but it might sound fine in 2010. |
"The tone of their blog post leaves the impression that they've got a serious stick up their butt or something."
I came away from it thinking just that... it's not the usual sort of post on the main blog! |
[Moved from << how to "google" >> – Tony]
Usage: 'Google' as noun referring to, well, us. Example: "I just love Google, they're soooo cute and cuddly and adorable and awesome!" Our lawyers say: Good. Very, very good. There's no question here that you're referring to Google Inc. as a company. Use it widely, and hey, tell a friend.
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."
Usage: 'Google' as verb referring to searching for information via any conduit other than Google. Example: "I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting." Our lawyers say: Bad. Very, very bad. You can only "Google" on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to "search" on Yahoo or any other search engine.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html i use the first and sometimes the second one. |
Actaully, Google should just keep their mouth shut on this round.
There is no way that they can stop people using the word 'google'. Waht happens if its being used at the cafe shop between 10-11 yrs olds.. what are they going to do – sue a kid for saying " I googled it using yahoo ?"
its just too lame.. bad google!! |
> people could rebel and start "googling" everything (in > which case they get "brand" exposure)
Let's say the word "Google" receives the same status as "elevator" over time (an ex-trademarked word listed in the post), won't that mean I can register "GoogleBla.com" and they'll never get that domain back? And that I can create a software called "Google Something" and sell it and they can never sue me on the rights of people confusing this with "official Google" stuff because there is no "official Google" anymore? I'm no trademark lawyer, I don't know...
"Links to this post:" turns up empty for me on Google's post BTW... |
Google's lawyers made them do it. According to trademark law, you lose the trademark if you don't at least warn people that they're violating it. People used to say, "I'll Xerox that document" and Xerox had to crack down.
Philipp is right, if the word falls into general usage without referring to using Google itself, people could then start using the word google to describe their own sites or products, and there would be no way for Google to stop it.
Give 'em a break. |