Google Blogoscoped

Forum

I googled him on Yahoo

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
17 years ago5,020 views

One more post about Google trademark and the inappropriate usage of "googling".

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Oh, and did you notice the title of the post?

http://static.flickr.com/34/72666869_98e71e6205.jpg

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

>> 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.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

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.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Aha – I've just thought, Ionut...

Did you mean it was like a play on Yahoo!'s "Do you Yahoo?" slogan?

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

>> Did you mean it was like a play on Yahoo!'s "Do you Yahoo?" slogan?

Yes, of course.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

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/

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

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."

Dan [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

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.

Eytan Buchman [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

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.

Haochi [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

<<"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.

Jack Hynes [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

"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!

stefan2904 [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[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.

Tadeusz Szewczyk [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

[Moved from "Googling on Yahoo prohibited!" – Tony]

Wow, now I know how to Google correctly without getting sued:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/do-you-google.html

Don't tell anybody I googled yesterday on MSN or I will google you in the jaw!

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Check out Jeremy Zawodny's take on this:

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007827.html

I wonder... can Google really lose on this one (other than damaging their image a little bit)? Either people will listen to them and stop using the verb "to google" incorrectly (in which case they protect their brand) or people could rebel and start "googling" everything (in which case they get "brand" exposure). Of course, people could boycott Google... but I seriously doubt they're going to do that!

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

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!!

Kirby Witmer [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Jeremy said it. :D

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

That Google post was just made because they dont have any interesting products to bring out today.

zmarties [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ask.com have a nice parody response to this on their blog at

http://blog.ask.com/2006/10/you_do_andor_ma.html

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

And Battelle sez, "No f'ing way." :-D

http://battellemedia.com/archives/003023.php

(BTW, it's interesting to see the titles of all the linked posts on Google's original blog post now...)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> 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...

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

And maybe that's why Bush said "the Google" – to make it clear which Google he was talking about... ;-)

Richard L. Brandt [PersonRank 3]

17 years ago #

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.

-TD- [PersonRank 4]

17 years ago #

I was just about to point that out Mr Brandt.

It is just like the word Sellotape as well.

Forum home

Advertisement

 
Blog  |  Forum     more >> Archive | Feed | Google's blogs | About
Advertisement

 

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. Join our forum!