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The verb to google, or to Google, depending on the dictionary, means "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet." For example, "Mary googled for Wikipedia references." Compare with grep. This new word arose from the tremendous popularity of the Google search engine. The American Dialect Society chose Google as a nomination for the "most useful word of 2002." The verb Google was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) on June 15, 2006, and to the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006. The OED notes the question, "Has anyone Googled?" in the Usenet Newsgroup alt.fan.british-accent on October 10, 1999 as the first recorded usage of the word.

Google has attempted to discourage use of the word as a verb, fearing the dilution and potential loss of its trademark, like Yo-Yo, Xerox and escalator (see genericized trademark). The company sent a cease and desist letter to Paul McFedries, creator of Word Spy, a website that tracks neologisms. In an article in the Washington Post, Frank Ahrens discussed the letter he received from a Google lawyer that demonstrated "appropriate" and "inappropriate" ways to use the verb "google". It was reported that, in response to this concern, lexicographers for the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary lowercased the actual entry for the word, google, while maintaining the capitalization of the search engine in their definition, "to use the Google search engine to seek online information" (a concern which did not deter the Oxford editors from preserving the history of both "cases"). In October 2006, Google sent a plea to the public entitled 'Do you "Google?"', requesting that 'you should please only use "Google" when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services'.

Other Meanings

  • The OED lists an older verb 'google' (without initial capital), meaning to bowl a googly in the game of cricket.
  • In Robertson Davies's The Rebel Angels (the first volume of his Cornish Trilogy), one of the characters says of philosophers: "They pay their debts, have mortgages, educate their kids, google over their grandchildren,..."

See also

  • Googly
  • Googol