Recently, the Washington Post received a letter, on paper, hand-addressed, and in the mail, from Google attorneys asking the newspaper to avoid using Google as a verb. Perhaps paper makes a demand seem more serious than email. The Post responded, only slightly mocking in tone, snickering at the legal use of the word "hottie."
article:
Appropriate: He ego-surfs on the Google search engine to see if he's listed in the results.
Inappropriate: He googles himself.
But this one's our favorite:
Appropriate: I ran a Google search to check out that guy from the party.
Inappropriate: I googled that hottie.
Not only is "googled" inappropriate, but apparenly the word "hottie" is frowned upon as well.
Google Merriam-Webster officially added "The Independent points out, the company takes a much different stance on intellectual property when it comes to Google News and Google Print. Well, that's convenient.
It's understandable Google's trademark managers don't want to risk the Xerox and Kleenex branding death march, even if its unclear that genericide will apply to an Internet company in the same way it does to consumer tangibles. In the dotcom world, it seems very clear to everyone what is meant by "googling" something.
But then again, it took "escalator" 50 years to become generic. Too bad for 
 {
function initCopyableSections() {
document.querySelectorAll('.article-content .copyable-section').forEach(function(section) {
if (section.querySelector('.copyable-section__btn')) return;
var btn = document.createElement('button');
btn.type = 'button';
btn.className = 'copyable-section__btn';
btn.setAttribute('aria-label', 'Copy to clipboard');
var label = section.getAttribute('data-copy-label');
btn.textContent = label ? 'Copy ' + label : 'Copy';
section.appendChild(btn);
btn.addEventListener('click', function() {
var contentEl = section.querySelector('.copyable-section__content');
var text;
if (contentEl) {
text = contentEl.textContent.trim();
} else {
var clone = section.cloneNode(true);
var btnClone = clone.querySelector('.copyable-section__btn');
if (btnClone) btnClone.parentNode.removeChild(btnClone);
text = clone.textContent.trim();
}
if (!text) return;
navigator.clipboard.writeText(text).then(function() {
var t = btn.textContent;
btn.textContent = 'Copied!';
btn.classList.add('copied');
setTimeout(function() {
btn.textContent = t;
btn.classList.remove('copied');
}, 2000);
});
});
});
}
if (document.readyState === 'loading') {
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', initCopyableSections);
} else {
initCopyableSections();
}
})();
</script>
<!-- Tags -->
<!-- Correction Form -->
<div class=)
Suggest a Correction
Found an error or have a suggestion? Let us know and we'll review it.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!