Google me not...

Cross-posted from Search Sense...

What does every marketer dream of for their brand? For many the acme of success would be to become a generic, a name which is not only synonymous with its product or service it actually becomes a verb.

In the UK, we talk about hoovering the carpet, sneeze and Americans will offer you a kleenex as often as a tissue, and of course when people look for things on the web they often "google" it.

According to a report in The Independent, though, Google has been contacting media asking them to say "ran a Google search" rather than "googling" something.

There's been no confirmation or comment from Google on the subject, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone has got the wrong end of the stick. Or a particularly persuasive lawyer has won an argument against a brand marketer at Google in a very major way...

And I can assure you that if anyone wants to start talking about spannerworking their brand to the top of the search rankings or winning 10% more market share by spannerworking a paid-search campaign we will not be issuing writs.

Via Micropersuasion.

Comments

[Jack Yan]

The latest round of news may have come after the Oxford English Dictionary said Google would be included—and my conclusion was, if it ever lost its capitalization, it would become a generic word.