2 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 12.7 ms ] thread
Xerox is a common example of a trademarked name becoming the generic colloquial term, so if you make a xerox you may or may not be using a copy machine branded as a Xerox. Even my Mac OS X dictionary defines google (lowercase G) as "search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet, typically using the search engine Google," so it shouldn't be that big of a deal if the Swedish word ogooglebar isn't specific to Google searches. As the article and my Rice linguistics professors say, it's the speakers that define the language, not some prescriptive overlord. So I recommend everyone start throwing around ogooglebar or ungoogleable in all conversations about things that can't be found with ANY search engine. ;)