You Mean “Windows Live” It!
One of the themes at the Microsoft company meeting was the push to use Microsoft products. “Get rid of that Google search bar, and make Live search your homepage!”
That’s all well and good, but I think people are missing an opportunity when they correct people who say “Just Google it.” Sure it’s recommending a particular brand, but you’re missing the bigger opportunity! While “Google” being added to the dictionary as a term for searching shows Google’s popularity, it also bodes negatively for their brand – exactly why they’re discouraging the use of their name as a synonym for web searching.
In fact, the threat of losing one’s brand in situations like this is quite common. It’s why we tend to call tissues “kleenex,” adhesive bandages “band-aids,” and why photocopies were called “xeroxes” until Xerox launched a campaign to reclaim their brand.
So if you really want to promote your non-Google search engine of choice, here’s my recommendation. Keep saying “Google it” – just use your preferred search engine instead. That way, you’re promoting your own search engine while hurting the Google brand. Plus you don’t sound as obnoxious when you say “You mean Windows Live it!”
I don’t understand why “losing your brand” is necessarily a bad thing. Aren’t kleenex and band-aids still leading their markets?
Comment by Eric — September 27, 2006 @ 6:10 am
If the brand becomes generic enough to stand for the product, then other companies can start using the term. While Band-Aids might still be the market leader, look at its competitors. Is it selling adhesive bandages? Or band-aids? Think “Google… brought to you by Yahoo.”
I’m not saying that individuals can bring about this reality by saying “Just Google it.” But official uses of the word Google as a verb can go against their trademark efforts in a negative way. This guy goes into a lot of detail about it.
Honestly, though, I don’t have it in for Google. I’m just getting sick of people saying “You mean MSN it” or “You mean Windows Live it” every time I use Google as a verb. I’m not hired to be a Microsoft evangelist, and while I do my best to understand and appreciate Microsoft products, there are about 100 things in my job description that go first.
Comment by zaiss — September 27, 2006 @ 7:07 am
If Google really doesn’t want us to use their name that way, I think they need to suggest an alternative that is just as easy to use in every day speech. I don’t think “search for it on the Internet” is going to cut it.
Comment by Eric — September 27, 2006 @ 11:46 am
Perhaps there is a way to combine “Google search” together into one word that can be the verb that means “to search on Google.” What about “Gooch?” Would anyone say that?
What does frobscottle mean? Perhaps you should Gooch it.
Comment by zaiss — September 27, 2006 @ 10:08 pm