~10 years ago I would say “google it” often. But now I don’t think I say that at all, and would say “search for it” or similar.

I don’t think I really consciously decided to stop saying it, but I suppose it just felt weird to explicitly refer to one search engine while using another.

Just me? Do you say, or hear others say, “google it” in $current_year? Is it different for techies and normies?

    • li10@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      I genuinely think we could one day reach a point where Google is no longer the dominant way to search for things, and yet people will still say “Google it”.

      • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, happens all the time. Can’t think of an English example right now but the German verb for putting on makeup is “schminken” although nobody really knows the company “Schminke” anymore.

        • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          One English example is to “hoover” - people say it all the time when they mean using the vacuum cleaner, whether or not it’s made by Hoover.

          • MudMan@fedia.io
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            4 months ago

            “Jello” is a brand name, which I think may be the example most people in the US specifically don’t realize. There are tons of others.

            I think “googling” counts because a) it kinda makes sense even without the branding, b) I hear it all the time, and c) I say it myself even though I haven’t used Google as my default search engine for ages.

            • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              You know, I mostly only know the US examples of this and always assumed it was just more common here, now I’m wondering about generic trademarks around the world.

              • MudMan@fedia.io
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                4 months ago

                I know a few. Xerox is used for photocopying in other languages. Kleenex is the accepted term for “paper tissue” in Spain. Zodiac and Vespa are used for specific types of ship and motorcycle in multiple places, even when not manufactured by those brands. Thermos is a brand name, used in multiple countries as well. Sellotape is used in the UK for transparent sticky tape.

                I don’t speak every regional variant of every language, but the short answer is this is definitely not a US thing. At all.

                • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  We definitely use all of those in the US as well, though I haven’t heard the Zodiac one. I was asking more for regional things like this rather than saying it was just something in the US.

          • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            Ever heard of hook and loop fasteners? The Velcro company would really like it if you called it hook and loop fasteners.

        • goldteeth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          I know for a fact I’ve said I was going to “Xerox some copies” on a machine that was almost certainly not manufactured by the Xerox Holdings Corporation.

        • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          Just learnt of a new example today. In Australia a common kind of small tree is called a “wattle”. It’s flowers are yellow, everyone in Australia knows about them, and the flower is the floral emblem of the country (the yellow and green colours of Australian sports teams is probably from the flower too).

          The name “wattle” however comes from “wattle and daub” (wikipedia), a method of construction that uses woven branches filled with some form of clay\cement like material such as mud. “Wattle” trees were ideal for and just used very often for “wattle and daub” building in early colonial times that it’s name became “wattle”, which generally refers to the woven branches. Now no one knows that construction technique or its name, but the know the tree’s name very well.


          Otherwise, the save icon being a floppy disc is a clear visual example in technology that’s just now-ish passing beyond its redundancy.

          • snooggums@midwest.social
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            4 months ago

            Otherwise, the save icon being a floppy disc is a clear visual example in technology that’s just now-ish passing beyond its redundancy.

            It cracks me up that cars have a phone icon based on a handset style from an old home landline phone. I guess enough businesses still use them?

  • De_Narm@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I still do sometimes, despite using DDG for about a decade now and working in IT myself. Haven’t met anyone who doesn’t say it in my area.

  • Shawdow194@kbin.run
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    4 months ago

    I think it’s a verb now whether we like it or not

    I get band aids at the store and kleenex. Not self adhesive medical bandages and tissue paper

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      And velcro is velcro, not “hook and loop fastener”.

      I have a coke, not a “carbonated beverage”.

      Etc etc.

      Jacuzzi, zipper, crockpot, dumpster, pong pong, escalator, chapstick, popsicle, frisbee and styrofoam are all examples of the same thing, known as trademark erosion

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        I remember the Velcro legal campaign insisting generics or other brands refer to it as hook and loop and I thought it was a missed opportunity. Velcro brand Velcro or simply Velcro™ with the trademark would be adequate differentiation between the brand and the technology. It would also remind everyone who invented it, much like Kodak and Xerox.

    • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      This is important I think. While the word has clearly stuck beyond the actual company’s services … the word “search” in IT hasn’t died and will likely still be used. If the word ever fades away, it may be in part because “search” lived.

    • Klear@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Meanwhile I have called “searching within a physical filing cabinet” googling once or twice.

  • Cowabunghole@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    I primarily use DDG, but the vast majority of people I talk to (including other tech savvy people) use Google. I feel like “search” is too generic (search where?), but “search the internet” is weird. And saying “Bing it” or “Duck it” or whatever just sounds overly contrarian. But if I say “Google it”, people know exactly what I mean.

    So yes, I will “Google where to buy some bandaids” by searching DDG for adhesive bandages.

  • shyguyblue@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Yes, same way i say i need a “Kleenex” to open the door to the “Porta potty” so i don’t have to shit in the “dumpster”.

  • norimee@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Everyone knows what is meant by “Google it” even though there are other options now.

    It’s like when I ask you for a Kleenex or Band Aid and many other brand and product names that became a synonym for the generic product in general.

  • accideath@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I even google on DuckDuckGo. The more we use googling to mean “to search on the web” the more likely it is that Google will lose their trademark at some point.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    4 months ago

    I’ve been trying to say “search online” or “websearch” for the past year or two.

    Now that you’ve got me thinking about this, I wonder if there are any journalist style guides that cover this. That’s often an interesting reference point for what people are saying versus an attempt at more objective way.

  • neidu2@feddit.nl
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    4 months ago

    A friend and I usually call it “duck it” or “ducking it” when talking to each other. To others it’s “googling”.

    Fun side note: Someone here on lemmy a while back was having a fit about something I said because it was from one of Google services, and while he’s right that Google is evil and invasive and all that I had to chuckle when they told me to Google one specific thing on the matter. “Don’t use Google, Google it for more info.”