Google is now officially a verb

According to the folks behind Merriam-Webster, google is now officially a verb, after having been submitted for consideration some three months ago. It’s approved meaning is:

To use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.

Of course, “googling” something or someone has been in widespread use for well over three years now, so it’s no surprise that it’s usage as a verb has made it into the official American dictionary. Oxford and Macquarie will soon follow, no doubt.

While the company name “Google” is a play on the word “googol”, which simply means 10¹⁰⁰ (a gargantuan number indeed), how many of us recognise that the term “googling” goes way back, before the origins of the internet even? Cricket enthusiasts will know that “to google” means to “bowl a googly”. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the noblest game of all, a “googly” or “wrong’un” is a:

A type of delivery bowled by a right-handed leg spin bowler, which spins from the off to the leg side and into a right-handed batsman, instead of the normal leg break which spins from the leg to the off side, away from a right-handed batsman.

So there you have it. After many years of usage as a verb in a sport played in only a handful of countries, the word is finally adopted as a verb by every person on the planet with an internet connection. And it’s now official.

Posted in Google, Web by Ivan