WebProNews » Googling

Do You Use Bing as a Verb?

Chris Crum — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:44:05 +0000

Cedric Chambaz, a Marketing Manager at Microsoft, wrote an interesting post on the Microsoft Advertising Blog about the use of Bing as a verb, and more generally, whether it’s a good idea or not for any brand to want to be used generically for its industry.

Remember when people started using Google as a verb? Google initially wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but they seem to have accepted it now. There’s not much you can do to stop people from using the word that way.

Apparently there are people using "Bing" as a verb, although I haven’t really heard this one thrown around in real life yet. Chambaz ponders whether or not this is a concept that should be embraced.

"On the one hand it is a great proof of consumer endorsement, but on the other hand there is a thin line between being a dominant brand and becoming a mere generic verb," says Chambaz. "Because ultimately marketers are keen on top of mind, as long as it translates into preference."

"What if suddenly customers were to describe the positive consumption of your competitor’s product by using your brand," he adds. "You would be commoditized, and your brand would lose its value."

I think Bing has a long way to go before it has to worry about becoming the generic verb for searching. "Googling" has pretty well been ingrained in the minds of consumers (at least the ones who use the term at all. I prefer "searching" myself). Even if Bing manages to get close to Google’s market share or (dare I say) even overtake it, are people suddenly going to start saying "Bing it" in place of "Google it?"

It’s hard to say. Puffs is a major tissue brand, but they are still often referred to as "Kleenexes". You don’t often hear, "Could you please hand me a Puff, so I can blow my nose?"

It could be different with search engines, as users clearly see that big brand name every time they perform a search. My gut is telling me that searching on Google will remain "Googling," and searching on Bing will remain "Binging" or simply "searching on Bing" for the majority of searchers. And frankly, I don’t anticipate hearing "Bing" used as a verb too often in the foreseeable future, outside perhaps of search industry-related conversation.

Do you use Bing as a verb? Let us know.

Midwest Clipper Sends Students Googling

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:50:47 +0000

Every morning I like to visit at Google’s Hot Trends page to see what’s on the minds of searchers out there. Usually it’s reflective of the morning news, but this morning it read like a school closings report.

Or like a local TV station roll call. I was amazed to see WSAZ out of Huntington and Charleston, West Virginia (near my hometown) as the number 11 search. And then I noticed, in place of names you might have seen in the news the past couple of days or generic school project topics, a mass of call letters – WGN, WDTN, WHIO, WKRC.

And laced in with them were queries like "lake central high school," "district 300" and "school delays" In fact, 88 out of the 100 queries listed were searches for broadcast stations or school closings.

I guess you could say they’re getting a fair amount of snow in the Midwest. The queries themselves reflect where the worst of it is: Chicago, Michigan, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Columbus, and West Virginia. Down here in Lexington, it’s chilly but mild, so it was a bit surprising to see the extent of the blustery weather directly north.

Ah, to live in the Almost South. Hope our neighbors are able to stay safe.

Google Getting Health-y In 2008

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:45:43 +0000

Microsoft’s HealthVault will have several months under its belt by the time Google Health, under the leadership of Marissa Mayer, finally debuts.

Adam Bosworth ditched the promise of Google Health for the even more promising pastures of Facebook and whatever massive payout the social networking site will deliver. Mayer had to pick up the pieces as the interim leader after that.

Garett Rogers at Googling Google said the long-awaited Google Health has its arrival narrowed down to early 2008. Mayer dropped that news on the Web 2.0 Summit audience today.

InformationWeek picked up the particulars from Mayer. Evidently she has been holding 90-minute meetings with the Health team to keep the project rolling; we have to wonder if Googlers enjoy meetings even less than, oh, writers, for example.

Once Google Health arrives, parts of the service will be free, while other parts like applications could be made available on a subscription basis. It may seem strange, but for once Google may be chasing Microsoft just as they seem to be with their Apps productivity services.

Google Locks Up Spreadsheet Features

WebProNews Staff — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 17:15:04 +0000

A round of updates at Google Docs & Spreadsheets added some handy features to users of the spreadsheet side of the service.

Google provided a handful of additions to their Spreadsheets product, and fixed a couple of issues.

Speaking of addition, Google coded a new feature called Quicksum into the Spreadsheets. By selecting cells, Quicksum displays their total in the lower right corner of the page. Garett Rogers at Googling Google noted how this allows for calculations without having to write a formula first, which should benefit new spreadsheet users.

Google also added what they call a ‘sortbar’ to Spreadsheets. The sortbar is a draggable, horizontal break between column headers and data, they noted, with each column having a place in the sortbar for fast sorting without leaving the Edit tab.

By dragging that sortbar down, users have the option to freeze rows in Spreadsheets, a feature that makes editing a lengthy spreadsheet document much easier. Dragging and releasing the sortbar performs the freeze, with rows below the sortbar able to scroll freely.

Collaborative editing will be color-coded by user. As multiple people edit a spreadsheet, each cell a person edits will be assigned a color, making it easier to tell who has done something on a sheet.

Google expanded the viewability of Spreadsheets to any browser, but only supported browsers will be able to edit a spreadsheet. Their product team also fixed uploading issues with data and graphs that had been reported by users of the service.

Google Docs Drops In Folders

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:40:44 +0000

The updated Google Docs & Spreadsheets offers folders for organizing documents, along with a few new enhancements.

Google Docs Drops In Folders

Google’s love of labels as organization method, especially in Gmail, tends to be a little jarring to people who have become used to folders. Those users will find something of a comfort zone in Google Docs and its newest update.

Folders have been a heavily requested feature for the service. They support drag and drop, just like a desktop interface.

Labels have been converted to folders in Google Docs with this update, as Google seems to have abandoned its attempt to make tagging the default way of organizing documents. This change makes Google Docs more consistent with the way a typical PC works.

Google also enhanced the search feature. It displays relevant docs and spreadsheets as one enters search terms into the form.

Googling Google blogger Garett Rogers complimented the new look and efficiency of the docs list, where these main changes have taken hold. He cited a couple of wish list items for Google Docs, namely a similar interface update for the word processor and spreadsheet, and support for offline functionality.

Google Apps Not Ready For Prime Time

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:26:04 +0000

Judging by one domain administrator’s experience with Google Apps and email, Google’s claims that it is not competing with Microsoft for the productivity space has a ring of truth.

Google Apps Not Ready For Prime Time

Much has been made of Google’s ongoing assembly of a variety of homegrown and acquired online applications into a full-blown productivity suite. Every time a new component is announced, with PowerPoint-like presentations the latest one on Google’s schedule, we all run off to write the ‘Microsoft killer’ story.

One person has been working with Google Apps for over six months. He has about a hundred people livening up his day with the usual user requests. Garett Rogers is not the typical domain admin; Google followers should recognize him from his Googling Google blog on ZDNet.

His observations indicate Gmail as part of Google Apps is just not ready for a business that has been using Outlook for years. Getting mail from Gmail to the desktop email client has been a path fraught with peril:

Then you have users who “don’t get some mail”

Don’t Let Your Online Identity Ruin Your Life

Andy Beal — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:23:58 +0000

It’s not just potential employers that are Googling your name, you also have to worry about your next date doing the same. According to AP, more people than ever are using Google as a free background checker, before deciding whether to risk dinner and a movie with someone.

The results can be enlightening, surprising and, sometimes, a little disturbing…In her dating life, she regularly did online research on her dates and turned up, among other things, “bizarre” fetishes and a guy who was fascinated with vampires.

It’s not just Google potential mates use to get the 411 on a new beau. Many young daters are digging into their social networks, using MySpace or Facebook to see what they can learn about their next date.

That was the case for Brad White, a 23-year-old recent college grad in Chicago, who met his current girlfriend through friends at a bar and immediately looked her up on Facebook. “The commonality of our music taste and friends is what prompted me to ask her out,” White says, “obviously, besides the attraction.”

While it’s sensible to do a little research on a potential partner, you shouldn’t trust everything you read online. Apart from many cases of mistaken identity (one woman shared the same name as a famous porn star), some quirks can’t be Googled.

…Danielle Martinetti says online research really only helps to a point, anyway. “The crazy stuff usually becomes apparent on the actual date,” the 30-year-old New Yorker says. “No amount of online searching is going to tell you that a person has issues with his mother, loves to be described as a George Clooney look-alike, has an overzealous obsession with hand sanitizer, or that he prefers to sit facing the door in a restaurant ‘just in case.’”

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Google Notebook Grows Up, Learns Languages

Doug Caverly — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:31:03 +0000

Yet another Google Labs product has made it into the real world; behold Google Notebook in its non-beta glory. The tool has gained the ability to “speak 17 other languages besides English,” but would-be users shouldn’t expect much in the way of additional improvements.

Xiangtian Dai, a software engineer at Google, announced the step forward. “We have German, Polish, Turkish – to name a few – and of course Chinese,” he wrote. “Rest assured . . . that just because your language isn’t one of the first doesn’t mean that we have forgotten you.” And everyone – even those of us who can only converse in English – should benefit from the new interface, which Dai describes as “much smoother to use than it was.”

Of course, Googlers may not be the most objective people when it comes to reviewing Google’s products, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Dai’s testimony failed to convince some readers. But he (sort of) has Garett Rogers’ support.

“[I]t has been nicely polished and finally looks like a finished product,” Rogers acknowledged on Googling Google.

“[I]t looks like something I could potentially find a use for,” he continued later in the post, “but I’m still not rushing to start using it on a regular basis.” Considering how many Google products fail outright, that still qualifies as comparatively high praise.

So if you’re a fan of Google Notebooks, rejoice, because it just got even better. If you’re not among the faithful, the newest upgrades probably won’t be enough to convert you. But Google’s trying, and as it does, the company is making more of an effort to reach a global audience.

Ask Mocks Googling

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 20:40:38 +0000

Unlike its much more heavily visited search competitor Google, Ask.com has no problem with its brand name being a dictionary word. The search engine industry needs more Scott McNealy-style chippiness between its respective companies.

Looking For Something On The Web? Ask It!

After Google expounded at length about its fear of being rendered a generic word, Michael Ferguson at Ask turned in a response that tweaked Google:

As our colleagues at Google work to protect their brand from becoming a generic term for Web search, we’re receiving lots of mail and calls asking us to clarify the difference between “ask” and “Ask” (as in “Ask.com”)

Funny you should ask.

The origin of “ask” goes back to Old English, and back from there to the Germanic languages and then even further back….So “ask” is an old word. And it’s used all the time. As you can imagine, it’s proven very costly for us (both in time and money) to define its usage and keep tabs on who’s doing what where and with whom.

Ferguson then runs down various “Rules” on using Ask and ask before helpfully showing some real-life, real-time “Usage” examples:

Usage: The upper-case “Ask” as verb, referring to a Web search conducted on Ask.com.

Example: I pulled up Ask.com to Ask “pumpkin pie recipes.”

Usage: The lower-case “ask” as verb, referring to posing a question.

Example: If I may be so bold as to ask, will you join me in the Jacuzzi?

Observe the thoughtful consideration of the Jacuzzi registered mark in the previous sentence.

If the Google poking was not clear enough, Ferguson added an example in “More Fun with Verbs” that should make it pretty evident he isn’t talking about Microsoft here:

Halloween Example: “Looking for a swell Halloween costume, Sergey went to Ask and Asked “Halloween costume ideas” and received a Smart Answer at the top of the results page.” Good work, Sergey, and good luck with your Olympic swimmer costume!

In all seriousness, Ask has steadily improved its search and associated resources over the past year. The company still brings in a vastly smaller share of search queries than its major competitors.

They have made small incremental gains in search share, but have yet to break six percent despite a media marketing campaign that promotes the site in TV and radio ads. Ask does have InterActiveCorp as its parent company, which placed Ask on sites like Ticketmaster and Citysearch.

Search habits have become ingrained over the past few years. While that certainly frustrates companies aspiring to be more like Google, it is encouraging to see Ask striving to offer a better solution with information at people’s fingertips. And having some fun with it.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

Google Keeps Fretting Over Googling

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:10:01 +0000

Merriam-Webster’s and the Oxford English Dictionary’s addition of “Google” to their multitude of pages as a verb has given Google fits, and the company has been desperately trying to fight the genericizing of their trademark name.

Building a brand takes a combination of time, investment, and luck. Sometimes a brand succeeds in grabbing the public’s attention so well that the brand comes to be the conventional way to refer to a product or service without regard to who is providing it.

Which brings us to a recent post on the Official Google blog regarding The Fear the company has about going the way of Xerox and Kleenex. “What do zippers, baby oil, brassieres and trampolines have in common?” asked Michael Krantz of the Google Blog Team.

I would have guessed it was either the stuff that helped build YouTube’s traffic to the point where Google decided they would be worth buying the company for $1.65 billion or whatever Google stock is worth today. Or that the Google Blog had received another illicit post courtesy of an until-now undiscovered bug in Blogger.

Happily, neither example is the case here. Or sadly depending on your point of view and the kind of day you’re having so far. Instead, Krantz wants people to understand a couple of concepts. One – going to Google to search for information is just peachy keen.

Two – Googling for information makes the company’s lawyers very sad and bitterly vengeful. I know they have beaten on our Jason Lee Miller via email for committing this sin. The Washington Post and other publications have received similar nastygrams

Krantz’s post aimed at reinforcing the idea of Google as brand instead of Google as verb:

Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we’re pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let’s face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.

Krantz makes a fair point, but in our observation he and Google are fighting a battle that is not merely uphill, but scaling K2′s South Face while wearing only baby oil and a brassiere while toting a trampoline too.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.