How well known is too well known?
Google is more than happy to be the most popular search engine, but it seems that they're not quite as happy that googling has entered the dictionary. To google has become a verb meaning (of course) to search, and just as when vaseline stopped being a brand and simply became the petroleum jelly (and ketchup became the catsup, and the like) such branding can be both a positive and a negative thing.
And it turns out, as BBC news reports, that the people at Google would prefer not to become too synonymous with searching. When Wordspy defined googling as searching:
The company asked him to delete the definition or revise it to take account of the "trade mark status of Google". He opted for the latter.
Google's problem is one of the paradoxes of having a runaway successful brand. The bigger it gets, the more it becomes part of everyday English language and less a brand in its own right.
I guess that makes sense, though I doubt that AltaVista would have complained if someone had said that they AltaVistaed someone. But somehow, and perhaps there's hindsight involved here, it just doesn't sound right.
Go to: I search, therefore I am?