According to the latest news, objections from Google have forced the removal of the word "ungoogleable" from a list of new Swedish words. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21944834)
More precisely, the objections were aimed against its definition - the language watchdog defines "ungoogleable" (or "ogooglebar" in
Swedish) as something that cannot be found with any search engine.
But Google wanted the meaning to relate only to Google searches.
A statement on the Language Council of Sweden's website, asks: "Who
decides language? We do, language users. We decide together which words
should be and how they are defined, used and spelled."
In response, a Google spokesperson told the BBC: "While
Google, like many businesses, takes routine steps to protect our
trademark, we are pleased that users connect the Google name with great
search results."
So be carefull when using the word "ungoogleable" or to "google" something (espccially those who use different search engine).
Here is another piece of news concerning Google which says that Google searches expose racial bias:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21322183
Interesting controversies. I was going to post on this Swedish issue too, but Markéta beat me to it. :-) Personally I think a company should be happy when its brand name becomes a common word for something. There are other examples in English, like "Kleenex" for tissues, "Coke" for a range of soft drinks, "xeroxing" for photocopying, and, in the UK, "hoovering" to mean vacuum-cleaning (because the bestselling brand of vacuum cleaner, back when they first became popular, was the Hoover). Are there examples of this in Czech too? Anyway, the Swedes are correct that languages belong to their users, and Google isn't going to be able to stop Swedish people from talking in whatever way seems natural to them. In fact, I wonder if they knew that, and if their "complaint" was really more a public-relations stunt meant to draw attention to the way "Google" has become synonymous with web-searching.
ReplyDeleteWhat comes to my mind is the verb "luxovat" which means "to vacuum-clean". It is a similar case as in Britain but here in the Czech Republic it was the famous Lux by the company Electrolux which became very popular and dominated the Czech market at the time when vacuum cleaners started to be used.
ReplyDeleteProbably also the word "žiletka" which is a "razor blade". I'd say it was derived from the company Gillette which produces them.