There's such a thing as too much Google

By and large, having your brand become part of the vernacular, as in Kleenex and Band-Aid, is a good thing. But at times, we have to wonder whether the folks at Google—the latest brand to become a proxy for its entire product category—wonder if its influence extends too far. Like the Internet itself, the brand shows up in as many negative contexts these days as it does positive ones. For instance, last night we were reading this story in Time magazine about the U.K.’s alarming homegrown terrorists. In quotes (though it’s not clear to whom the quote should be attributed), the story contains the phrase “Google terror” to describe how self-radicalized terrorists can find everything they need on the Internet to wreak havoc. But, one has to admit, the phrase “Ask Jeeves terror” doesn’t quite work.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

August 2, 2005 | Permalink