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Trademark.
the brand name for a leading internet search engine, founded in 1998.
verb (used with object), Goo·gled, Goo·gling.
(often lowercase) to search the internet for information about (a person, topic, etc.): We googled the new applicant to check her background.
verb (used without object), Goo·gled, Goo·gling.
(often lowercase) to use a search engine such as Google to find information, a website address, etc., on the internet.
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Origin of Google
First recorded in 1998; after mathematical term googol
historical usage of Google
Founded in 1998, the website Google.com has become such an institution that in its short existence, it has changed not only the way we process the endless data found online, but also the way we think and talk about the internet.
The term google itself is a creative spelling of googol, a number equal to 10 to the 100th power, or more colloquially, an unfathomable number. Googol was coined in the 1930s and is attributed to the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.
Soon after Google was created, the trademarked company name became a popular verb. People were “googling” all sorts of information, including their own names. When users google themselves, unless their names are absurdly rare, they may find their “googlegangers” (a portmanteau word combining “google” and “doppelgänger”), or their namesakes, listed in the Google search results.
A whole new industry has sprung up around Google, including the new field of search-engine optimization or SEO, which works to boost the ranking of a name or term in Google and other search-engine results. In 2005, the newly-minted term Google bomb became popular, to describe the intentional skewing of Google search results by creating links to misleading web pages. Whether we like it or not, we now live in a Google-centric world.
WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH Google
goggle, Google , googol
Words nearby Google
goof-up, goofus, goofy, goofy-footer, goog, Google, Google bomb, google-bombing, Google Glass, googlewhack, googly
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use Google in a sentence
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The UI notes that you’ll be turning off all apps, the Google Assistant, and personalized recommendations.
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Research teams will have access to a questionnaire that allows them to assess their projects for risk and navigate review, and Johnson predicted that a majority of papers would not require additional vetting by Google.
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So the 23-year-old student, Maxence Abela, and his Google software engineer father, Jerome Abela, set to work solving the puzzle.
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If your phone or tablet uses Google’s operating system, activate a hotspot by going to Settings, then Network & internet, and tapping Hotspot & tethering.
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For example, in 2017, Google sister company Sidewalk Labs procured the rights to develop Toronto’s Quayside waterfront into a sensor-laden smart neighborhood.
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But the ads are not just intended to remind the Google-curious that Paul exists and is thinking about running for president.
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Instead of decorating every face on the street, Google Glass hit a contrarian rip tide.
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Google itself has taken a break and put plans for mass production on hold.
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If you Google “Muslim Christmas tree star” you will see a list of right-wing websites wetting their pants over this.
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Look, right now, in Africa, why are we using Instagram and Facebook and Google search?
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There was nothing on there you couldn’t find with Google, of course, but I didn’t think that would count in my favor.
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This eBook was prepared from page images made available by Google.
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This text was compared to scans of the pamphlet that Google has helpfully made available.
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The Google Print source suffers from numerous gaps in the text.
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The Baby nodded her head and began, “M-m-m-google—google-goo!”
British Dictionary definitions for Google
noun trademark
a popular search engine on the internet
verb (without a cap)
to search for (something on the internet) using a search engine
to check (the credentials of someone) by searching for websites containing his or her name
Word Origin for Google
C20: a play on googol
Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the verb. For the use of the verb in cricket, see Googly. For other uses, see Google (disambiguation).
Look up Google in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The act of using the Google search engine is known colloquially as googling.
Owing to the dominance of the Google search engine,[1] to google has become a transitive verb.[2] The neologism commonly refers to searching for information on the World Wide Web using the Google search engine.[3] The American Dialect Society chose it as the «most useful word of 2002».[4] It was added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006,[5] and to the eleventh edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006.[6]
Etymology[edit]
The first recorded usage of google was as a gerund, on July 8, 1998, by Google co-founder Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: «Have fun and keep googling!».[7] Its earliest known use as an explicitly transitive verb on American television was in the «Help» episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (October 15, 2002), when Willow asked Buffy, «Have you googled her yet?».[8]
To prevent genericizing and potential loss of its trademark, Google has discouraged use of the word as a verb, particularly when used as a synonym for general web searching. On February 23, 2003,[9] Google sent a cease and desist letter to Paul McFedries, creator of Word Spy, a website that tracks neologisms.[10] In an article in The Washington Post, Frank Ahrens discussed the letter he received from a Google lawyer that demonstrated «appropriate» and «inappropriate» ways to use the verb «google».[11]
It was reported that, in response to this concern, lexicographers for the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary lowercased the actual entry for the word, google, while maintaining the capitalization of the search engine in their definition, «to use the Google search engine to seek online information» (a concern which did not deter the Oxford editors from preserving the history of both «cases»).[12] On October 25, 2006, Google sent a request to the public requesting that «You should please only use ‘Google’ when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.»[13]
Ungoogleable is something that cannot be «googled» – i.e. it cannot be easily found using a web search engine, especially Google.[14] If a word or phrase is ungoogleable, it means it cannot be googled. In 2013, the Swedish Language Council attempted to include the Swedish version of the word («ogooglebar«) in its list of new words, but Google objected to the definition not being specifically related to Google, and the council was forced to briefly remove it to avoid a legal confrontation with Google.[15][16]
See also[edit]
- grep
- Ogooglebar, Swedish for «ungoogleable»
- Photoshop (verb), a similar neologism referring to digital photo editing
References[edit]
- ^ Burns, Enid (June 19, 2007). «Top 10 Search Providers, April 2007». SearchEngineWatch.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- ^ «Google — Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary». Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
- ^ «How Google Became a Verb». The Lingua File — The Language Blog. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
- ^ «2002 Words of the Year». American Dialect Society. January 13, 2003. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- ^ Bylund, Anders. «To Google or Not to Google.» The Motley Fool. July 5, 2006. Retrieved on March 28, 2007.
- ^ Harris, Scott D. (July 7, 2006). «Dictionary adds verb: to google». San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on February 6, 2007. Retrieved July 7, 2006.
- ^ Page, Larry (July 8, 1998). «Google Search Engine: New Features». Google Friends Mailing List. Archived from the original on October 9, 1999. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
- ^ Arthur, Charles (2012). Digital Wars: Apple, Google, Microsoft and the Battle for the Internet. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 48. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
- ^ McFedries, Paul (February 23, 2003). «Google trademark concerns». American Dialect Society Mailing List. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- ^ Duffy, Jonathan. «Google calls in the ‘language police’.» BBC News. June 20, 2003. Retrieved on July 7, 2006.
- ^ Frank Ahrens (August 5, 2006). «So Google Is No Brand X, but What Is ‘Genericide’?». The Washington Post. Retrieved August 5, 2006.
- ^ Noon, Chris. «Brin, Page See ‘Google’ Take Its Place In Dictionary.» Forbes. July 6, 2006. Retrieved on July 7, 2006.
- ^ Krantz, Michael (October 25, 2006). «Do you «Google?»«. The Official Google Blog. Retrieved August 11, 2007.
- ^ «Who, What, Why: What is ‘ungoogleable’?». BBC News Magazine. BBC. March 27, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ Fanning, Sean (March 26, 2013). «Google gets ungoogleable off Sweden’s new word list». BBC News. BBC. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ Williams, Rob (March 26, 2013). «‘Ungoogleable’ removed from list of Swedish words after row over definition with Google: California based search engine giant asked Swedish to amend definition». The Independent. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
Billions of people use Google every day. In fact, you probably searched the internet using Google to find this article.
Google, the major tech company headquartered in Mountain View, California, is without a doubt one of the greatest success stories of the modern era. The Google search engine is so well known that it has become a verb (‘Just Google it’), a mark of notoriety that almost no one else can claim.
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But Google isn’t just known for being the go-to site to find web pages through their frighteningly accurate search results. The company is also well known as an excellent place to work, where top coders and analysts compete fiercely for coveted spots on Google’s engineering teams.
Surprisingly, the story of how Google got its name and what the term Google means isn’t well known.
So, put your English dictionary down because we’re about to give you the quick and dirty history of the word Google. We’ll also talk about how it became the name of the internet search engine that the world flocks to every day.
What Was Google’s Name Before?
The origins of Google have all but passed into tech-company legend. The story goes that Larry Page and Sergey Brin were two humble Ph.D. students at Stanford University. During their time at Stanford, they realized the potential of a new search engine platform for the growing Internet.
The pair was more brilliant at math and computer science than they were at naming companies, and they gave Google the working title of ‘BackRub.’ This name comes from the fact that Google works primarily by following backlinks from one website to another. Google uses information like on-page content and the number of links to and from a website to gauge how authoritative a site is and whether it’s relevant to a given search query.
Eventually, Page and Brin realized that BackRub is a truly terrible name, and they began casting about for alternatives.
What Is the Real Meaning of Google?
At some point in 1997, the core team behind Google was brainstorming ideas to replace ‘BackRub.’ They wanted an interesting word that adequately conveyed the truly enormous volume of information their search engine would process.
Finally, they proposed ‘Googolplex.’ To understand what a Googolplex is, we need to first learn what the word Googol means. ‘Googol’ is a mathematical term named by Milton Sirotta, mathematician Edward Kasner’s nephew. It means 10 raised to the power of 100, or 1 followed by 100 zeros. A Googolplex refers to a number of nearly incomprehensible size, and it is defined as ‘1 followed by a Googol of zeros.’
When mathematicians have tried to provide an intuition for how big a Googolplex is, they start talking about the number of electrons in the universe. Or, they might point out that if you printed a Googolplex of zeros on paper, the resulting books would weigh more than two galaxies combined.
To the future heads of Google, a Googolplex accurately represented the infinite amount of information they hoped to provide, but they preferred the shorter ‘Googol.’ Sean Anderson, another Stanford graduate student who was at the brainstorming session, did an Internet search for the name to see if it was available as a website domain.
But he misspelled it as ‘Google.’ Because google.com was available, and Larry Page liked the name, he registered it a few hours later. Thus, Google is a play on the term ‘Googol,’ which means a number of nearly incomprehensible size.
Therefore, this incorrectly spelled version of an arcane bit of mathematical trivia has become one of the most famous company names of all time.
Too Long; Didn’t Read?
That’s okay; here’s what you need to know.
FAQ
What was Google called first?
Google was originally called “Backrub” by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University.
What does Google mean?
Google was named after ‘Googolplex,’ or ‘Googol’ for short. The mathematical term (named by Milton Sirotta) means a number of nearly incomprehensible size. It represents the infinite amount of information that Google provides.
Have you ever wondered what is meaning of Google is? Where did the name google come from? What does google stand for? Google is the name of the internet’s most popular search engine launched in 1998.
Google Meaning
What Google means – The word Google is derived from GOOGOL, which signified a very large number 10¹⁰⁰. Googol is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros.
10000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,
0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000,0000000000.
Yes, that is 100 zeros!
The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, “Mathematics and the Imagination” by Kasner and James Newman.
Kasner sought a name for a very large number: one followed by 100 zeros. On a walk in the New Jersey Palisades with his nephews, Milton and Edwin Sirotta, Kasner asked for their ideas. Nine-year-old Milton suggested “googol”.
Why did Google choose Googol? Google’s play on the term reflects the company’s mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web as per Google Inc. Fact Sheet
Goooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,
oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,ooooooooooGle
is indeed derived from Googol!
Google Dictionary Definition
I searched for the Google definition on the Google dictionary and it is defined as “search for information about (someone or something) on the internet using the search engine Google.”
And it is also no longer a noun. Over time the word Google has evolved into more of a verb, wherein it not only symbolizes the company name but has become more synonymous with search, (with hugely popular image search), such that people say ‘Google it’ rather than ‘search it’. In fact googling has become a habit of most people, and it has found its own place in major dictionaries.
Again the Google dictionary suggest multiple new terms of usage
- verb: google
- 3rd person present: googles
- past tense: googled
- past participle: googled
- gerund or present participle: googling
Google is now searched in multiple languages as well.
- Google meaning in Hindi – गूगल
- Google meaning in Kannada – ಗೂಗಲ್
- Google meaning in Tamil – கூகிள்
googleable
adjective
or Googleable
The Massachusetts trio may not have picked an easily Googleable name …
—
Leah Greenblatt
Did you know?
The verb google and the noun googol are commonly confused because they have similar pronunciations. Google is the word that is more common to us now, and so it is sometimes mistakenly used as a noun to refer to the number 10100. That number is a googol, so named by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of the American mathematician Edward Kasner, who was working with large numbers like 10100. Google, on the other hand, is the name of a search engine as well as a verb that refers to searching the Internet using the Google search engine. (The search engine’s name was inspired by the number: the founders of Google chose the name to reflect their mission “to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.”) You can remember that the number is spelled googol by remembering that a googol has lots of o’s.
Two related words, googolplex and googleplex, are also commonly confused. A googolplex is the number 1 followed by a googol of zeros; the Googleplex is the Mountain View, California headquarters of Google.
Example Sentences
Then where are they going, if not to Faulkner and Achebe and Naipaul? … To the movies; to television (hours and hours); to Googling obsessively (hours and hours); to blogging and emailing and text messaging …
—Cynthia Ozick, Harper’s, April 2007
The Sports Gal and I delayed dinner plans so I could analyze the replays like a police chief. Eventually she realized we weren’t leaving the house, so she made herself a sandwich and headed upstairs to Google divorce lawyers.
—Bill Simmons, ESPN, 6 Dec. 2004
Have you ever googled yourself, maybe late at night, when nobody else was around? It’s OK, you can admit it—everybody does it.
—Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News, 17 Apr. 2004
Recent Examples on the Web
Tom has googled enough for the both of us.
—Adrianna Freedman, Good Housekeeping, 14 Mar. 2023
Or to google the parents of the bat mitzvah girl?
—Allan Ripp, WSJ, 20 May 2021
People are going to google you and their going to find a strong brand, a weak one or nothing.
—Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2023
Analyzing Google search data can also provide a head start on predicting an outbreak—people often google their symptoms before going to the doctor.
—Sabrina Weiss, WIRED, 14 Dec. 2022
Reviews are still coming in, and some of them are not glowing (google it for yourself).
—Tracy Ross, Outside Online, 8 Sep. 2020
Once in the big city, and not having much by way of industry connections, Aaryan would google for acting jobs and commute for hours to get to auditions.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 8 July 2022
Look at your Facebook page and your LinkedIn profile and google yourself.
—Adam Stott, Forbes, 25 Apr. 2022
The best work around would be to google the person’s name and city which should provide the address, then use MySmartRenter.com to run the report for safety.
—Christopher Elliott, Forbes, 9 Apr. 2022
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘google.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Google, trademark for a search engine
First Known Use
2000, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of google was
in 2000
Dictionary Entries Near google
Cite this Entry
“Google.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
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Last Updated:
7 Apr 2023
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Merriam-Webster unabridged