[lg policy] Fwd: From today's Guardian website: ogooglebar

Thu Mar 28 14:32:28 UTC 2013

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stacy Churchill <stacy.churchill at utoronto.ca>
Date: Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 11:21 PM
Subject: From today's Guardian website: ogooglebar
To: Harold Schiffman <haroldfs at gmail.com>

Hi, Harold.

Forward from Stacy Churchill:

========================
Google and Sweden in war of words over ogooglebar
Term meaning 'ungoogleable' was to be added to Swedish lexicon, but has
been pulled after Google tried to alter definition
•       Charles Arthur, technology editor
•       guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 March 2013 11.45 GMT

The search giant's lawyers objected to its trademark being diluted by being
used to apply to all searching. Photograph: Britta Pedersen/EPA
There's now officially no word for "ungoogleable", meaning "impossible to
find via web search" in Swedish – although there was a term until this week.
The Language Council of Sweden, which oversees the addition of official new
words to the Swedish lexicon, had lined up ogooglebar, defined as
"something that cannot be found on the web using a search engine".
The term had become a notable new use or neologism during 2012, it decided,
alongside emoji, emoticons used in instant messages; drinkorexi, an eating
disorder involving barely eating while drinking alcohol instead; and
conversesjukan, or Converse disease, bad feet or posture caused by wearing
trendy trainers.
Google's lawyers, however, got wind of the council's intentions and told it
the company did not want its trademark diluted by being used to apply to
all searching. Instead, the definition should be "something that cannot be
found on the web using Google". And include a trademark notification, the
search giant added.
The council refused, and simply dropped the word from its list of new
additions instead. "Google asked the Language Council to amend the
definition of the word. Today, we instead are deleting the word, marking
our displeasure with Google's attempts to control the language," the
council's director, Ann Cederberg, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Cederberg, clearly miffed at Google's search for brand immortality, said
the dramatic step of deletion had only been taken after long email
exchanges with Google's lawyers. "We have been trying for ages, but it has
taken too long and too many resources," she said in an interview with SVD
Kultur. "Google has not won anything on this."
As a verb, "google" has been part of the English language for a long time.
One of its first uses in print came in January 2001 in the Telegraph-Herald
of Dubuque, Iowa, when the city editor Amy Gilligan asked readers "Have you
been Googled yet? It's the latest thing. I was just sitting here Googling
myself, in fact." She also added, for those who wondered: "Don't worry.
It's not a euphemism."
But the search engine was only two years old then, and keen for all the
publicity it could get. Now, it seems more picky about how it appears in
languages.
"One purpose of the neologisms list is to show how society and language
development interact with each other. Google wanted to amend the definition
and add a disclaimer about its trademark. The Language Council has tried to
explain the purpose of the list. We do not deviate from our basic approach
to language … The definition the Language Council provides has been
formulated based on how the word is used in Swedish," Cederberg's statement
said.
"We have neither the time nor the inclination to pursue the lengthy process
that Google is trying to start. Nor will we compromise and change the
meaning of ogooglebar to what the company wants," she added.
Google, she said "has forgotten one thing: language development does not
care about brand protection."
A Google representative said: "While Google, like many businesses, takes
routine steps to protect our trademarks, we are pleased that users connect
the Google name with great search results."

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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