You’ve seen them, usually when people are on stage in some kind of televised conference setting, sitting in comfy-looking chairs and chatting with each other while wearing wee boom mics that have flesh-coloured pieces of foam on the tips instead of the usual black. Like this one below, which I grabbed from a current Ars Technica article:
To me, it just makes it look like the person has a large skin growth either on or hovering weirdly just above their face. It’s unsettling. To me.
That is all.
Google may have a monopoly on search engines, but that doesn’t mean writers at major tech websites should be greasing the way for Google by using “Googled” as a synonym for “searched”. This is the kind of thing that used to give Xerox fits when people said they “Xeroxed” something instead of “photocopying” because if Xerox didn’t fight back against the use of its name as a verb (or noun), it could eventually be declared generic and fall into the public domain.
On the other hand, Google probably doesn’t care because they are a mega-company and don’t fear consequences over things like trademarks or copyright. They know they’re in no danger of “Google” becoming a generic term, and actually like it when people say “Googled” because it further cements “search” as being synonymous with Google.
And this is why writers should do better than to help Google along. Other search engines exist (I use DuckDuckGo and Kaigi) and it’s presumptuous to assume everyone uses Google.
(BTW, the editorial is otherwise well-stated and worth checking out!)