Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

Hans Kullin, among others, talked last week about Google’s decision to send “a series of legal letters to media organisations warning them not to use the word “google” as a verb, meaning “to search the internet”. The search company is worried that wrong usage of its trademark will harm the brand. In the long run a brand could degenerate into a generic term if it becomes synonymous with a product category or a term (like aspirin, or “to xerox”).“

I think it’s a really interesting story. On the one hand, it serves as an example of another company getting negative press because of an overzealous legal department. On the other hand though it does open up an interesting discussion about brands.

You’d think that your brand name becoming a commonly used word in the dictionary would be any executive’s wildest dream, but in this instance Google do have reason to be worried about their brand being too closely associated with search.

If someone has a question in work, the first answer you’ll normally hear shouted across the office floor is “Google it!”. There’s lots more to Google such as Google Maps or Gmail, but the first of their services ever to spring to mind is their search engine.

So what do Google do? I wouldn’t mind hearing other people’s opinions on the matter. In my mind, they should concentrate on making sure their complementary products off the same standard of service as their search offering. In my mind, the company seems to be involved with everything, but is too keen to move onto the next project instead of putting the polish on the finished product. As a result, not all of them are as good as their bread and butter service, the search engine. On that point, how long can GMail be in beta for?

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