The verb to google is a neologism meaning "to perform a web search" (primarily with the Google web search engine). The coinage of the word is mainly due to the tremendous popularity of that search engine. The American Dialect Society chose the verb to google as the "most useful word of 2002".
Google itself does not like this usage, fearing the dilution and potential loss of its trademark like Yo-Yo, Xerox and escalator (see genericized trademark). The company went so far as to send a cease-and-desist letter to Paul McFedries, creator of wordspy.com, a website that tracks neologisms.
External link
