Google as a verb

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

In our house "Google" is a verb. "to google" is the infinitive form. It is conjugated as follows:
I google
you (singular)
google
he/she googles
we google
you (plural) google
they google
Simple Past tense is: googled.
Past Perfect: had googled
Present Perfect:have googled
Future: will google
Future Perfect: will have googled
Participle: googling.

There are 30 odd auxiliary tenses and frankly I am to lazy to conjugate through them (see Ma I was paying attention in Grammar.) My point is though: Google is pretty new.

When I was a kid 'google' was used primarily in reference to a really big number. Not as a common search engine. In fact- I can even remember a time BEFORE Google and the common use of the internet. The library growing up did not have the internet until I was in my teens. We also had actual paper card catalogs- I learned how to use the library with them.

Now if my kids have a question that I can't answer or do not feel like explaining they simply request to 'google' it. What did we do before this? I doubt there is a book full of obscure questions that kids ask like why ice floats that one could simply go to and find an answer. We went to the library or found someone who would know as a result of their job or education and asked them. Or we went to the library.

I thought the librarians were pure geniuses. They knew how to find everything. Which is still a bit that baffles me. They always knew where to go to find answers. Now all that one needs to do is type in search terms with some approximation of correct spelling, press enter and up pop 30,000 hits in half a second.

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