"Google" the term

(This is one of those "draft posts" I was talking about. Just sitting in the blog queue, waiting to get some attention...)


After reading an article entitled "Bush: Google government spending" in the METRO "The world's largest global newspaper" on Wednesday, September 27, 2006, it inspired me to think about the origin of words.

To summarize the article, Bush says citizens can "google" federal budget and spending. President Bush recently signed a new law that calls for a web site database to go online by January 1, 2008 that would allow citizens to track about $1 trillion in government spending on grants and contracts.

But where is Google in all this? Did they strike a deal? Is there a contract with Google and the United States Government? The new law has little to nothing to do with Google. Why not say "...Americans will now be able to '[Yahoo! Search] their tax dollars'", or "...Americans will now be able to '[Ask Jeeves about] their tax dollars'"? I know, I know...because it's not as simple and catchy.

There is no longer a question that "Google" is a term, as well as, a company. But when did this happen? Was it when Bush casually used the term in conjunction with a new law? Was it years ago? Is it right now via this blog?

When will we look back and not know where the term "google" originated? When will the origin of "google" be in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader as we laugh in amazement that Google was actually a company at one time?