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Infinitive verbs: to hoover, to xerox, to google

Posted by: Stephen Baker on August 13

Criticize Google all you want for knuckling down on inappropriate use of its moniker. (ex Rubel). The crackdown makes it look like a company that’s forgotten how to laugh. And no doubt the outfit so brilliant at ferreting out information will have a much harder time controlling it. Still, brand names that become verbs don’t always pay off in the marketplace.

When “to xerox” came to mean “to photocopy,” Xerox Corp was sitting on top of the information world. Now plenty of people “xerox” their documents on Canon or HP machines. “To hoover” means to vacuum in much of the English-speaking world. But the Hoover Company was consumed during the takeover binges of the ’80s, and is now part of the Maytag Corp. Conjugated names don’t save a company. But contrary to what Google’s saying, they probably don’t hurt it much either.

Reader Comments

Kevin Dugan

August 13, 2006 10:30 AM

Think legos and kleenex and vaseline too.

schadenfreudisch

August 15, 2006 03:05 PM

to velcro.

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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