the brand name for a leading internet search engine, founded in 1998.
(often lowercase) to search the internet for information about (a person, topic, etc.): We googled the new applicant to check her background.
(often lowercase) to use a search engine such as Google to find information, a website address, etc., on the internet.
Origin of Google
1word story For Google
The term google itself is a creative spelling of googol, a number equal to 10 to the 100th power, or more colloquially, an unfathomable number. Googol was coined in the 1930s and is attributed to the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.
Soon after Google was created, the trademarked company name became a popular verb. People were “googling” all sorts of information, including their own names. When users google themselves, unless their names are absurdly rare, they may find their “googlegangers” (a portmanteau word combining “google” and “doppelgänger”), or their namesakes, listed in the Google search results.
A whole new industry has sprung up around Google, including the new field of search-engine optimization or SEO, which works to boost the ranking of a name or term in Google and other search-engine results. In 2005, the newly-minted term Google bomb became popular, to describe the intentional skewing of Google search results by creating links to misleading web pages. Whether we like it or not, we now live in a Google-centric world.
Words that may be confused with Google
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
British Dictionary definitions for Google
/ (ˈɡuːɡəl) /
a popular search engine on the internet
to search for (something on the internet) using a search engine
to check (the credentials of someone) by searching for websites containing his or her name
Origin of Google
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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