“Ogooglebar. That’s Swedish, and means “something you can’t find with the use of a search engine.” At least, that’s what the Language Council of Sweden wanted Ogooglebar to mean–until Google stepped in, fearing that the word had negative connotations for the firm.”

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

I am used to the French trying to slow the flow of English words into French, but shocked that Google would join in the fray to slow linguistic change.  Words evolve based on cultural shifts and technological changes and the computer industry has especially created new words to describe emerging, new social interactions.  I’m certain that the company Google is thrilled that “to google” is the verb of choice to describe the action of searching for online for content.  I would have guessed that Google was savvy enough to understand that this “ungoogleable” term is not an indictment on the company, but a new way to define that elusive, mysterious, indefinable quality for a generation that sometimes acts as if everything can be found of Google. 

Tags: language, culture, technology, google, diffusion.

See on www.fastcompany.com