google

(GOO.gul)

v.

To search for information on the Web, particularly by using the Google search engine; to search the Web for information related to a new or potential girlfriend or boyfriend.

— Googling pp.

Example Citation:

Still a rare practice among the online masses, Googling the one you (might) love is fairly common among the young, professional and Internet-savvy. 'Everyone does it,' said Jena Fischer, 26, a Chicago advertising executive. 'And if [they say] they're not doing it, they're lying.'

— Nara Schoenberg, "Don't Go Into Date Blind; Singles Googling Before Canoodling," Chicago Tribune, April 2, 2001

Earliest Citation:

So if you're Googling your prospective dates, a word of warning: Don't jump to conclusions about someone just because Google says she murdered 50 people. Chances are, that's an overstatement.

— Amy Gilligan, "Googling is newest date thing," Telegraph-Herald, January 14, 2001

Notes:

Note that Google™ is a trademark identifying the search technology and services of Google Technologies Inc.

Here's a citation illustrating the more general sense of the verb:

Dave Eggers, the 29-year-old author of 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' and editor of the quarterly journal McSweeney's, will chat with folks at a private Denver residence on Tuesday. ... Eggers is owner of probably the most Googled name out there right now.

— "Novelist Dave Eggers to speak in Denver," The Denver Post, September 10, 2000

Using google to scope out a new boyfriend or girlfriend — which has also been called Google dating and interpersonal espionage — took off after a lengthy article on the practice appeared in the January 15, 2001 issue of the New York Observer. However, the honor of the first print citation goes to the Telegraph-Herald, which published a story just the day before (see the earliest citation, above).

Note, too, some people claim you can only use the verb google to refer to a Google search. That makes sense, but how people use language often isn't sensible (how dull that would be!). Google is being used in a more general way. For example, one person told me that their daughter said she was "googling for her other sock." And here's an example citation (one of dozens I could provide) that shows the use of googling as a synonym for "searching the Web":

The blind date has been replaced, we hear, by the 20/20 date.

Once, the prospective girlfriend devoted considerable time to the predate ritual, switching dresses, reapplying lipstick, declumping lashes, and, perhaps, calling the friend of a friend of a friend who might remember the date's name.

These days, date-readiness requires roughly the same amount of time, during which the investigative dater, suited up in her regulation black shift and clumpless mascara, gives the boyfriend-applicant a once-over. This process reflects none of the cuddliness implicit in the term "Googling."

With the assistance of her high-speed Internet connection, she scans and fact-checks her suitor's resume. Her short, buffed nails pull up his credit history, mortgage schedule, publications record, professional reprimands, genealogy and horoscope.

— Leah Eskin, "Getting to know ALL about you," The Chicago Tribune, February 9, 2003

Related Words:

egosurfing

fridge Googling

Google bombing

googleability

Googleganger

Googlejuice

Googleverse

GooTube

hyperdating

intellidating

quirkyalone

toxic bachelor

ungoogleable

Categories:

Internet

Verbed Nouns

Marriage and Relationships

Hey - I've just checked in the 'official' Scrabble words: http://www.word-buff.com/scrabble-words.html references and Google is now allowed in Scrabble (as a verb)! How about that - even though it's a trademarked term.

Well - someone has to check these things ;-)Google is actually a misspelling of the word "Googol", a mathematical term that describes the enormous number 10^100 or a number with 100 zeroes following it.