<div align=justify>Few companies are as protective of their corporate name as is Google, which has been known to write frosty cease-and-desist letters to people who use “google” as a generic term. The company is proud of its unusual name, which it says was coined in 1997 by its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in an accidental misspelling of the mathematical term “googol.” It’s not a verb, Google says, and never was, and using it as such violates the company’s trademark.

<div align=justify>Few companies are as protective of their corporate name as is Google, which has been known to write frosty cease-and-desist letters to people who use “google” as a generic term. The company is proud of its unusual name, which it says was coined in 1997 by its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in an accidental misspelling of the mathematical term “googol.” It’s not a verb, Google says, and never was, and using it as such violates the company’s trademark.

So, imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from a reader named Ed Lloyd, who had happened upon “google,” used as a verb in a collection of short stories published in 1942. In a story called “Single Blessedness,” humorist George Ade wrote this: “Charley Fresh — who regards himself as the irresistible captivator — googles his way among the girls for six nights a week and is known as a ‘lady’s man.’ ”

So, imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from a reader named Ed Lloyd, who had happened upon “google,” used as a verb in a collection of short stories published in 1942. In a story called “Single Blessedness,” humorist George Ade wrote this: “Charley Fresh — who regards himself as the irresistible captivator — googles his way among the girls for six nights a week and is known as a ‘lady’s man.’ ”