[WEB4LIB] google, the answer

[Thomas Dowling]

>
>
> And, I'll bet that even if googol.com hadn't already been taken, the
> marketers would have told them this name is better, as it is more easily
> remembered and spelled by the masses.
>

...little realizing that "to google" is both an older phrase and an
accurate description of the swerving we all do as we traverse the web.
It's a turn-of-the-[20th]-century back-formation from Googly, a cricket
bowl that seems to have about the same effect as a good knuckleball in
baseball.  The OED cites a forlorn line from Badminton Magazine: "The
googlies that do not google."  Indeed, are we not all googlies who too
often fail to google?

Thomas ("Unless It's More Like A Hard Slider") Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu