Fuck you, Google
http://www.sprakradet.se/15922
This post exists exclusively to get Google to index that link. The page it leads to is in Swedish, so most of you won't be able to read it. But the basic story is this: There is a group of linguists who every year compile a list of new words in the Swedish language. This list is descriptive, in spite of what our old-style media keeps screaming. For 2012, the list was to include the word "ogooglebar". Which would be "ungoogleable" in English, I guess. It was defined as "not possible to find on the Internet by using a search engine". Google's lawyers protested this, and wanted the linguists to change the definition to specify "Google" instead of saying "search engine". The linguists refused, on the grounds that that is not how descriptions work. The suggested a few different phrasings that would serve to protect the status of "Google" as a registered trademark. Google accepted none of them. So in the end, the linguists decided to retract the word "ogooglebar" from the list of new words.
To retract it from the list very, very publicly.
One of the arguments from Google's lawyers was that the list only had a single reference to the use of the word "ogooglebar". Well, today there are more. A lot more. And you can find them using any search engine you want.
Fuck you, Google. Fuck you right up the MapReduce.
This post exists exclusively to get Google to index that link. The page it leads to is in Swedish, so most of you won't be able to read it. But the basic story is this: There is a group of linguists who every year compile a list of new words in the Swedish language. This list is descriptive, in spite of what our old-style media keeps screaming. For 2012, the list was to include the word "ogooglebar". Which would be "ungoogleable" in English, I guess. It was defined as "not possible to find on the Internet by using a search engine". Google's lawyers protested this, and wanted the linguists to change the definition to specify "Google" instead of saying "search engine". The linguists refused, on the grounds that that is not how descriptions work. The suggested a few different phrasings that would serve to protect the status of "Google" as a registered trademark. Google accepted none of them. So in the end, the linguists decided to retract the word "ogooglebar" from the list of new words.
To retract it from the list very, very publicly.
One of the arguments from Google's lawyers was that the list only had a single reference to the use of the word "ogooglebar". Well, today there are more. A lot more. And you can find them using any search engine you want.
Fuck you, Google. Fuck you right up the MapReduce.