Exactly.

> The appeals panel said trademark loss to genericide occurs when the name has become an "exclusive descriptor" that makes it difficult for competitors to compete unless they use that name.

Nobody can convince me that Bing will improve it's marketing by suggesting that people should "use Bing to google anything on the Internet"!

Interesting off-topic thought - I still catch myself saying "I'm going to uber there" when I'm actually using Lyft.

I still instinctively tell people to "google it" even though I exclusively use Bing or DuckDuckGo. I usually catch myself after.

And in an alternate universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4

Holy moly!

So cringeworthy!

For laughs I sometimes say I'm AltaVista'ing something. Or "Veronica'ing" if I suspect they'd might get the reference.

Yes, but what search engine to you think they will use? I would expect Google.

i find odd pleasure in using alternative search engines as a verb in casual conversation

> How does "search" not convey searching the internet using any search engine?

Because 'search' could also be you looking for the second sock to make a pair in 'the real world', search is not internet specific, google is.

on its own, the word "search" doesn't imply "the internet". linguistically, the verb "google" has cultural value beyond the brand. it's rare for the phrase "google it" to actually mean "search the internet for it _using google_".

it's rare for the phrase "google it" to actually mean "search the internet for it _using google_".

This is the only way I ever use the phrase "google it". I don't say I "googled" someone when I search for them on Facebook. I say it when I search on Google.

If you told someone to google "foo" and instead they search for it on DuckDuckGo did they do something wrong?

HNs technical internet savvy audience is the wrong place to ask. Average people don't even know what search engine they use, just whatever their browser uses as default.