Wordification

Have you noticed how people who regularly use computer software in their work, like designers who use Photoshop or architects who use ArchiCAD or film makers who use After Effects or whatever, nobody writes the names of those programs the way I just did, with capital letters, like a brand name. They write photoshop and archicad or aftereffects. These programs have become such an integral part of their work routine that it would be like writing Pencil or Hammer or Computer. I like the idea that eventually brand names of actually functional objects dissolve into just being the function they perform. McDonalds is superflous to the world, and so it will always be McDonalds (although McJobs and McAnything have become the names of fast and content-free, everything-that-is-bad-for-our-culture things, so maybe McDs service is providing us with a picture of just how bad we are), but Photoshop and ArchiCAD and Google are actually incredibly helpful, functional objects, so they've gone beyond the brand into the vocabulary of everyday life. I like that.

The other day I heard (and Wikipedia confirms) that Google is actually discouraging the use of its own name as a verb. That's incredibly sad, for a company that seemed at times to be very progressive and now, not so much. Where's the desire to create something bigger than yourself?

Oh, hey. New thing I learned today:

The word "google" dates back to the turn of the 20th Century. It is a cricket term, the equivalent of the American "curveball." A "googly" ball curves unexpectedly, and a pitcher (or bowler in cricket) capable of throwing like this is called a "googler."