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Filed under: Internet, Google

Friendly reminder from Google: we don't want to be just anyone's verb

Friendly reminder from Google: we don't want to be just anyone's verbThis summer, Google was both blessed and cursed with becoming a verb in the Oxford and Merriam-Webster english dictionaries. When it happened, Google thumped the trademark drum pretty hard, reminding people that "Sure, I'll google that" is fine when in reference to using their search engine, while "Oh! I googled that on Yahoo! and couldn't believe what I found!" will land you on their naughty list.

Interestingly, the search company just reviewed these intended uses of their name and trademark on their blog, reminding us which scenarios turn their lawyers' frowns upside down. While a lot of this might seem like the company is splitting hairs - after all, everyone in this day and age knows who Google is, right? - the original CNET article I linked contains trademark horror stories from the likes of Aspirin, Xerox and even more recently: Rollerblade. All suffered trademark woes because their names became common verbs that referred to their particular industries, instead of their specific products.

Could Google go the way of kleenex? Time will only tell, but let's hope not. The company has done a lot for search and the internets as we know them, and I would hate to see their contribution reduced to a lowercase 'g.'

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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