Google (2006).

DO YOU "google" something, by looking it up on the Google search engine on the internet? I do, and I tell my students to do it also, if they have not been able to find information elsewhere on the internet. Enough other people do this too that the verb "to google" has been included in both the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary. The updates came in June and July, 2006, sparking a number of news stories.

There already is a lore about "googling" people. The classic case is where you meet someone at a singles bar and then google their name--who knows what you will discover? Or you get an application for a job from someone--google them and see what comes up.

The amount of information about ordinary people which has found its way onto the internet is surprising, particularly when government documents appear. The Google search engine has been better than other search engines in ferreting out obscure sources. A Google search might very well compromise your privacy. Hence the widespread use of the term, "google" as a verb.

The news stories about the use of google as a verb did not really get into the questions about individual privacy. But surely these questions are on the minds of many googlers. As I reflected on this, I also wondered what the future will hold for Google, and for those of us who google and are googled.

General semantics reminds us that the world is constantly changing, and even though we may use the same word for something, over time the reality that the word refers to will become different. As I write this, we are able to use Google in 2006. But what will happen to this service in the future? Already we see the Chinese government requiring Google to censor its findings to Chinese users. What other changes lie in store?

Here I find Google and googling to be a metaphor for our encounter with the electronic digital universe which is being constructed all around us. This electronic universe is doing more and more things for us. It acts with almost instantaneous speed. It is promoted as our "friend," and in many ways it is friendly. But it is also possibly our enemy, as it will be possible to trail the location and actions of each and every person who uses it.

So, Google (2006) may be very different from Google (2010). Let's remember to keep an eye on our technological metaphors.

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EDITOR: RAYMOND GOZZI, JR.

RAYMOND GOZZI, JR.*

* Dr. Raymond Gozzi, Jr., is Associate Professor in the TV-Radio Department at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.