Google has reportedly issued a number of legal letters to the media, warning them not to use the company’s name as a verb. According to the Independent Online, Google wants to prevent the use of ”google” as a general term to describe searching the internet.

Whatever trademark issues that the company is trying to address, the unavoidable fact is that ”to google” has already entered the public consciousness - this was cemented in June when the term was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb. Google has chosen to take on a tough battle here, and the backlash has already begun - over at Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel calls the decision ”one of the worst PR moves in history”. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction from Google over the coming week.