Blogs

Ever say “Let me google it,” “pass me a kleenex?” or “please xerox these files?” As consumers we “verb” brands and immerse them in our vernacular all the time. Companies were once wary of this aspect of marketing. Well, not anymore.

In this era of “the sky’s the limit”-inspired social media platforms, internet brands revel when they are cemented in both physical and virtual world vernacular. After tweeps or twitizens coined the term “tweet” as the accepted verb for sending a message on Twitter, the founders applauded its users and decided to apply for a trademark. And let’s not forget about the 2.0 warrior Facebook, where users often “Facebook” an individual to learn more about them.

But which internet brand war is on our minds this summer? Google vs. Bing. There’s no question that Google has become a principal figure in “brand turned verb” marketing, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for Bing, Microsoft’s recently launched “decision-making” engine.

The buzz on Bing: it has the capabilities to augment, and even surpass, the search engine and branding capabilities of Google. Bing powers the current real-time search results on Facebook, and in July, Yahoo officially implemented its algorithm as its official search engine technology. So let’s try it out -- Bing’s exciting early signs of legitimacy show that very soon we will “bing” a new restaurant, vacation destinations, resume advice, or even each other.

@crakowitz and @BlackmanExpress would like to thank @mashable for keeping us well-informed about the search engine wars through their frequent tweets on the subject.