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Google recognized as word of the decade

15 January 2010 11:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva - APA-Economics. Googleâ€™s dominance of online business during the past 10 years has culminated in the brand name being voted the world of the decade.

The American Dialect Society voted Google, the verb meaning â€˜to search the Internetâ€™, as the â€˜word of the decadeâ€™ as it is used by almost everyone now-a-days.

The society also chose "tweet", sending a short message via Twitter, as the top word for 2009 at its 20th annual session held in Baltimore this month.

Grant Barrett, chairman of the societyâ€™s new words committee, said of the recognition â€˜googleâ€™ and â€˜tweetâ€™ had received: â€˜Both words are, in the end, products of the information age, where every person has the ability to satisfy curiosity and to broadcast to a select following, via the internet.

Other finalists for this yearâ€™s â€˜word of the decadeâ€™ included "blog", "9/11", "Facebook", "text", "Wi-Fi" and "war on terror".

"I really thought â€˜blogâ€™ would take the honours in the word of the decade category, but more people Google than blog donâ€™t they? Plus, many people think â€˜blogâ€™ just sounds ugly," Barrett said in a statement.

Nominees for â€˜word of the yearâ€™ were the suffix "-er", "fail", and "H1N1" (the virus that causes swine flu).

On the selection process, the 120-year-old society said, "The words or phrases do not have to be brand new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year."

ADS is a group of scholars who study the English language and other languages and dialects in the United States. Agencies