Quite so -- a googol is a 1 with a ridiculous number of zeros after it. A google is a page with a ridiculous number of hits on it.

The sad truth, which was learned by Xerox, is that copyright cannot prevent the ebb and flow of language, and it is just their bad luck if they don't like it. The use of a search engine -- a whole new technology of considerable importance -- is going to have an easy popular verb, and google is it. Dictionary keepers simply document popular usage; they can't infringe on copyright legally, IMO, because all they are doing is describing language and its usages.

A