When Merriam-Webster added google/googled/googling to their dictionary Google made some rumblings about how they weren’t happy to see their trademark become a verb. This wasn’t because they weren’t thrilled to be popular, but because they were worried that they’d eventually loose their trademark.
That was all fine and good until yesterday, when Google managed to tick off nearly everyone with a single blog post: Do you “Google?”.
Granted this probably came about because their legal team figured it would be a good way to show that they are trying to protect their trademark. But their specific approach certainly came across as, hmmmm, demanding. And if there is one thing that the world of open source/api/mashup folks don’t care for is being told what they can and can’t do. Sorry Google, I think you blew it on this one. Expect people to do exactly the opposite of what you just told them to do.