Ok so we all know what to google is, does anyone use Bing-it for Microsoft's search engine. Would you know what I meant if the conversation went: "Did you google it?" "Yeah, couldn't find anything, binged it too, still nothing."
Would I get in trouble if the conversation went: "Did you google it?" "Yeah, couldn't find anything, tried that other crap search engine too, still nothing."
Haha, nope. That sounds perfectly fine actually... which just goes to show how much of a monopoly Google is building. I'm not saying it's right, but I know a lot of people have the same perspective. Google has such a monopoly on search that their brand is synonymous with search.
There is also the overriding fact that it already exists as the past tense of binge, albeit with the G of George, not of gorge.
I like Bing too , but that's different from the zeitgeist grabbing on to a word and ratifying it. It's like xeroxing a copy. We all know that Xerox is a brand and as writers we all know that we should avoid using xerox as a verb in narrative. It should be photo copy. But, when it comes to representing dialogue, how people speak, people say xeroxing all the time. No one says says "I canoned off a hundred copies" though Canon is a very large producer of photo copy machines.
'binged' is perfectly usable... if you're referring to what you did during a night of heavy drinking!
You could always write it out as 'bing'd' to avoid the confusion with the past tense form of 'binge.'
good point! i've seen happy [some unhappy] folks crow [or moan], "I've been googled!" when they learn someone has looked them or their work up... and "I've been bing'd/bing-ed!" would make much better sense than "I've been binged!"
Is this dialogue? A better question, perhaps: is bing'd a verb for your characters - something they might use? Are they geeks or luddites? 'I googled it, Bing'd it and Yahooed the m*********er and not a bean.'
i don't dare say in public what that brings to mind, cog! [suffice it to say it has to do with bar soap and prison showers ]
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend the other day. He told this crazy story he had heard and I said, 'Did you snopes it?'
Bing works well. I use it and Google pretty much interchangeably, and there isn't a lot of disparity in search results. When there is, Google tends to be slightly better for me. I have Bing set to open up when I launch my browser, though, because I like to see what photograph they're using for the day.
I don't use Bing for the same reason I don't have someone pre-masticate my food for me. I prefer to do my own filtering for the complete picture, not just someone's idea of the best answer, or the answer with the most commercial backing. However, this is deviating from the thread topic...
of course it is... in a beer barrel, too... which is why the verb form in slanguage refers to what i alluded to above...
In dialogue like that I reckon it's perfectly normal. It's what I'd say if I had any confidence in Bing, so if I were the character it would be perfectly correct.
