[Search engines in TV series/films] Why don't they use Google?

I know that it's probably a rights/product placement issue, but isn't it ridiculous whenever a character in a film or a TV show needs to search for something on the Internet and they use an obviously fake search engine that doesn't really exist? Most people just use Google; heck, "to google something" has become a fairly common synonym for "to search for something on the Internet".

In one TV show (can't remember which now) they had this fake search engine whose logo was even in a VERY similar font and colours to Google.

 

Only if you expect movies to be completely devoid of any artistic/poetic license. Most folks don't expect documentary-like realism in fictional movies, but that's just us, I guess.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finder-Spyder

 

I don't expect documentary-like realism, but when I see a fake search engine logo that looks like Google, but is not Google, then I find it rather ridiculous.


I mean, they use REAL cars and REAL mobile phones in contemporary TV shows/films; why is such a common thing as the most-widely-used search engine a problem?

 

Some do, I saw it the other night on Shortland Street (NZ's nightly soap) I think.

 

Oh you think the fake Google thing is bad, check out the Recurring Newspaper;

http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/04/lol-the-reoccurring-prop-newspaper/

 

It's kind of clever how the creators of iCarly do product placement: fake versions of real-life products of pretty much everything you can imagine, even of a certain science-fiction film franchise this board might have something to do with. That's why characters will have laptops with a neon pear on the back and such.

 

I remember them talking about Google in a season 7 episode of Buffy, if that helps you sleep any better tonight.

 

Forget software, I've always wondered why people in movies never use mice. And I'm still waiting for that awesome 3D interface that girl used to navigate the computer in Jurassic Park.

 

Well you can *talk* about a product all you want without it needing to be a paid endorsement. Like someone can say "arg my iPod broke" without a problem. There are definitely licensing issues with showing logos on products, though. It's why you'll see generic pop cans sometimes. My favorite is the constant use of Macs with round stickers over the Apple logo. As if there's any other kind of computer that could be


Basically it's just a bunch of legal stuff that producers don't want to pay for, particularly on a TV budget.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Well, I'm pretty sure they showed the front page of Google's site, but it's been a while since I saw that episode.

 

Wow. Somebody was REALLY bored.

 

The first time I really noticed the trend of TV shows covering up logos for brand names was when I was watching a Fox sitcom, and a young black kid was wearing the (then-new) Chicago White Sox black with white logo baseball cap, but the logo was spray-painted black so it looked like an ordinary black baseball cap, but you could tell it was an altered White Sox cap.

When I saw that, I was like "WTF did they do that for?", being like thirteen and all. Of course, now I know it was because the show wanted to avoid paying the Chicago White Sox and Major League Baseball money.

 

I asked the same about not using mouses and fake operating systems... 7 years back. Surely you all remember?





Hey Hollywood, it's 2003! We KNOW what computers look like...

 

I knew her name was Lex but thought no one would know who I was on about.

 

Hah, I've remembered another case of "brand hiding". In Series 4 of the new Doctor Who - Donna Noble's car, which is OBVIOUSLY a Peugeot (206, if I'm not mistaken), yet it has the logo covered up, as if that makes it stop being a Peugeot... Funnily enough, they didn't bother with it in The End Of Time...

 

You have grossly underestimated our community love of Jurassic Park.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

^ I know, shame on me.

Yeah, the BBC's strict restrictions on advertising makes for some funny moments.

 

Anyone remember the days of Lycos search? Those were the days...

 

I would suspect Google tries very hard to put a stop to people saying "Google it" in movies/TV, etc. as a term for just searching for something because they don't want it to become to common and then lose their trademark. Many companies have fought that for years and some have lost their trademarks due to this.

 

However, "google" as a verb is already in the dictionary.


-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Out of curiosity I to see if Google had been fighting trademark issues. From the wiki page on Genericised Trademarks

"Google has gone to lengths to prevent this process, discouraging publications from using the term 'googling' in reference to web-searches. In 2006, both the Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary struck a balance between acknowledging widespread use of the verb coinage and preserving the particular search engine's association with the coinage, defining google (all lower case, with -le ending) as a verb meaning "use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet"."

I would think that while it is a verb in the dictionary they would still try and fight it being said on TV or in movies to keep it from becoming even more wide spread. I'm not real familiar with trademark laws but I would think that line between the verb and the companies trademark is a pretty fine one.

 

I also remember asking Jeeves.

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