I’ve never heard Google, Uber or Zoom used unless it meant the specific company. “Google” became a verb, but I’ve never heard of someone saying they googled something on DuckDuckGo, for example.
“Google it” means look it up on the Internet. My kids don’t use Chrome, they use Google (probably call it that because it’s the homepage of Chrome).
I’ve heard people say they’re going to uber home. They sometimes use Lyft.
And I’ve definitely heard people say they were on a zoom call even when it was Microsoft Teams or Google …what is the Google one called again? I don’t remember anymore because people will say Google zoom call!!
I try to avoid using all these names and instead use the more generic names.
Zoom was actually a word before 2011
Trademarks are context sensitive, and zoom was not used as a term for video calls before that. It is interesting that that’s the only one on the list that isn’t also a made up word
Vaseline, Velcro, Mace and Styrofoam aren’t generic? The fuck? I didn’t even know those were trademarked names. Vaseline maybe, but the other three are common enough that I was sure they were generic.
No Coke?
Do people really use coke generically? I’ve always thought coke to refer solely to coca-cola. Maybe it’s just a regional thing.