Buffy didn’t just slay demons – she also introduced one of the most defining words of the internet age.
If you're reading this, it's practically impossible not to know the word we're talking about. The single most famous word in the entire World Wide Web. Google (as a verb). But where this word of all words – recognized almost everywhere on the planet – actually comes from might surprise you. Here’s everything you need to know about the origins of the term "to google."
How Buffy Changed the Internet
Back in the late ‘90s, the internet was still wild, uncharted territory. Social media didn’t exist, streaming was a futuristic dream, and searching for information meant clicking through endless directories. But one TV show was ahead of its time – not just in storytelling but also in language. Buffy the Vampire Slayer helped introduce a word that would soon become essential: "Googled."
In a 2002 episode, Willow casually asks Buffy, "Have you googled her yet?" – a phrase that, at the time, was groundbreaking. Though Google’s founders had been using the term internally as a verb since 1998, this was one of the first times it appeared in pop culture. This famous incident, of course, had to be followed by a classic boomer joke, assuming that googled meant something sexual.
The Power of Googling
Okay, the fact that Google has made it into the dictionary is something you probably knew or guessed. But how about this? Google accounts for more than 90% of all search engine usage worldwide, followed by Bing with less than 4%. That’s especially crazy when you consider that 1.4 billion people in China don’t even have access to Google and use Baidu as an alternative.
Google processes approximately 100,000 search queries per second worldwide, with the most searched word being YouTube – which, unsurprisingly, is also owned by Google. This also explains the staggering value of Google's parent company, Alphabet, which stands at $2.02 trillion, surpassing the GDP of Spain.
Did you watch Buffy back in the day? And if so, are you grateful to your grandchildren for showing you the internet? Tell us in the comments!