It appears that the search-and-ye-shall-find powerhouse Google is in danger of being branded too darn well.

Will it go the way of trademarked words like Aspirin, Xerox, Hoover and Kleenex and become a generic word? BBC News investigates.

In the US Google has mutated into a verb. Singletons will "google" a new boyfriend or girlfriend - run their name through a search engine - to check them out. People now talk about "googling" and "being googled".

On an episode of ER, shown on Channel 4 in the UK this week, colleagues of Dr Susan Lewis talked of "googling" her blind date.

And singer Robbie Williams says US women who initially reject his amorous advances often have a change of heart when they run his name through a search engine.

"I've since been told: 'That girl googled you because she knows who you are now.' So hurrah for googling!" says Williams. "Science got me laid."