# Will "google" persist as a word after Google's gone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 14, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626 "2015-10-14T13:36:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626/41 "2015-10-18T18:14:01Z")

</div>

> [@TBG](#):
>
> Yes, eventually there came removable ones. And there are obviously removable hard disks still, google USB hard drive and you’ll find more than you can shake a stick at.

That’s different - you actually removed the hard disks from the drive in the beasts I was referring to. You never remove modern day high density hard disks from drives these days; you might remove the drive from the computer but that isn’t what I was getting at.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626/42 "2015-10-18T18:31:10Z")

</div>

> [@TBG](#):
>
> Alternatively, it was because it was originally hard wired into the computer.

I’d need some evidence before I could believe this is why they were called hard disks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626/43 "2015-10-18T18:39:52Z")

</div>

When the Model T ruled the roost, every car on the road was a Ford, even if it was a Stutz Bearcat. Or so I’ve been told and have read. I wonder how long it took for that to disappear.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626/44 "2015-10-21T21:59:15Z")

</div>

I want to be definite here about the hard/floppy disk thing. It _only_ has to do with the _platters_ being hard/floppy.

When I taught Computing to non-majors this was a major confusion. They’d store their stuff on “the hard drive” in the PC lab, but in reality store it on the floppy and blah … blah blah.

So I’d take a 3.5" floppy and just rip it open in front of them. See … floppy.

There were removable hard drive platters for several years. The Winchester drive, where the platters weren’t removable was a later thing, that lead to the more familiar HDs. I used removable platter drives on the Xerox Altos in the 1970s, for example. Single platter things that functioned much like floppies in terms of general usage. Just really, really big. But they could store a whopping 2.5MB!

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-google-persist-as-a-word-after-googles-gone/734626.md?page=2)