GEICO AND THE THESAURUS

Michael Giberson

A news story about GEICO and Google sent me to Thesaurus.com this morning, trying to find just the right word for the lawsuit the insurer filed against the search engine.

But which is the right word? The great thing about Thesaurus.com is that there are a lot of options. For example, search on "uppity" -- not the word I want, but in the ballpark -- and you get full entries for aloof, arrogant, brash, condescending, confident, distainful, and many more.

Lordly? Overbearing? Pompous?

Again none of those is quite the word I'm looking for. You see, Geico is suing Google, because of the way Google AdWords works. Search on Geico, and in addition to search results, you may get a few blocks of advertising on the right hand side of the page. Geico objects to the way that Google's advertising progam allows a competitor to pay to have sponsor's ads be displayed when a consumer searches on "Geico."

Presumptuous? Pretentious? Self-important?

None of these words are quite right, but they are all in the neighborhood. You know how it is when your researching an idea or trying to recall the name of an author of an article you read once, and can't quite remember the word. Oftentimes you have start with a word that is in the neighborhood, and hope it will trigger your memory.

Sniffy? Snippy? Snooty?

Geico goes to a lot of trouble to try to establish their name as something meaningful, spending more the $1 billion over the last five years according to the Washington Post story. Now Geico's upset that consumers may use that meaningfulness for other than official Geico-approved commercial purposes.

Toplofty?

No that's not the word I want, either. But it's a cool word.