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The article was interesting, but using Google and Bing as plurals really disorients me. I had to stop and mentally substitute every time he said something like
by robobenjie 16y ago
The article was interesting, but using Google and Bing as plurals really disorients me. I had to stop and mentally substitute every time he said something like "Google are thinking".
- mikeklaas 16y agoThat's standard practice in the UK when referring to companies.
- user24 16y agothanks, I was beginning to wonder if I was 'right' or not. Didn't know the standard was singular in US.
- kj12345 16y agoI think it's just the British English way of referring to companies or groups with plural verbs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Formal_and_notional_agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...
- will_critchlow 16y agoHuh. I'm British and I would always use singular for a company (not for sports teams necessarily ref: that wiki link). Are we really supposed to say "Google are having an earnings call on Tuesday"? I would say "Google is having an earnings call on Tuesday".
- epo 16y agoThey're using the company name as a collective noun or as shorthand for "people at company X or product Y", makes sense to me (a Brit).