The first time I saw the word "Googling," it was on a webzine or the web version of a paper magazine, in late 2000 or early 2001. It was used more concretely, as "looking up a person on Google to find out more about them before meeting them, or before meeting them again." Most of the "real-life" examples in the article made me ashamed that I'm not famous. (Even being the famous Mr. Claw would be nice.)

Googling an average person tends to give a very strange or one-sided represntation of hir, as nobody is interested in writing web pages on most of what we humans do.

The term googling is slowly making its way into the mainstream. It was most recently heard on Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode four of season seven (7.4), entitled "Help".

In this episode, the Scooby gang is researching a girl who has told Buffy that she is going to die soon. They are looking for the possible cause of said death in an effort to save this girl.

Willow to Buffy: "Have you tried googling her?"

They google the girl using their handy ibook and unearth all kinds of useful information.

Said scene was undoubtly funny to anyone who has spent a boring afternoon at work googling ex-boyfriends or former roommates.