Google it! This is perhaps one of the most abundant examples of a brand name evolving into an everyday word. The cultural phenomena of brand names gradually becoming a part of the vernacular and losing their trademarks has been happening since kerosene was trademarked in 1854 by Nova Scotia geologist and inventor Abraham Gesner. Over time, other manufacturers began putting their brand on kerosene. This is known as genericide. Intense name indeed. The team at LLC Attorney has created this fun and vibrant timeline of brand names that became everyday words. I learned a lot, and I hope you do too!

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I had no idea about a lot of these, especially linoleum! Linoleum is believed to be one of the first brand names to transform into an everyday word. The brand name ‘Linoleum’ was first introduced by inventor Frederick Walton in 1864. After five years of extensive advertising, his product began sweeping across Europe and beyond. In 1878, he filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement against another flooring manufacturer that began using the Linoleum name in America. Unfortunately for Walton, the court dismissed the lawsuit because he had never trademarked the brand name and linoleum had become so widely used that it had become a generic term. Talk about flooring the competition! Other examples that surprise me are ping pong, yo-yo, dry ice, and heroin! Heroin was the name of a morphine-derived drug created and trademarked by Bayer in 1898. They lost the trademark to genericide by 1917.

Although the internet was officially created in 1983, it did not become popular worldwide until the mid ‘90s. During the World Wide Web’s infancy, sites like AOL, GeoCities, Yahoo!, Netscape, and MSN ruled supreme. I have fond memories of using Infoseek and Lycos for research in school! Over time, the way humans interacted with the internet evolved, and with it, the most popular websites. A2Hosting.com has created this simple and striking visualization of the top 10 most-visited websites each year since 1995:

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Here are the top 10 most-visited websites each year in 1995:

And here are the top 10 most-visited websites each year in 2023:

As you can see, the only site that have survived the test of time is Yahoo.com, although it plummeted from 2nd place to 8th place. Why is Yahoo still around? Many people still have Yahoo email accounts, so that explains some of the traffic the website receives. Yahoo is also popular for its robust fantasy sports community. Google has dominated first place for most-visited website since 2006. Do you think Google will ever be replaced as the most popular website on the internet?

The flag of Denmark has been in use since 1625, making it the oldest flag in the world that has been continuously used. Denmark’s national flag is called the Dannebrog. The white-on-red cross has been used as a symbol of Denmark allegedly since the 14^th century, but it wasn’t until the 1600s that the current flag has been recognized as the country’s official flag.

Do you know the other flags that have been in continuous use the longest? The team at Wizard Pins examined flag designs from countries all around the world to visualize which ones have been continuously used by their respective countries the longest. Do you know which other countries have the oldest flags?

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The countries with the oldest flags in continuous use include the following:

1. Denmark (1625): Red background with a white Nordic cross
2. Netherlands (1660): Horizontal bands of red, white, and blue
3. Nepal (1743): The only irregularly-shaped flag consisting of two pennants with a red background (representing the color of the country’s national flower, the rhododendron) and a blue border (symbolizing the color of peace)
4. United Kingdom (1801): The UK flag, also known as the Union Jack, is composed of the red cross of St. George, the saltire of St. Patrick, and the saltire of St. Andrew
5. Chile (1817): The Chilean flag is composed of two equal horizontal bands of white and red with a blue square and five-pointed white star in the upper left corner

The flag of the United States, with all 50 stars and 13 states, was officially adopted in 1960.