Google Ant

obli writes "In Google's official blog, Dr. Brian L. Fisher (an entomology researcher) writes about a newly discovered species of ant that he has named after Google (Proceratium google). The reason for this name is a tribute to the usefulness of Google Earth in his research. This is not the only species with a company name, there is also the GoldenPalace.com Monkey (Callicebus aureipalatii)." The California Academy of Sciences also has a short piece on the discovery along with a brief background of Dr. Fisher.

Comments

Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting?

[Oh the Huge Manatee]

Two hundred years from now, this ant species will probably still exist. But the name will seem just as silly and puzzling to the scientists of that day as if Dr. Fisher had named the new species Proceratium petsdotcom.

In the long run, this little stunt will probably harm Dr. Fisher's reputation more than it will help Google's.

Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting?

[the-amazing-blob]

Why would it harm him? I personally think it's quite funny, and wouldn't dislike him in the least for it.

Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting?

[WilliamSChips]

At worst, they'll think he misspelled googol.

Re:Confusing the transitory with the long-lasting?

[Bonhamme Richard]

Yah! He should have named it something meaningful, like some sort of vauge latin description that the average human being cannot understand.

At least he gave the name as a gesture of thanks, instead of naming it after himself or his pet.

Re:Can we change

[tommertron]

How about they name the ant Keyhole? They were the ones who invneted "Google Earth" anyway.

Re:The real question:

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who's seriously worried that Google is going to cost them money can simply make a robots.txt file. Personally, although my sites haven't exactly been comparable to MSN, Yahoo or Google, I can't say google took up that much bandwidth really, although yes, it sure did visit a lot. I guess it's because I like clean, tidy, efficient web design.

Re:Can we change

[Wiwi Jumbo]

Unfortunately, there's always a difference between inventing and popularizing.

Sure Xerox invented the GUI, but Apple gets the credit for giving it to the people....

ahahah what

[Anonymous Coward]

Google has helped us achieve free and democratic access to information

which is why they allow the chinese to block stuff?

Re:Finally, Google expands into animals

[fm6]

Not funny! 5 years ago, when "Intelligent Agents" were all the rage, lots of people were envisioning little animated creatures on your computer screens that would "fetch" information for you. (Naturally a AT&T commercial featured an talking dog.) The reality never progressed beyond lame little projects like that company (its name escapes me) that soaked up huge amounts of venture capital, and whose only real product was a particularly limited PDA. And of course, there's Microsoft's agent technology, which is known mainly for its irritating avatars such as clippy and Bob.

I now view all pseudo-biological software with extreme suspicion. Especially after playing with Seaman

savy

[xipho]

Dr. Fisher is an awesome collector- he has taken many new ant species (and passed on many other undescribed species to other experts in the field). Systematist like him will likely name tens or hundreds of species in their lifetimes, coming up with names for all of them is just a little icing on the cake- but it can get boring too. Fisher's website is one of the better "biodiversity" sites out there in terms of "web-tech". Perhaps his ulterior motive- associating his work in any way possible with a giant like google can only help his work in the long run, particularly in biodiversity/systematics studies which are notoriously underfunded...hint hint.