I thought it was just George W. Bush who called the world’s biggest search company “the Google.”
But apparently everyone in Washington does it. Witness this report from today’s Washington Post:
I’m updating my style guide now.
Ed Bott
Real-world Windows and Office
Curiously, my father talked like this for decades before Google appeared. He would compulsively put a “the” in front of things that normally don’t carry it. “The Yahoo” did indeed come up at one point.
I think it’s supposed to be “teh Google.”
Nearly everyone who lives in North East Tennessee refers to Wal-Mart as “the Wal-Mart,” and the place they work at as “the “insert name of employer here.”" For instance if you work at Eastman Chemical Plant it is refered to as “the Eastman.” I grew up in Knoxville, TN and people do not speak that way there so it may be specific to very specific regions of the US.