• The Wall Street Journal (by subscription), Friday, October 20, 2006 12 PM

YouTube a verb? Google is a much more logical-sounding verb than YouTube. Somehow "YouTube it!" just doesn't sound right. As a past tense verb, YouTube sounds a little better: "I YouTubed it." Perhaps it's even better as an adjective; some are calling this midterm election the first "YouTube election," because of the videos showing politicians saying dicey things or falling asleep at their desks during meetings.

Still, becoming a verb or an adjective is a big-time measure of a company's success. It actively refers to something people can understand, and makes a brand name ubiquitous. It's about as good a marketing vehicle as any you could get. And it's free.

YouTube's high price ($1.65 billion) is perhaps attributable to "the behavior of crowds, something that all the computers in the world put together still aren't able to figure out." Other successful company verbs include TiVo and Xerox.

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