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Comment by simonw | Hacker News Reader

Yup... and unfortunately for Sony, the top hit for "sony walkman" is Wikipedia. If their URLs didn't completely suck maybe they would have better luck with their SEO.

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I think it's Wikipedia because "walkman" has a much longer history as a brand name, from cassette players to cell phones.

I remember times where back where I lived "walkman" was a plain noun meaning "any kind of portable cassette player".

Well, in a way the same thing is true with "iPod" now: It's used to refer to "any kind of MP3 player". But search for "ipod" on Google, and the Wikipedia page telling you all about the history of the iPod is not the first result, it's a page where you can actually buy one. Several pages, actually.

Hmmm. I don't believe people use the term 'iPod' to refer to any old MP3 player.

Some do (my parents for example), and I suspect even among those who recognise different brands, there's decreasing awareness of what MP3 is. It's not uncommon for a brand to become synonomous over time - Walkman was an earlier example in this thread, but others include Liquid Paper, Roller Blades, and even Biros. Dangerous territory, because in the instance where it does become generic your trademark protection disappears (see also the battle Xerox continues to wage in that regard).

Also, Kleenex. Possibly the "Duck" brand of tape as well since people seem to have trouble saying duct tape.

Actually duct tape vs duck tape isn't all that clear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape#Etymology

Duck Tape is trademarked, but it's possible that was the original term for it. It's weird.

Many of my friends do; also many older more "technically-challenged" people I know do.

I don't appreciate the downvote.

I know of no-one who does, technically challenged or otherwise. Also, I don't have downvoting rights.

I suspect Wikipedia's massive page rank helps with that. Pretty soon wikipedia will own most keywords.

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