Hey, Google! There’s Another Programming Language Called Go!

When you’re a huge web company, and you choose a name for something as important as a new programming language, you should take great care to investigate whether the name is already taken.

Apparently, Google () didn’t do that. Frank McCabe, a developer working at San Jose, Calif.-based Starview Technologies, created a programming language and named it Go years ago. In fact, he published a research paper about it in 2004, and devoted an entire book to it, named “Lets Go” in 2007.

In an e-mail to Information Week, McCabe said he doesn’t own a trademark on the language, but he’s not happy about Google choosing the name Go nevertheless. “It takes a lot of effort to produce a reasonably well-designed language. I am concerned that the ‘big guy’ will end up steam-rollering over me. I do not have resources to invest in legal action; but do not intend to let Google keep the name without them being explicit that they are steam-rollering over us,” he says.

If the folks at Google who named the language didn’t know about the other “Go”, they were careless. If they knew about it and decided to name their language “Go” anyway, it sounds like a big company not caring much about the little guy. After all, how many names are taken when it comes to programming languages? Perhaps a couple hundred? Surely Google could have chosen another name.

Google hasn’t given a definitive answer to this problem yet. So far, their spokesman merely said they “recently became aware of the Go! issue and are now looking into the matter further.” But ignoring the issue definitely won’t go well with Google’s oft quoted mantra – “Don’t be evil”.