Authors of books, articles, blog posts, and other similar content (including podcasts and videos) may reference Google and Google’s trademarked product names, icons, and logos in your materials – but you’ll need to follow these guidelines.
An article referencing a Google product
You’ll need to follow our general “Rules for Proper Usage,” including but not limited to the following restrictions:
Don’t use our brand elements in any manner that implies a relationship or affiliation with, sponsorship, or endorsement by Google, or that can be reasonably interpreted to suggest editorial content has been authored by, or represents the views or opinions of Google or Google personnel.
Don’t mimic any of our brand elements, such as our logos or color pattern, in your own materials.
Don’t use our brand elements on any website that contains adult content, promotes gambling, involves the sale of tobacco or alcohol to persons under twenty-one years of age, or otherwise violates applicable law.
If you’re a member of the press, visit our Press Corner for Google-approved images and our press contact information.
Your use of the content may be acceptable under principles of fair use (or other similar concepts in other countries). Fair use is a concept under copyright law in the U.S. that, generally speaking, permits you to use a copyrighted work in certain ways without obtaining a license from the copyright holder. Google can’t tell you if your use of this content would be fair use; these are legal analyses that depend on all of the specific facts of your proposed use. You may wish to obtain your own legal advice.
If using any of our trademarks, such as our names, icons, or screenshots of our products, include a legal attribution line where applicable:
[Product name] is a trademark of Google LLC.
Please also include a prominent disclaimer of affiliation, for example:
“Google and Google Docs are trademarks of Google LLC and this book is not endorsed by or affiliated with Google in any way.”
Refer to our Trademark List for the proper names of our trademarks.
Our trademarks are important to us, so we want to make sure you use them correctly. Trademarks include our names, icons, logos, and other signature imagery.
You’re welcome to reference Google and our products in plain text, whether in fictional or non-fiction content, and don’t need to ask for our permission to do so.
Your use of Google trademarks cannot imply a relationship with Google or suggest the content has been authored by or represents the views of Google, such as “The Official Google Docs Guidebook.”
For example, you can write a book called “Google Docs for Newbies,” but you can’t include the Google logo, the Google Docs icon, or screenshots of Google Docs on the cover of your book.
You may use these elements where appropriate inside your book for instructional purposes, as long as such references are accurate and relevant.
View our trademark list for the proper names of all our products and services.
You may use unaltered screenshots of our products for instructional or illustrative purposes in textbooks, instructional books and videos, online articles, blog posts, and other such materials. They may be lightly annotated, but don’t distort or modify them in any way, such as changing the appearance of the user interface.
Screenshots can’t appear on the cover of your book, but you may use screenshots in advertisements for your book, video, or other content, whether print or digital, as long as it is clear that the advertisement is coming from you and not from Google.
You may use small depictions of our product icons within your book, article, instructional video, or other similar content for educational or informational purposes. You’ll still always need our permission to use the Google logo, or any of our product icons or logos outside of this use case.
Use our icons in appropriate context within your content, as supporting and informative elements.
Don’t use our icons in a prominent fashion or out of context, or in any manner that could suggest an affiliation with Google.
Use the most recent and accurate versions of our icons.
Don’t use older or modified versions of our icons, unless you’re referring to the historical versions of these assets.
Leave appropriate space between any Google icons and other elements.
Don’t combine or cramp Google icons with other elements.
Don’t use Google as a verb, such as “Let me Google that.” Instead, say “Let me look that up on Google.”
Don’t abbreviate, combine, modify, or hyphenate any Google trademarked names.
You may use screenshots from Google Maps and Earth in a book or other publications without needing to request our permission, as long as you’re distributing 5,000 or fewer copies. You must adhere to our attribution guidelines, and you can’t alter how the product interface looks or use screenshots out of context.
Google Maps and Google Earth screenshots cannot be used as the core part of navigational material, such as in guidebooks.
You may only use Street View in digital content, and only if the content is directly embedded from our API or built-in embed tools.
You may not use any screenshots of Street View in any print publications.