We need google as a verb because that's what millions of people do: They google. Google is straight and to-the-point. It would take a lot more words and letters to describe what we do when we google than the simple word "google." And, besides, once google began to appear in dictionaries and most especially on vocabulary tests, mebbe more kids would be encouraged to google topics themselves. Well, maybe not. Whenever I tell my elementary school kids that I've googled some topic of interest, they know exactly what I'm talking about because they google.

I'd like to see somebody come up with a pithier verb than "google" that would cover as much territory in describing the same action. Tell that OED guy to take that challenge in his pipe and smoke it.