PodTones? RingCasting?

5 July 2006

Names are important.

People pay millions of dollars for a “good” name (see my last post for some of the reasons behind the quotes round good).

So why in the tech industry – and this really is an industry wide problem – do we get naming so wrong so often? Think of one the most popular sites out there; MySpace. It’s such a poor name. It really is. Of course, it’s fairly representative of the site and brand (both being poor themselves), but the practice of smashing two fairly boring words together in this manner has really got to stop.

Podcasting.

Bloging.

Mobloging.

Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Don’t get me started on “Web 2.0” companies, either. Tagworld? A world of tags? Is that like “World of Leather”, but for those things you attach to luggage with your name on? I’m trying not to think about the adding-random-dots-into-you-name meme, de.licio.us style. Steam. Ears. Etc.

There is an upshot, of course. If you’re a startup, naming a new product or rebranding in some way your life is really a bit easier. Possibly the biggest challenge in these situations is how to stand out from the crowd.

Well it’s easy. Just use a good name.

From: Articles

5 July 2006