Posted by Mathew @ 5:39 pm on September 17 2007 | |
The TechCrunch40 conference, which is being put on by my pals Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis, sounds like a great show, and is clearly packed with launches and demos from interesting Web 2.0 companies. With that caveat out of the way, I have to say that reading through the list of names at the TechCrunch40 site makes me wonder whether we will ever get tired of the “let’s come up with a wacky Web 2.0 name that doesn’t even sound like English” naming convention for social Web apps.
Here’s just a selection of the names of demo presenters at TechCrunch40: Faroo, Viewdle, Yap, Flock (I’ll give that one a pass), Ponoko, Xobni, Argoo, Kerpoof, ZocDoc, Mego, Wixi, Ceedo and Orgoo. I know there are real English names too, like Powerset and MusicShake, but still — what planet are these other services from, or do they think their potential users will be coming from?
Here’s another interesting thought. Which one of the T40 would you be willing to pay money for on a regular basis?
So far all I see is people reporting about the name of the company and what it does. When are they going to start reporting on who is willing to pay for this/these services. Surely they can’t all be advertising driven?
So funny — and so dead-on. When you hang names like these on products, they have to be over-the-top great to break out of the clutter. I was talking with a reporter earlier today about a “cool web app” and then I couldn’t think of its name…I racked my brain in embarrassment and told her I’d have to email it to her later. I still can’t think of it.
That’s a fair comment regarding ads. However, keep in mind that the its not so much that some of the platforms such as ours couldn’t charge for the technology, but more that ad based biz models have much higher revenue potential and do not limit adoption. Its all about the eyeballs. :-)
It will surely be interesting to see, two or three years out, how many of these names are actually recognizable brands. Commenter #1 hits the nail on the head, doesn’t he?
Obviously if you put two Os in your name you’ll become fabulously rich! Just look at Google and Yahoo.
Oh wait, maybe there’s more to it than that??
Also people forget that Google (comes from googol) and Yahoo as well as a lot of the other interesting tech company names were actually words before the companies existed. They didn’t just reach into the void and stick some syllables together.
Here’s a test for these companies. Write your new Web 2.0 name on a cardboard sign. Spend 30 minutes walking around on a crowded city street asking people to read it.
Has anyone tried to register a good .com domain lately? Forget about it, the domain squatters have taken most off the market. This necessitates creativity amoung startup founders in naming their companies since most cannot afford to pay $50k or more for “nomal”…
So FAROO comes from Pharos - Lighthouse of Alexandria - built 300 BC. at the island of Pharos. After the location the tower was later called ‘Pharos’ .
The name was adapted in many languages as term for lighthouse: lat. ‘pharus’, ital. and span. ‘faro’, fr. ‘phare’ and port. ‘farol’.
And besides this, try to register a domain name of a plain english term without some additional vowel or other trick.
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Here’s another interesting thought. Which one of the T40 would you be willing to pay money for on a regular basis?
So far all I see is people reporting about the name of the company and what it does. When are they going to start reporting on who is willing to pay for this/these services. Surely they can’t all be advertising driven?
To be fair, most of these names stem in some way from other previous successfull web companies
So funny — and so dead-on. When you hang names like these on products, they have to be over-the-top great to break out of the clutter. I was talking with a reporter earlier today about a “cool web app” and then I couldn’t think of its name…I racked my brain in embarrassment and told her I’d have to email it to her later. I still can’t think of it.
Last we checked the word “yap” is in the dictionary. I think it means “talking”… ;-)
Okay, Victor — I guess I’ll give you a pass too :-)
That’s a fair comment regarding ads. However, keep in mind that the its not so much that some of the platforms such as ours couldn’t charge for the technology, but more that ad based biz models have much higher revenue potential and do not limit adoption. Its all about the eyeballs. :-)
It will surely be interesting to see, two or three years out, how many of these names are actually recognizable brands. Commenter #1 hits the nail on the head, doesn’t he?
Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character? Take the quiz.
Seriously, is this the result of a generation raised on Star Wars?
Obviously if you put two Os in your name you’ll become fabulously rich! Just look at Google and Yahoo.
Oh wait, maybe there’s more to it than that??
Also people forget that Google (comes from googol) and Yahoo as well as a lot of the other interesting tech company names were actually words before the companies existed. They didn’t just reach into the void and stick some syllables together.
Here’s a test for these companies. Write your new Web 2.0 name on a cardboard sign. Spend 30 minutes walking around on a crowded city street asking people to read it.
Outside of a few instances, like when counting stars or atoms, when does the average person ever really use the term googol?
The inanity of the name is inversley proportional to the chances of success. xobni? faroo? argoo? Come on…
Though Xobni did get called out by Kawasaki so that was good to see.
Has anyone tried to register a good .com domain lately? Forget about it, the domain squatters have taken most off the market. This necessitates creativity amoung startup founders in naming their companies since most cannot afford to pay $50k or more for “nomal”…
> what planet are these other services from,
> or do they think their potential users will be
> coming from?
Did you know that only 18 % of the internet users are coming from the US ?http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
And that depending on the state between 8 and 43% from the US users are using Spanish ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States
So FAROO comes from Pharos - Lighthouse of Alexandria - built 300 BC. at the island of Pharos. After the location the tower was later called ‘Pharos’ .
The name was adapted in many languages as term for lighthouse: lat. ‘pharus’, ital. and span. ‘faro’, fr. ‘phare’ and port. ‘farol’.
And besides this, try to register a domain name of a plain english term without some additional vowel or other trick.
Funny how the company with the least wacky, most generic domain name won, right?