10 Best and Worst Internet Company Names of the Decade
Like the internet phenoms they trumpeted, Internet company names of the last decade have been, by turns, wildly inventive, deeply troubled, breathtakingly silly, serviceable (if dull)—and, occasionally, brilliant.
Having christened our share of Internet phenoms, we at Catchword decided to looked back to identify the 10 biggest dot-com naming trends—and their best and worst examples.
(Although, frankly, it was hard to choose just one "worst" in some cases. There were so many Web 2.0 disasters! It was as though the rules of language had ceased to apply.)
Here are the trends and names that rose to the top (and sank to the bottom).
1. The Hookup
Sometimes two words are better than one—especially to convey a new way of doing things. Serviceable hookups can range from descriptive (Facebook, StubHub) to suggestive (LinkedIn) to evocative (Snapfish).
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Great names!
A category you overlooked is the Oops...unintentionally spelled something else.
"who represents" is a site that tells you who represents various famous people. Their domain....whorepresents.com
Loved this article! I do have to say that Moo.com did an effective enough job with their brand and great product offering to overcome the name issue, and the definitely have the benefit of name recall. :)
And Jill - "Who Represents" - that is just tremendously awful!
All in all, good names; however, I'm not sure I would list Napster as a "Fail" as it was one if the first of MANY "ster" sites/ catch phrases, etc.
It would appear that your list is biased by the actual company's success rather than the name itself. Using your logic, wouldn't flickr be kind of creepy too?? I'd rather see some marketing theory-based analysis -- but your list was fun.
Well said, Kathrine.
Without a theoretical basis or hard data, the list seems rather subjective. But it does point to the nature of individual preferences. After all, what's in a name? Twitter? Google? Amazon.com? 1and1.com?
yeh ba ba blacksheep, take that
Napster wasn't in the last 10 years, it was a bit earlier, and isn't it kind of weird to award Friendster for building on the Napster name if Napster is so "bad"? Also, yes, "wiki" means "quick", but Wikipedia came AFTER wikis, so it is not a combo of "quick" and "encyclopedia"...it's an encyclopedia of wikis, which is totally accurate.
And didn't Catchword coin Boku AND Kijiji?
"...the list seems rather subjective..." ???
That's a curious critique of a list - don't you think?
A very interesting analysis. While i agree with kathrine that the list is gone by the company' success, i would also want to point out the company's success also is an out come of right branding and Brand name is very inportant aspect of branding hence name is just not a name..there is too much in a name.
A very interesting analysis. While i agree with kathrine that the list is gone by the company' success, i would also want to point out the company's success also is an out come of right branding and Brand name is very inportant aspect of branding hence name is just not a name..there is too much in a name.
"Cuil" is an earnest attempt at getting to a name (Gaelic for wisdom or knowledge) but it's unintentionally hilarious in so many ways. French speakers will especially get a laugh out of it. In general names of Celtic origin are going to be too exotic in pronunciation for a mass audience.
I'm biased as i was employee #7 or something, but Napster did just fine in terms of brand perception- research showed that consumers retained a VERY positive feeling towards the brand throughout its original incarnation- regular users were even more positive- all this in the face of many flying lawsuits. Also, the name has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with kidnapping. If it brings naughtiness to mind, well, that was part of our positioning. Our community loved the name, we were one of the top three Web brands, and in fact Napster did not lose brand equity & positivity until the brand was sold and the paid service built.
I think it's a little specious to slam our name and then award Friendster, which was a "tribute name" BASED on Napster.
Also, the above poster is correct that Napster was not named in the 00s but in early 1999 and thus doesn't belong in the list at all.
I'm almost 100% with you, but I just love MOO too much :) They have a lot of fun with their name, so they get a pass from me.
I dont know about putting the 10 best and worst of the decade. I have to agree with Katherine and Rachel. This sounds like one's own opinion and highly subjective. Personally, I've never liked the name Kazaa and dont mind Napster at all. Heck, in respect of the goal of branding, I think Napster has done quite well. And anything with an "i" in front of it should admit they are too uncreative to do anything but follow Apple's lead.
Just my opinion
Oh, yes!
Veri interesting list of good and worst names, but you miss one of my best:
http://www.kijiji.com/
What do you think about ?
Be serious!
http://bit.ly/8OYsRN a funny blog about names. in this instance compounded (or should it be confounded?) names.
Great list Laurel. Notice what makes a lot of these internet names great is what always made names great in any industry: they're descriptive, launch your idea, easy to say and repeat to others. The meaningless name successes over the years, like Amazon and even Google (nobody knew what a google was) won for another great branding reason: There services were just so great, innovative, remarkable or delightful, useless names couldn't even stand in their way. I like the name of your company too, Laurel--catchwordbranding. Expect you named it.
A clever article, albeit subjective. Nice job.
I like the perspective Elizabeth Brooks was able to provide based on her experience at Napster. It aligned exactly with my own feelings about the Napster brand. Perhaps the Wordster category should be renamed the Tribute category? Seems to me this new category could include the eThing, the iThing, the meThing, the myThing as well.
Wow.... amazing list... Nice job Laurel..
Laurel, I read an article a long time ago in which Shawn Fanning said that he named "Napster" after his cat, who napped all the time. Thus the logo--a cat with headphones on. I really doubt that he intended to "kidnap" music. Where did you get that?
OK. Very interesting discussion. I am starting a new internet marketing and database marketing company, the latter of which I havee operated for several years. We are intensively consultantive, to understand client's business and derive marketing strategy, using the tools of internet marketing. The name of our company is Macey Marketing Group, Inc
My consultant for logo design came up with the tag: Tradigital Communications for our logo. Am I crazy or does this have no sense of relationship to our business, or to any business?
This is how I remember the origin of Napster: "For his nickname on the channel, Fanning used what he had been called on the basketball court, Napster, because of his short, nappy hair." Also negative because that term can be a racial slur.
Boku maybe, but what about Google as a misspelled Googol?
(A googol is the large number 10100 coined by Edward Kasner in 1938)
10 to power of 100
Hi,
Very insightful article. I have started a series of posts on naming. When completed, it will be very thorough. You can check the link below.
http://soydanbay.com/category/verbal-strategy/
Cheers,
Gunter Soydanbay