In the tech world, some fail the name game
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
No, the emailStripper is not available for virtual bachelor or bachelorette parties. It’s freeware to get rid of annoying format coding on email messages.
It’s also one of the worst tech product names listed by PC Magazine in its June issue. (It’s not available on the web yet, but the list was e-mailed to us by the magazine’s publicist.) The others include LappyMats, protectors for LCD laptop screens; Popuload, an RSS reader that gives you news feeds while you’re downloading files; and Zlock, corporate security software from a company called Zecurion.
But are those really so bad in an era when the name of one of the world’s most powerful and profitable companies (that would be Google) sounds like something a 1-year-old says just before spitting up? Michelle Quinn wrote last year about some of the bizarre start-up names that Larry and Sergey have spawned, including Abazab, Wakoopa and Xoopit.
The biggest gaffes, though, seem to be unintentional word mash-ups caused by the lack of spaces in URLs. The site Bad Domain Names has compiled some of the best. Among the PG-13 rated ones: www.whorepresents.com, which is not a place to buy a gift for that special streetwalker, but a handy site to find the agent, manager, publicist and attorney for celebrities; and www.ipanywhere.com, not the blog of a serial urinator, but ‘your destination for Remote Access software and more.’
There’s an art to naming things that extends beyond the tech industry. Strategic Name Development has an interesting blog on product naming called NameWire (notice the URL doesn’t spell anything nasty). And Josh Friedman wrote this month about a company called TitleDoctors that helps Hollywood studios come up with just the right titles to lure moviegoers. The story pointed out something any kid could tell you: The words ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Man’ don’t really go together. At least not as well as LappyMats.
-- Jim Puzzanghera
Puzzanghera, a Times staff writer, covers tech and media policy from Washington.
