« Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: godown | Main | Don't be evil »
November 22, 2005
Web 2.0 is Web of Infantile Company Names
Om Malik, over at Gigaom, recently posted a link to a writeup called Web 2.0 is Web of Beta. The author of this piece argues that most Web 2.0 companies, following the lead of the mothership, Google, have launched Web services that are in perpetual beta releases. For the uninitiated, a beta release is when a software or service has most of its features implemented but is not guaranteed to be stable or dependable. Sometimes, perpetual beta may be justified, but christening *everything* as beta merely erodes the meaning of beta (perhaps Web 3.0 companies will announce all their services as gammas). The article makes some good points and is worth a read, but that's not what I want to write about today.
What I do want to bring your attention to, my dear readers, is that most Web 2.0 companies have infantile names. Let's start out with the stunningly successful Google, for whom I have great respect. The warm and fuzzy lava lamp crew has a stock ticker symbol that sounds a bit childish. Then again, they had to choose a 4 letter symbol from a 6 letter name, which isn't a whole lot to work with. However, following the lead of the much celebrated Google, every Web 2.0 company seems to think that having a 'double-o' in its name is an automatic recipe for success. We find company names like Sproose, which appear to have been spelled by a six year old. Then there is another technology startup named Goowy, which appears to have been exclaimed by an bright 6 year old who just got off an amusement park ride, chocolate smeared all over her face and stuffed in her mouth. What are these companies trying to do? Are they trying to cement a place in the hearts and minds of the teeming millions by creating associations between their infantile names and their users' childhoods?
To be fair, company names regularly seem to progress in memes. Take the -ster craze of recent years -- first there was Napster and then Friendster. Thankfully the -ster meme's time seems to have passed. The only recently launched -ster service I can think of now is Feedster. Commentators keep saying that the Web 2.0 boom isn't anything like the technology boom of the late 90s. If anything, it is composed of more mature startups that have lower operating costs. Well, then can we also have some more mature names to go along with these mature companies?
Posted by Vishy at November 22, 2005 09:30 PM