Via The New York times:
Even startups used to make at least a feeble effort to associate domain names with their functions. “Amazon” was meant to invoke the world’s most voluminous river, hinting at the online store’s massive sales capacity. “Flickr” suggests the millions of photographs pouring onto its pages. “Google” suggests a catalog of one googol Web pages. (”Googol” is a mathematical term that refers to 1 followed by 100 zeroes.)
But that’s all gone now. These days, startups take the lazy way out: they choose goofy-sounding nonsense words. They think they’re being clever by being unclever.
These are all actual Web sites that have hit the Web in the last year or so: Doostang. Wufoo. Bliin. Thoof. Bebo. Meebo. Meemo. Kudit. Raketu. Etelos. Iyogi. Oyogi. Qoop. Fark. Kijiji. Zixxo. Zoogmo.
These startups think that these names will stick in our minds because they’re so offbeat, but they’re wrong. Actually, all those twentysomething entrepreneurs are ensuring that we won’t remember them. Those names all blend together into a Dr. Seuss 2.0 jumble.
So little imagination is on display nowadays, you could create an algorithm that spews out comparable domain names with the click of a button.
And that, in fact, is exactly what the Web 2.0 Name Generator does (at Dotomator.com). It coughs up new-age Web site names as fast as you can click the mouse.
Generic or not, it is always about the service. The advantage of a good generic domain name is likelihood of type-in traffic. Disadvantages of a generic is it is impossible to protect if used in a generic manner. Lots more ups and downs to both sides. No right or wrong here, just what works.
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I thought Fark was a pretty good name. It is really difficult to come up with a decent, short name if you don’t want to buy on the secondary market.
I saw this link posted in the comments section of the original article. Interesting, it could be a sign of what is to come from our industry.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702321.html
The word Raketu (pronounce ra-ke-tu) is a declension form of the Czech word “rocket”?. The sound of the word is also similar to pronunciation of the word “rocket”? in Russian and Japanese. Please note that the word Raketu is NOT a mambo jumbo word. We chose this name not only because the visionary behind Raketu, G. Parker, is an astrophysicist, but also Raketu software will take communications and media the way we know it to another level.
Sincerely
The Raketu Team
I am astounded at some of the names mentioned in this article!
Most of the domain names in my portfolio were chosen on the basis of easy transition, that being 1)see or hear it, 2)say it, 3)type it. I wouldn’t waste money on a name like zixxo unless I could also get zixo, ziixo and zixoo as typo backups. Pay enough people to be research subjects and you’ll find out something I already knew: The most common typos for double letters are conversion to single letter sometimes with a doubling of the adjacent letter. Use “letter” as an example - leter, leeter and leteer would be common typos.
Thanks for reposting this link. I wanted to point out that Etelos has been around for almost nine years now. See the whole story here: http://www.etelos.com/dm/article.espx?show=13292.