<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/technology/personaltech/06pogue-email.html?ex=1354683600&en=e08b6ea2e4dad1dd&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/techn ... =permalink</a><!-- m -->
In the beginning, Web sites announced their own names. You pretty much know what you're going to find at Sears.com, Staples.com, McDonalds.com and Microsoft.com.
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.... <snipped>
In the beginning, Web sites announced their own names. You pretty much know what you're going to find at Sears.com, Staples.com, McDonalds.com and Microsoft.com.
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.... <snipped>