Winning the name game requires a different approach
What is a Thoof? And would you feel OK owning Wakoopa shares in your 401(k)? Telling potential in-laws you met on Frengo? Relying on Ooma to call Grandma?
All those names belong to companies launched in the past four years, all of them using unusual words to conjure an intriguing, edgy image.
Net name experts say the need is propelled by a desire to sound snappy, and to find a distinctive Web address that hasn’t already been claimed.
“Old-school ideas about sounding trustworthy or sounding big are not as important as they used to be,” said Burt Alper, co-founder of Catchword Branding in Oakland, Calif., which has helped christen Vudu (makes a device for watching videos) and Promptu (creates voice-recognition products).
“Now, it’s about sounding different and standing out from the crowd,” he said in a business story by the Los Angeles Times.
Case launches college med site
As college students head for school, AOL co-founder and entrepreneur Steve Case has launched a new Web site to help them find useful medical and mental health information.
Case recently launched an added section to health Web site RevolutionHealth.com called “College Health Center” that provides information on mental and sexual health, relationships, healthy lifestyle choices and personal safety.
He said increasing attention was being paid to the mental health of students following the Virginia Tech shootings in April when student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Google suit dropped
In 2003, a California company filed suit against Google, alleging the search firm wrongfully allowed competitors to buy ads that would appear when people searched its name on Google. The suit was one of the first to take aim at Google’s patented AdWords system.
This past week American Blind & Wallpaper Factory announced it’s dropping the lawsuit.
According to wire reports, both sides agreed to settle the suit, with neither accepting or assigning liability.