What's in a Name

[Geffers]

Konnexu - good choice of name.

Web site names need to be memorable, or catchy.  konnexu is good use of phonetics (why is phonetics not spelt fonetiks?) so people more likely to remember site name, then with predictive text up it comes on our browsers.

I do often wonder how some web site names have made it in to everyday vocabulary, facebook for example, perhaps initially Zuckerberg imagined it to be a book of faces, who knows, Google?  That has become an everyday verb now.

One of the best I know of is in UK we have diy.com which goes to a major DIY store B&Q - used to be associated with Home Depot, identical store colouring and very similar layout.

It is nice to have a forum of like minded people where one can exchange ideas and ask questions.

Geffers

[Tiffany_Kx]

Glad you like the name Konnexu, and very nice to have you as like minded and inquisitive as we are too.

You are absolutely spot on in what a name needs to imply; like being a short name, easy to type and think of and embraces a thought, emotion and understanding all at once.  As you commented, Google is one name that just self-branded itself so much so that when people look up something on the web, the term, "google that" is synonymous for making a search on the web, unlike Yahoo, which you can hear the jingle of "yahoo" but people don't ever say, "I'll yahoo that".

[Donna_Kx]

Great post again! Glad you like the name. My son actually came up with it. Originally it was Connexus but that was taken. Tiffany, Lexi and I all loved the Konnexu name for what we are trying to achieve. 

There have been many memorable names. Case in point - Twitter. Back in the day, I was saying what in the heck is Twitter? Is it for twits? Why is it called a Tweet? Now, it's X.

Google - I often wondered about too. I wish I hadn't sold my stock in it back years ago when my former boss said it wasn't going to go anyplace and I was wasting the little money I had. Blah. According to stanford info, the name originated:
"In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin called their initial search engine "BackRub," named for its analysis of the web's "back links." Larry's office was in room 360 of the Gates CS Building, which he shared with several other graduate students, including Sean Anderson, Tamara Munzner, and Lucas Pereira. In 1997, Larry and his officemates discussed a number of possible new names for the rapidly improving search technology. Sean recalls the final brainstorming session as occurring one day during September of that year.

Sean and Larry were in their office, using the whiteboard, trying to think up a good name - something that related to the indexing of an immense amount of data. Sean verbally suggested the word "googolplex," and Larry responded verbally with the shortened form, "googol" (both words refer to specific large numbers). Sean was seated at his computer terminal, so he executed a search of the Internet domain name registry database to see if the newly suggested name was still available for registration and use. Sean is not an infallible speller, and he made the mistake of searching for the name spelled as "google.com," which he found to be available. Larry liked the name, and within hours he took the step of registering the name "google.com" for himself and Sergey (the domain name registration record dates from September 15, 1997)."

I loved Ask Jeeves back then. It then changed to AJ and now, I think it's gone. Along with Dogpile. 

AIM was good. "You've got mail" was iconic.

Myspace - another good name but it didn't last.

Facebook - name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. It started out just for students. 

I also wrote about this topic at BryZar with tips for starting a website. https://blog.bryzar.com/starting-a-websi...ain-names/

[Geffers]

Fascinating reply, some of those names I had forgotten - dogpile, there is a name.

Lycos, of black Lab fame was popular, as was Alta-Vista.

Geffers

[Donna_Kx]

Fascinating reply, some of those names I had forgotten - dogpile, there is a name.

Lycos, of black Lab fame was popular, as was Alta-Vista.

Geffers

Oh yeah! Alta-Vista. I had forgotten that one. So many come and go. It's interesting how some of the big ones have become so common now that people don't think of the fact that the names are strange.