Live data from Hacker News

When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

masschallenge.org

21–30 of 56 posts

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#21

Why do these articles never mention the aftermarket? It's like businesses refuse to acknowledge that good domains are available to purchase. Sedo? Afternic? BuyDomains? Auctions? Personal portfolios? Wake up! This is where the real gems are. Domain finder tools are dead. They don't work.

It's like bootstrapped businesses don't want to pay $10000 for a marginally better name.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#22
post #6

I feel the blame is very much misplaced; Google had nothing to do with the viability of "Cadio" name. It was inevitable that people would confuse it with "Cardio", whether Google auto-suggested it or not. That said, I do sympathy for the difficulty in finding short, easily spelled domain names. It's been downright ridiculous trying to find good names in recent years.

I spend weeks and weeks deciding on a name. So far I've had Rankiac and BitBuffet, both of which were almost 80% completed before I ever had the domain. EveryMentor wasn't available and I had to WAIT for the domain to expire for about 20ish days (it was pending deletion).

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#24

When I read your name the first time I read "locality" and then I realized it was something different. You might run into yet another human centric reason for not liking your name.

Exactly what I came to say. Why not just call your service "Location Analytics" and take a longer domain if you have to. I think people place way to much value on a snazzy short domains. Customers are probably searching for you anyhow. Why not own your primary search term.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#25
While much of this is good advice, the "name that says what you do" is tricky. Product names should say what they do, but companies sometimes find it more useful to remain vague.

Consider: Yahoo, Google, eBay, Amazon. None of these words had, when invented, any associations in the public mind. This allows those companies to grow and change their brands and their focus.

Imagine if Amazon had been called "Bookery". Or if Google were called "Searchio". Great names for what those companies started doing, completely misleading now -- especially in Amazon's case.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#26

When I read your name the first time I read "locality" and then I realized it was something different. You might run into yet another human centric reason for not liking your name.

I agree, also on the pronunciation front, I am assuming: Low-kate-LEE

Try saying that 10 times fast, the ending in the last two syllables make it a bit of a tongue twister.

What about other possibilities that seem like often-occurring interpretations?

Low-Kate-{soft eh}-LEE

Low-CAT-{soft eh}-LY

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#27
post #14

I am doing SEO consulting for a company called South-Pak that makes custom travel and road cases. Obviously, the business owners don't want to change the name and obviously Google thinks it's a misspelling of South Park (if you query South-Pak, you must then click on the link to confirm that you are looking for results for South-Pak. Combatting the fact that many are searching for the name of the company and getting…

> easy to explain on the phone

So many people forget about that one, it's really important. Of course all the rest is also important, but one of the major drivers of viral traffic is still people telling other people about your product, in person or on the telephone.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#28

Also ask yourself: Can spell it out to somebdy over the phone without resorting to phonetic alphabet? Do you use numbers in the name - worse do you use them to be cute ? Do you mix words that sound like letters eg. "see" and "c" in the name ? Does the name contain a joke/pun/double meaning that only makes sense written down or read outloud?

> fghjhgbvf

I rest my case ;)

Good advice otherwise though, another one is make sure that the people in the major markets can pronounce the word in an unambiguous way.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#29
I made all these mistakes as well, but continue to soldier on with my original name. Google has grudgingly accepted it and the mis-directed traffic is quite minimal now.

One thing the author didn't mention was that when you're getting a lot of mispell traffic, it plays havoc with your traffic stats, and it gets very hard to move the needle testing different content because you might have 60-70% of your traffic in the early days boucing immediately.

Re: When Google Hates Your Name: Why We Renamed Our Startup

#30

When I read your name the first time I read "locality" and then I realized it was something different. You might run into yet another human centric reason for not liking your name.

I agree, also on the pronunciation front, I am assuming: Low-kate-LEE Try saying that 10 times fast, the ending in the last two syllables make it a bit of a tongue twister. What about other possibilities that seem like often-occurring interpretations? Low-Kate-{soft eh}-LEE Low-CAT-{soft eh}-LY

Interesting. It jumps out at me as low-KATE-lee, growing up speaking California English. (If by caps you're indicating putting the emphasis on that syllable.)
Post reply on HN