10 September 2007

BRANDING 2.0 (2) - Playing with vowels & suffixes

Leaving out a vowel is certainly the most productive way to work around the non-availability of suitable domain names. In principle it can be a good & acceptable branding property.
But what successfully was started by Flickr (if they weren't the first to do it, they've certainly made the biggest splash with it), has grown into quite an ugly trend now. Some of these names are applied in an ironic manner, of course.
Here some samples from my big index, in alphabetical order:

[-e]r
Anothr - Manage & read feeds in Skype messenger - RSS
Attendr - Mash-up your conference or party - Community
Bashr - Wikipedia, Flickr & Delicious mash-up - Search
Beggr - Give me your money - Finance
Blinkr - Digg design - Rate
Blogmailr - Use email to send blogposts - Publish
Blogr - Publish & share your media - Publish
Blogrovr - Get links to context relevant blog articles while you're browsing - Search
Blogstickr - Add fake stickers to your blog - Fun
Blufr - Multi-player trivia knowledge game - Game
Bookr - Create & share photobook with Flickr images - Images
Bouldr - Share climbing (map mash-up) - Community
Boxstr - Store & share - Store
Bringr - Submit & rate women's special interest articles - Rate
Browsr - Social directory - Startpage
Bubblr - Create & share photo strips - Publish
Calcr - Online calculator - Office
Certifyr - Certify .0-ishness of your website - Fun
Clustrmaps - Map your blog visitors - Geo
Coastr - List & share your beers and beer places - Marketing
Colr* - Play with colour photos & publish results - Images
Cyclr - Manage financial obligations - Finance
Delivr - Upload & share post cards - Images
Diggfiltr - Create custom digg feeds - Rate
Dumpr - Fun things for Flickr - About
Empressr - Create, share & store presentations - Office
Enablr - Transcribe podcasts, TextSnailmail… - Audio
Expensr - Track your expenses - Finance
Extortr - Upload scandalous materials, then blackmail - Fun
Fastr - Guess game; Flickr mash-up - Game
Favr~ - Social bookmarking - Bookmark
Feedmailr - Feedmail - RSS
Flagr - Bookmark the real world - Geo
Flappr - Search pictures; Flickr mash-up - Images
Flickr* - Manage & share your photos - Images
Flingr - Connect with people you've ever met - Community
Flyr - Search Flickr for geotagged photos - Geo
Frappr - Put your group on the map, share photos - Community
Gabbr - Share news - News
Glinkr - Map & share views on issues - Productivity
Globeblogr - Publish & share your favourite places - Publish
Gpokr - Play poker & contribute to concept (see Idea-page!) - Gamble
Gradr - Rank, research & discuss stocks - Finance
Grazr - Compile your own RSS widget - RSS
Grepr - Explore & share podcasts & get recommendations - Audio
Groovr - Text to & network with friends - Community
Gruvr - Collaborate on local music maps - Geo
Gtalkr - Google Talk, Flickr, YouTube, feeds - Communicate
Hitchhikr* - Share knowledge & experiences on conferences - Knowledge
Hotspotr - Wi-fi café hotspot map mash-up (USA) - Wi-fi
Ijamr - Music community for artists, fans & site owners (& PP swapping) - Audio
Indistr - Sell or buy independent music - Audio
Inpowr - Plan, play & progress in every area of life - VAS
Invitr - Upload & share photos - Images
Isolatr - Isolate yourself from requests http://isolatrcom/ - Fun
Istalkr - Aggregate & organize rss services that you & your friends subscribe to - RSS
Jaxtr - Link your phone to the web - Communicate
Jpegr - Publish & share photos - Images
Kickrss - Blend several feeds into - RSS
Lingr - Chat community - Communicate
Linkrss - Create, store & syndicate your own rss feeds - RSS
Listr0 - Lists "all" Flickr-like spelled domain names - Fun
Localhostr - Store & send - Store
Locr - Organize photos using geo information - Images
Lphanr - Multi compatible PP file sharing - Multimedia
Mappr - Map Flickr photos per tag - Geo
Messagr - Find & communicate with people with matching interests or knowledge - Communicate
Moblr - View or upload & share mobile content - Multimedia
Mothrfuckr - Submit & vote for the worst of Web .0 - Fun
Mypictr* - Create & publish your profile pic for social softwares - Images
Nabbr - Create & share lists - List
Nottr - Publish & share notes - Office
Ozmozr - Import, store, share & manage feeds in bulk or individually - RSS
Phixr - Edit & publish your photos - Images
Photobloggr - Find tags on name; Flickr mash-up - Images
Phrasr - Add photos to phrases; Flickr mash-up - Game
Postr - Post bookmarks to many services - Bookmark
Preloadr - Edit your photos - Images
Propelr - Manage tasks - Office
Puzzr - Vertical search - Search
Redlettr - Tag & comment the bible - Productivity
Resizr - Resize images online - Images
Resultr - Meta search with agents - Search
Retrievr* - Search images by sketching - Search
Roundedcornr - Generate & share code for rounded corners - Fun
Scanr* - Scan, copy, pdf, fax documents using your phone cam - Office
Schtuff - Wiki service - Publish
Searchfeedr - RSS feed search - Search
Searchmapr - Cluster your search results in treemap - Search
Skinnyr - Track your weight - VAS
Snipplr - Delicious for programmers - Bookmark
Socializr - Organize meetings - Office
Sonr - Track media & media users - Multimedia
Soonr - Mobileweb & v.v. - Communicate
Spillr - Q&A - Knowledge
Splutr - Submit & rate porn - Rate
Steekr - Store & share media - Store
Stocktickr - Create & share stock watchlists - Finance
Streakr* - Stumble upon, rate & share content from social media - Search
Sullr* - Reversed mobile phone number search - Search
Tagsrus - Social bookmarking - Bookmark
Talkr - Convert blog text to podcasts - Publish
Tickr - Flickr desktop ticker - Images
Timashr - Claim your moments in history - Publish
Tipstrs - Publish & share tips on anything - Knowledge
Trawlr - Read feeds - RSS
Treadr - Track & follow people online - Geo
Tumblr - Cut & paste a media-rich light blog (sample: http://scribbling.net/) - Publish
Unizr - Bring up & share your topics - Communicate
Viewr - Publish on map & buy or sell homes, globally - Ecommerce
Wankr - Collaborative masturbation community - Fun
Waymarkr - Turn your mobile into a life phlogging wearable - Images
Web0alizr - Generate & promote a .0 app automatically - Fun
Weekendr - Plan & share weekend activities - Community
Wishlistr - Create & share wishlists - List
Wizzrss - Read feeds - RSS
Zestr - Catalog all your media online - List


[-e]d
What can be done with the suffix "-er", can be done with the suffix "-ed". All samples consistently lead to a pain in the eye:

Corkd - Catalog, rate & review wine - Community
Folkd - Social bookmarking for news - Bookmark
Listd - Accelerate your Ebay listings - Ecommerce
Marktd - Digg marketing stories - Marketing
Mixd - Text & send pics & vids to groups of friends - Communicate
Paird - Social matchmaking - Date
Plinkd - Social web hosting - Store
Pluggd - Upload & share podcasts - Audio
Riggd - Submit & rate political news - Rate
Scribd - Share any document - Publish

This one did't really get it:

Utensil-ed* - Submit ideas and concepts & brainstorm about them with other users - Productivity

And why not write the amputated "[-e]d" as "t" (very popular in Holland)?

Dumpt~ - Manage your photos - Images
Loopt* - Find & share your friends & media on your mobile (cool demo!) - Geo
Scoopt - Upload & sell news photos - Images
Tipt~ - Submit & rate tips - Rate


[-e]l
Fiql - Publish & share playlists - Audio
Minggl - Profile aggregator - Identity
Musicportl - Youtube & Flickr & blogs mash-up - Audio
Particls - RSS reader (Windows) - RSS
Pipl - Search for people - Search
Toggl - Track time & meetings for teams - Productivity


[-several vowels]
Here it becomes a kind of double-ugly shorthand:

Colrpickr - Search Flickr photos based on their color - Search
Hngry - Rate & pick your restaurants - Ecommerce
Icebrrg - Build & publish forms online - Office
Skrbl - Publish & share notes - Office
Smllr - Tag your Flickr photos with smells - Fun
Strmz - Clip & share tv & video - Multimedia
Twttr - Share where you are thru your cell phone - Communicate


Hors catégorie
Mmmzr - Buy space on this page now, or your price doubles - Marketing
Mmotr - Automotive (dating) community - Community
Zooomr~ - Find photos & make friends in many languages - Community

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps I'm biased because I like your blog. I often have differing opinion
from yours. Sometimes it is better to differ each other because it gives a
totally new perspective in our outlook. I honestly believe yours is one of
the best blogs on the web. Thanks for the nice work. :-)

Anonymous said...

yes, yes, yes...I have seen and heard this before. It's not just about branding. There is a trademark issue. Have you been down the trademarking path before? Try that exercise:) How about Trademarking 2.0 ?

Anonymous said...

Invitr is not a "Upload & share photos" site. It doesn't let you upload photos. It's more of a Flickr add-on, hence the name ;-)

Anonymous said...

Complaining about language is like dancing about architecture - because language is a virus.

Seriously, when a variation becomes common it opens up the word space so others can now express the concepts they would be otherwise unable to afford simply because the correct spellings are 'owned'. If there were no commonality in these variants, nobody would 'get it' right off.

I must point out that one name at least - gruvr... is a witty pre-web 2.0 cultural allusion.

It's Grüvr - umlaut over the u!!

To those of us of a certain age, "grüvr" is a wry and apt reference to 'fukingruvn' - which was in itself remarkably rich in its ability to evoke a certain image.

My, my. It's so easy to just gripe. Please don't join the ignorati, I like this blog!

 
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