As I was listening to Leo Laporte on his Tech Guy radio show, I noticed how he tried to pronounce a variety of different Web 2.0 company names and in the end, he mentioned that it sounded like a bunch of baby talk. I have to admit, listening to Leo try to say the names of these companies was hilarious. That’s when I got the idea to feature a list of Web 2.0 companies who’s names are nothing short of googlymoogly.
Not only is it sometimes hard to pronounce these names, but after you figure them out, the question then becomes, what do they do? I’ve taken an excerpt from each companies About page, as they would be the ones to best explain what the heck their company does.
If I missed any, be sure to let me know by leaving a comment at the end of this article.
vyew – Vyew is a next-generation online collaboration and web conferencing service that brings people and content together. With Vyew you can host LIVE conferences and work collaboratively on content asynchronously over time, ANYTIME.
vizu – Vizu provides services that make online opinion polling and market research easy, fast, accessible, and affordable to everyone.
muiso – Muiso (pronounced MOO-EE-SO) is the best new way to enjoy music on your computer or mobile player.
philoi – Philoi (pronounced ‘fee – loy’) is the first person-to-person online bookmark sharing community!
Stay connected with your friends and the Web at the same time!
jamendo – jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music.
diigo – Diigo (dee’go) is about “Social Annotation”. By combining social bookmarking, clippings, in situ annotation, tagging, full-text search, easy sharing and interactions, Diigo offers a powerful personal tool and a rich social platform for knowledge users, and in the process, turns the entire web into a writable, participatory and interactive media.
chuquet – chuquet scans thousands of blogs to find the latest and biggest news stories
bloggoggle – Peer rated and categorized, bloggogglers are searching the Web’s credible best and asserting themselves among them. It’s about building and sharing networks of industry expertise. It’s about navigating the pros efficiently and communicating your value with authority.
filangy – No longer Online so I suppose it’s available.
Yedda – Yedda strives to merge the convenience and efficiency of search with the unlimited value of individual knowledge to get you the best answers to your questions.
Qumana – Qumana Software, Inc. is a leading developer of tools and services for bloggers.
Imvu – IMVU is a consumer internet startup in downtown Palo Alto. IMVU makes the world’s best 3D instant messenger, which is now in beta testing with more than 1 million customers around the world.
Edgeio – Edgeio is making it possible for valuable content to be made available for sale on any web site. The web site does not need an ecommerce system, or a billing system – edgeio takes care of both
Lulu – Lulu eliminates traditional entry barriers to publishing, and enables content creators and owners – authors and educators, videographers and musicians, businesses and nonprofits, professionals and amateurs – to bring their work directly to their audience.
Ookles – Another service that apparently has bit the dust but you can get in if you know the password.
Goowy – goowy is a service that offers you simple, intuitive tools for communicating and sharing on the web.
My-me – MyMe is a FREE web-based service that lets you easily create your personal online identity.
Elgg – Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness: a system that firmly places individuals at the centre of their activities.
Qoop – QOOP turns digital content into products.
Etsy – Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade.
If I missed any that you think should of made the list of company names that resemble babytalk, please be sure to add or suggest them by leaving a comment.
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 
What’s the deal with every second company using “Beta”. Is it intended to sound new, hip and groovy? Or just a cliche?
Also, add:
skobee.com
zoto.com
squishr.com (which now seems dead)
squidoo.com
shozu.com
I’m sure there are heaps more. Especially ones ending in ‘r’ and with ‘beta’ in their title.
I love the crazy Web 2.0 names out there. It’s great seeing these domain squatters realize that people don’t care about domain names as much as they used to. Someone has been sitting on flicker.com for some time now, but I’m sure they never thought flickr.com would take off.
How about Bebo? :D
@Mike I think the deal with using BETA is that it gives companies a soft cushion for releasing unfinished products. The BETA period also gives companies a chance to iron out bugs and what not before the product goes live. The problem I’m seeing is that, startups and web based companies are remaining in BETA for a LONG LONG time. For godsakes, Gmail is still in BETA. Good additions to the list.
@Brad I saw that domain FLICKER.com the other week and supposedly, the owner has turned down an offer of $700,000.00 but it’s been debated on whether thats a falsified claim to drive up the price. It seems like any combination of letters can be used as a company or product name.
@Mimzy Good addition. Bebo definitely sounds like something a baby would say lol.
Ah yes, fair point about the BETA period. I wonder though how many companies use ALPHA or GAMMA for their releases.
I’ll have to also agree with you on the FLICKER.com comment. Although I can imagine that a few hundred thousand seems about right.
I run two companies…one of them, the name tells you exactly what you can get there. The other one initially had a name like that, but then we switched to something you could call “goofy”…I think it depends on what your brand goals are. If you want to have a name that means something, to somebody, a priori to their experience with your product…by all means, make it “generic”…however, if your goal is different, then goofy names might make more sense.
@Jeremy Hello Jeremy. First off, welcome to the site. I’m glad you came and contributed to the conversation. Secondly, I was always told that it’s good to choose a name that’s easy to remember and if possible, have that name describe what it is your product, or business does.
Almost none of the companies listed above do any of those. In fact, if I had to tell a friend about one of these companies, I’d have a hard time just trying to pronounce their name to someone.
I think new web based startups are choosing goofy names because thats the name of the game right now. If a startup were to choose a domain/business name that sounded legit and was descriptive, perhaps people would think of it as being too oldschool and not with the times.
So it’s the consumers fault for demanding silly names? :)