When the Smart do not “Get It”
GREENTAXI UPDATE: I received a follow up on this blog from one of the Yoonew guys. I was wrong in assuming and claiming that they did not own “younew.com”. They actually do. I am not sure why they did not use the more popular term as their company name, however I assume they are sticking with the internet naming trend of misspelling on purpose. There are still several domain misspellings that they do not own that I have suggested to them that they buy. I do hope they take my advice…as amateur as it may be.
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We had the guys from a new sports ticket futures and derivatives trading company, Yoonew, (web site) into our office today. I did not speak with them directly, but they definitely had a solid understanding of trading, exchanges, and derivatives trading. Their systems and infrastructure seem quite supurb and, even better, they could explain clearly how their site works.
However, I could not believe my eyes when I saw their company, and thus domain, name. “Yoonew” combines two words that are quite often misspelled. They are not even using the most common spelling of “you”, a word which has been forever immortalized in domaining thanks to YOUtube (and its pronoun partner, MYspace). It also rhymes with too many other popular domains as well (Yahoo, Youtube, etc.). It is almost an anti-branding campaign. The name fits into the current theme of what my brother calls “baby sounding names (google, yahoo, yoonew, voodoo, squido)” and I am sure was easy to register or purchase on the secondary market for cheap. It is sad to see them giving away business like this. They have not registered any of the misspellings from what I can tell. I do not know if their business will take off in the long run, but they are not protecting themselves well.
Now, do realize that buying similar domains to them would constitute trademark infrindgement if they have the name Yoonew trademarked. However, looking on their site, I only notice a copyright and I am making an educated guess that they do not have a trademark on the name.
Another, slightly less problematic issue, is that the defaut index page sends you to www.yoonew.com/market/, with the backslash. In going back to the site to get the link for this article, I began typing in the URL and somehow I had the domain in there without the last backslash, which actually takes me to an Error 404 page. At least the customized Error 404 page has a link to the correct site. Looks like they barely attended Domaining 101.
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Speaking of words that are often misspelled: You misspelled “mispelled”. I think one thing the internet has proven is that the name does not matter much as long as the service is useful. Which is proven by the success of the “baby name” companies that you mentioned.
GREENTAXI: Thank you, “misspellings” corrected. I agree that those sites mentioned have had success with those names, but they are reliant upon that killer app. Why not combine the killer app with a domain names that people can remember to help drive traffic to their site in case the killer app fails? We always come back to “Hotels.com”. Has a great service, but has a brand name as well, built on top of a generic domain.
[...] made this point a few weeks back regarding a sports tickets site, Yoonew, and I still stand by my stance that [...]
I think if you have a site as unique as yoonew.com why not have a name just as unique. Besides, every properly spelled domain name is probably taken by now.
I think following a precedent is good. There is also the possibility of the word being indoctrinated into the english language. People say that they are going to “google” something. “I’m Youtubing.” I think once they establish themselves. The brand name will be stronger than generic things like hotels.com.
If it’s marketed properly, isn’t it irrelevant what the domain name is and how it is spelled?
Names like “yoonew” are anything but unique now for startup tech companies. Read this or other articles like it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702321.html
Your sites branding shouldnt be made harder by your name choice, by allowing for mispellings, confusion, etc. The idea behind “yoonew” makes sense but there is a difference between similarly brandable and clever names like paypal, stubhub, facebook, etc. if you are trying to go that route. all are quick, easy, brandable, explain their respective industry but dont really allow for mispellings and avoid some of the things plaguing these new company names. Yes there are always exceptions.
Although most complain that all names are taken, it doesnt take that much effort to find a valuable name in the secondary market that fits your budget and criteria. I just had some friends do just this with their new sports social networking site: yoursports.com. great name. And yes of course there are exceptions.
As far as generics go, they brand themselves, you get free visitors to your storefront (website) naturally and they are the easiest to remember. They pass all the tests including the radio test. Say your company name over the phone or radio without spelling it. Generic names stick, therefore will always have value because they are the best names that can describe an entire industry. They can be used to point to an established brand, or to brand themselves.