Don’t tell me what your website’s name means

If your website’s name doesn’t make immediate sense, and you don’t have a good explanation for it, please don’t tell me how you came up with it. Here are two websites with decently cool-sounding names, until you read why they chose these names:-

Asian tech news site Penn Olson:

Starting the blog with just a few people was tough, so when we considered a name, we liked the idea of having some mythical partners to guide us on our journey. We created Penn-Olson, because blogging is essentially ‘penning ones thoughts’ and ‘Olson’ was a somewhat arbitrary addition, but it sounded (like) awesome.

I like what they do as a news site, but this paragraph just takes all the mystique from their name and throws it in the laundry.

[Update: Someone told me a few days later this para is gone. Good for them!]

Classifieds site ST701:

ST701 carries the initials of The Straits Times. The numbers “701” convey what the user will experience: 7 days a week search at the 01 place that matters.

The user will “experience” search seven whole days a week, guys!* At the zero-one place that matters! Thanks, ST701, now my forehead is sore from all that self-inflicted slapping.

Yes, this was written by someone who calls his company Tinkertanker. No, I’m not saying how we came up with that name. (Yes, that means we don’t have a good explanation for it.)

* I guess that’s better than a social media account that, until recently, ran Mondays to Fridays, 9am-6pm, excluding public holidays.

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