As a sidebar, I've always kinda felt the name gets in the way.
Yahoo!
I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seeing it on stock tickers. Do I want to invest in a silly business? Work for a silly business?
The answers are yes and yes in an objective world, if the company is producing interesting products that are selling. But when it comes to marketing to users, investors and future employees alike, I'm not so sure it isn't a small hurdle in the way of that conversation.
"Google it" rolls off the tongue a lot better than "Yahoo it". Plus with Google's minimalist design (at least in the early years) they can get away with the silly name.
All those are after the fact explanations. When Yahoo! ruled the web -- and I was there for those years back in the mid-late nineties when it was as big as Google is now -- the name clearly wasn't a problem.
Oh please, nothing's changed. Give em a website consisting of nothing but stock photos and solid color squares and a name like Yahooify and they'd blend right in.
Interesting comment, but does sample size of 1 mean times have changed?
I remember reading a tech trade rag back in the late 90's where some consulting company or other was talking about their business. They were getting tons of requests to help provide branding and corporate identity for tech clients.
Apparently "Yahoo" was the gold standard, and everybody and their cousin wanted a name or trademark or other branding component akin to Yahoo.
Yahoo!
I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seeing it on stock tickers. Do I want to invest in a silly business? Work for a silly business?
The answers are yes and yes in an objective world, if the company is producing interesting products that are selling. But when it comes to marketing to users, investors and future employees alike, I'm not so sure it isn't a small hurdle in the way of that conversation.