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Intelligence
Naming in the Google Era

Intelligence

Naming in the Google Era

Mar 05, 2007By Michael Stoner

Case in point: I visited Tallahassee, FL, a couple of weeks ago. My client there recommended a restaurant called “Cool Beans” to me. Now one of reasons I enjoy traveling is that I like to discover restaurants in new places and I had plenty of reasons to believe that any recommendation she’d make would be a good one. So: I’m motivated and my recommendation comes from a satisfied customer.

Me being me, I fired up Google and searched for this place. No hits. I tried “Cool Beans” + Tallahassee. No hits. I tried “Cool Beans” + restaurants + Tallahassee. No hits.

I’m a good searcher, but after 10 minutes of this, I gave up. I figured that Cool Beans had closed. It was only later that I learned that Cool Beans is still open. But it’s name is Kool Beanz. I learned this only because I had dinner at another restaurant and someone there told me that Cool Beans is actually spelled “Kool Beanz.”

And there’s more to the story. The restaurant I went to was really good, but if I talked to you and told you that I had a great meal at “Mosaic” in Tallahassee, you wouldn’t be able to find it through Google. Because what you heard as “Mosaic” is actually spelled “Mozaik.” Clever, to be sure. But not a great name in the Google Era.


  • Michael Stoner Co-Founder and Co-Owner Was I born a skeptic or did I become one as I watched the hypestorm gather during the dotcom years, recede, and congeal once more as we come to terms with our online, social, mobile world? Whatever. I'm not much interested in cutting edge but what actually works for real people in the real world. Does that make me a bad person?