4 ms·

As was mentioned on another HN thread, why the ridiculous name? "Signal" is an already widely used term when talking about mobile communications. With cell phon

by Nexxxeh 11y ago

As was mentioned on another HN thread, why the ridiculous name? "Signal" is an already widely used term when talking about mobile communications. With cell phones in particular. "I'm trying to get signal on my phone" or "I'm trying to get Signal on my phone". Great(!)

noja 11y ago
Can you suggest a better name?
- iheartmemcache 11y ago
  Naming conflicts are a major problem - legal trademark implications, branding issues, searchability, etc etc. A name collision with someone, especially in a remotely similar industry, is problematic. IronChatApp.com is available. ("Steel"|"Lock"|"Forti"|<anything that conveys security>) + ("Chat"|"Talk"|...). I'm not sure, there are tons of professional marketing/branding/PR firms who do this really well. TextSecure et al were acquired, IIRC. If the parent company has 50k to throw around, approaching W+K might be a good investment. Edit: Mea culpa. It was WhisperSystems not OpenWhisperSystems which was acquired, both of which were founded by Marlinspike. This, incidentally, proves my point that naming similarities (WS vs OpenWS) within a similar domain (both mentally associated as "moxie" projects in my mind, in this case) can lead to problems.
  - lorenzhs 11y ago
    > TextSecure et al were acquired, IIRC. If the parent company has 50k to throw around, approaching W+K might be a good investment. No, moxie's previous company (Whisper Systems) was acquired by Twitter (iirc), Open Whisper Systems is a different project. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems
anc84 11y ago
Only if you talk about it in English which is a fraction of the potential market.
- pidg 11y ago
  English: signal Bosnian (Latin): signala Bulgarian: сигнал Catalan: senyal Croatian: signala Czech: signál Danish: signal Dutch: signaal Estonian: signaali Finnish: signaali French: signal German: Signal Indonesian: sinyal Italian: segnale Latvian: signāls Lithuanian: signalas Yucatec Maya: señal Norwegian: signalet Querétaro Otomi: señal Polish: sygnał Portuguese: sinal Russian: сигнал Serbian (Latin): signal Slovak: signál Slovenian: signala Spanish: señal Swedish: signal Ukrainian: сигнал Welsh: signal
  - lcswi 11y ago
    That the literal translations of the word 'signal'. At least in Germany that is not used for talking about a phone signal. It's 'empfang' (reception) instead. I am sure other languages differ as well?
FredericJ 11y ago
It was originally going to be called "Whisper" (by Open Whisper Systems) ==> https://whispersystems.org/blog/a-whisper/ https://whispersystems.org/blog/a-whisper/ The name was changed after Whisper was launched https://whisper.sh/ https://whisper.sh/

by Nexxxeh 11y ago

noja 11y ago

Can you suggest a better name?

iheartmemcache 11y ago
Naming conflicts are a major problem - legal trademark implications, branding issues, searchability, etc etc. A name collision with someone, especially in a remotely similar industry, is problematic. IronChatApp.com is available. ("Steel"|"Lock"|"Forti"|<anything that conveys security>) + ("Chat"|"Talk"|...). I'm not sure, there are tons of professional marketing/branding/PR firms who do this really well. TextSecure et al were acquired, IIRC. If the parent company has 50k to throw around, approaching W+K might be a good investment. Edit: Mea culpa. It was WhisperSystems not OpenWhisperSystems which was acquired, both of which were founded by Marlinspike. This, incidentally, proves my point that naming similarities (WS vs OpenWS) within a similar domain (both mentally associated as "moxie" projects in my mind, in this case) can lead to problems.
- lorenzhs 11y ago
  > TextSecure et al were acquired, IIRC. If the parent company has 50k to throw around, approaching W+K might be a good investment. No, moxie's previous company (Whisper Systems) was acquired by Twitter (iirc), Open Whisper Systems is a different project. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_Systems

anc84 11y ago

Only if you talk about it in English which is a fraction of the potential market.

pidg 11y ago
English: signal Bosnian (Latin): signala Bulgarian: сигнал Catalan: senyal Croatian: signala Czech: signál Danish: signal Dutch: signaal Estonian: signaali Finnish: signaali French: signal German: Signal Indonesian: sinyal Italian: segnale Latvian: signāls Lithuanian: signalas Yucatec Maya: señal Norwegian: signalet Querétaro Otomi: señal Polish: sygnał Portuguese: sinal Russian: сигнал Serbian (Latin): signal Slovak: signál Slovenian: signala Spanish: señal Swedish: signal Ukrainian: сигнал Welsh: signal
- lcswi 11y ago
  That the literal translations of the word 'signal'. At least in Germany that is not used for talking about a phone signal. It's 'empfang' (reception) instead. I am sure other languages differ as well?

FredericJ 11y ago

It was originally going to be called "Whisper" (by Open Whisper Systems) ==> https://whispersystems.org/blog/a-whisper/ https://whispersystems.org/blog/a-whisper/ The name was changed after Whisper was launched https://whisper.sh/ https://whisper.sh/