5 ms·

... because the search engine market has so long been dominated by serious-sounding firms?

by roc 17y ago

gnoupi 17y ago
The search engine market started before all the "serious people" started coming to the Internet, I think. I think it is harder nowadays to make a fame with a name like this.
- NathanKP 17y ago
  The internet hasn't become any more serious recently. People are still using it for non-serious things (lolcats, 4chan, Reddit, etc) so a non-serious search engine can still attract people, I think.
- PostOnce 17y ago
  Jerry Yang calls himself the "Chief Yahoo", and that is about as unserious as it gets. Windows Live Search changed its name to something less serious to be more appealing to the public. I mean, really, Bing? How serious is that? Ask.com is about the most sensibly-named search engine. I mean, what do you do with a search engine? You ask it things. That hasn't really helped them corner the market, exactly. I am ranting. I should go to bed.
Legion 17y ago
My first reaction was to agree with your point. But I wonder if there are varying levels of non-seriousness. Names like Google and Yahoo definitely aren't serious, but they also have a sort of generic quality. Not in a bad sense, I just mean they don't evoke a specific silly image in my head - at least not by themselves (when I think Yahoo, I see a big purple !, but that's by marketing design). Duck Duck Go, though, doesn't have that same nebulous quality. There's something more concrete there, and more specific imagery that comes to mind. And I think that's why someone might react that way to the name and not to the names Google or Yahoo or Bing. It's less vague, and decidedly more Saturday morning cartoon. Is that bad? I don't know, it doesn't necessarily bother me. But I understand why some people view it differently than the search engine names already out there.
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  That's my exact thought. Google and Yahoo! come off as genuinely irreverent and fun (but, importantly, not childish). It's like something you'd expect a couple 20-something hackers to name their product. Duck Duck Go comes off as the 50 yr old guy who yells "'Fo Shizzle!" and holds his hand out for a fist bump. It's something you'd expect from an older guy trying to pretend to be a 20something hacker. It thus comes off as insincere.
  - epi0Bauqu 17y ago
    Empirically, people seem to love or hate the name, i.e. it generates an emotional response. When I talk to "normals" this love/hate ratio is very high. I understand though that you've taken issue with the name right from the beginning. This is not the first time you've shared this viewpoint :)
    - mattmaroon 17y ago
      Ha, yeah wouldn't surprise me. I don't remember it but definitely believe you. I think what New Coke proved though is that haters have an unduly large influence. New Coke kicked both original Coke and Pepsi's asses in blind taste tests. It's possibly bad to have something that has a love to hate ratio, even if a large one, rather than something people respect but don't care much about one way or the other.
  - lanstein 17y ago
    I guess they can always change it to DDG down the road. Has a nice, more serious ring to it.
    - mzl 17y ago
      Doesn't really roll off the tongue. How about dudugo :) Seems to be taken though.
- MikeCapone 17y ago
  I think you nailed it. There's a dichotomy between "silly non-specific" and "silly specific".

... because the search engine market has so long been dominated by serious-sounding firms?

by roc 17y ago

... because the search engine market has so long been dominated by serious-sounding firms?

The search engine market started before all the "serious people" started coming to the Internet, I think. I think it is harder nowadays to make a fame with a name like this.

NathanKP 17y ago
The internet hasn't become any more serious recently. People are still using it for non-serious things (lolcats, 4chan, Reddit, etc) so a non-serious search engine can still attract people, I think.
PostOnce 17y ago
Jerry Yang calls himself the "Chief Yahoo", and that is about as unserious as it gets. Windows Live Search changed its name to something less serious to be more appealing to the public. I mean, really, Bing? How serious is that? Ask.com is about the most sensibly-named search engine. I mean, what do you do with a search engine? You ask it things. That hasn't really helped them corner the market, exactly. I am ranting. I should go to bed.

Legion 17y ago

My first reaction was to agree with your point. But I wonder if there are varying levels of non-seriousness. Names like Google and Yahoo definitely aren't serious, but they also have a sort of generic quality. Not in a bad sense, I just mean they don't evoke a specific silly image in my head - at least not by themselves (when I think Yahoo, I see a big purple !, but that's by marketing design). Duck Duck Go, though, doesn't have that same nebulous quality. There's something more concrete there, and more specific imagery that comes to mind. And I think that's why someone might react that way to the name and not to the names Google or Yahoo or Bing. It's less vague, and decidedly more Saturday morning cartoon. Is that bad? I don't know, it doesn't necessarily bother me. But I understand why some people view it differently than the search engine names already out there.

mattmaroon 17y ago
That's my exact thought. Google and Yahoo! come off as genuinely irreverent and fun (but, importantly, not childish). It's like something you'd expect a couple 20-something hackers to name their product. Duck Duck Go comes off as the 50 yr old guy who yells "'Fo Shizzle!" and holds his hand out for a fist bump. It's something you'd expect from an older guy trying to pretend to be a 20something hacker. It thus comes off as insincere.
- epi0Bauqu 17y ago
  Empirically, people seem to love or hate the name, i.e. it generates an emotional response. When I talk to "normals" this love/hate ratio is very high. I understand though that you've taken issue with the name right from the beginning. This is not the first time you've shared this viewpoint :)
  - mattmaroon 17y ago
    Ha, yeah wouldn't surprise me. I don't remember it but definitely believe you. I think what New Coke proved though is that haters have an unduly large influence. New Coke kicked both original Coke and Pepsi's asses in blind taste tests. It's possibly bad to have something that has a love to hate ratio, even if a large one, rather than something people respect but don't care much about one way or the other.
- lanstein 17y ago
  I guess they can always change it to DDG down the road. Has a nice, more serious ring to it.
  - mzl 17y ago
    Doesn't really roll off the tongue. How about dudugo :) Seems to be taken though.
MikeCapone 17y ago
I think you nailed it. There's a dichotomy between "silly non-specific" and "silly specific".