6 ms·
> We decided to adopt “/e/” as a textual representation for the symbol of “my data is MY data” Discussion appears to be here: https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog
by bocklund 8y ago
> We decided to adopt “/e/” as a textual representation for the symbol of “my data is MY data”
Discussion appears to be here: https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/leaving-apple-and-google-e-is-the-symbol-for-my-data-is-my-data/ https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/leaving-apple-and-google-e...
I appreciate the reason for the name change, but if the goal is to target laypeople, /e/ is not obviously pronounceable or meaningful for my mom or kids/teens.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- willio58 8y agoTotally agree, and I think it’s extremely important to have better branding if you’re actually trying to reach those user groups
- faag36 8y agoThis kind of project will never get any kind of attention by laypeople, so it's good that they know that and aren't even trying. Less wasted energy :-)
- 1023bytes 8y agoAnd it's very difficult to search for
- raverbashing 8y agoThis should be higher in branding concerns today If you're not googleable, you're going to have a hard time
- ObsoleteNerd 8y agoI actually miss the days of bastardized short words as product names. Yeh some of them got a bit ridiculous, but they were unique and easily searchable. Flickr, Google, etc. People were creating brands that stood out, were memorable, and they owned their entire results pages. Now we're using common nouns as names for everything and it has completely broken the ability to search for both the product AND the common nouns.
- Sujan 8y agoWhich is why the section in the article continues: > We understand that this textual representation is not ideal for talking about the project and searching about it. > We have decided to hold off on change to the name for the beta release. Along with the v1 stable version, we will introduce a new name for the mobile system that will be easy to remember and to adopt. So: They are aware and have a plan.
- abstractbeliefs 8y agoThe other thing is that `/e/`, with the slashes and all, is the exact name of 4chans softcore hentai board.
- rijoja 8y agoand without the slashes one of many names of a particularly popular party drug
- some_account 8y agoCall it Evasion OS. I think it's a cool name that has an "e" in it, and it's really about evading the massive data gathering going on.
- tzakrajs 8y agoMay as well call it extraterrestrial os because no one on Earth is going to use it
- 0x8BADF00D 8y agoThat’s pretty brutal, I’m sure they will have a niche of users.
- liquid153 8y agohahahaha
- komali2 8y agolol this is the most savage fucking thread on all of HN for sure
- peterwwillis 8y ago"Hentai, ecstacy, and data ownership? Take my money." - Grandma
- sannee 8y ago
- benatkin 8y agoIt's similar to //e which is how Apple IIe was stylized. If it's not going to be a trademark issue, it seems like a clever branding hack to me. Anyone who grew up in the 80s & early 90s or earlier might be subtly influenced by it. I think /e/ cute and that plenty of brands have succeeded despite being unrecognizable and unsearchable. The meaningful symbol seems related to AirBnb and their bélo [1], which I think was largely successful. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMITXMrrVQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMITXMrrVQU
- kirubakaran 8y agoIIRC It was stylized IIe and //c
- moron4hire 8y agoI thought the ASCII art version was ][e
- WillPostForFood 8y agoThe 2 and 2+ were ][ http://i2.wp.com/www.applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uploads/2plus-d2-247520-7.jpg?fit=800%2C590 http://i2.wp.com/www.applerescueofdenver.com/wp-content/uplo... and the 2e was // https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/173244543923_/APPLE-e-COMPUTER-PLUS-EXTRA-CIRCUIT-BOARDS.jpg https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/173244543923_/APPLE-...
- didgeoridoo 8y agoI just assumed it was pronounced “slashy-slash”...
- dlhavema 8y agoThat is awesome. I like this name/pronunciation!
- brightball 8y ago"slash e slash" "slashy slash" "Slashy McSlash Face"
- petecox 8y ago> /e/ is not obviously pronounceable On the contrary, it's a scientific notation for a specific pronunciation of the letter e. /e/ represents in linguistics an unrounded closed-mid front vowel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_unrounded_vowel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_unrounded_vo...