7 ms·

> generic names that might seem cool to a 5 year old I love how selectively we apply this criterion to entities we wish to vilify. You could say the same about

> generic names that might seem cool to a 5 year old I love how selectively we apply this criterion to entities we wish to vilify. You could say the same about Google.

esafak 3y ago
As well you should, because it was coined by a child! (Googol, not Google.) Same with Hadoop; the toy elephant of the cofounder's son.
- djmips 3y ago
  Which I understand was the toddler's pronunciation of the elephant Horton from Dr. Seuss which also this spawned another 2 billion dollar elephant logo company Hortonworks (now part of Cloudera) who started by developing and supporting open-source software primarily around Apache Hadoop.
metamet 3y ago
Snake, Google, X, Spike, Twitter. Some of these sound like things cool to 5 year olds. I wouldn't expect a 5 year old to know what a googol is.
- redder23 3y ago
  I only know what googol is because Google exists.
- dylan604 3y ago
  I learned what Google was when I was 8, so not exactly 5, but still pretty young. My parents bought an encyclopedia set that came with a separate set of books aimed at kids. Early 80s for reference
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rchaud 3y ago
Google's name makes perfect sense, it's a derivative of the word "googol" which is 10^100. For the first decade of its existence, Google would show the top 20 links for your search and at the bottom of the page say, "...of 2,000,000" or some other giant number, indicating to users how vast their index was. "X" is just stupid. They could have at least waited until they added significant new functionality to differentiate it from Twitter with a new name.
- moffkalast 3y ago
  Missed opportunity for Plex to have been a Google service.
DistractionRect 3y ago
> You could say the same about Google. Can you though? Googol is word to describe a large number few people would ever have need, or want, to articulate. It's not generic at all. X is super generic. So much so it's the defacto choice for the placeholder when discussing general things, or the first variable used in maths problems. It's among the most generic a name one could come up with. When speaking about X, you really need context to determine if we're talking about things in general, or the service formerly known as Twitter.
- _jal 3y ago
  > Can you though? Yes, you can: "The term was coined in 1920 by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta (1911–1981), nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol
- flkenosad 3y ago
  Generic-ism is the goal with the name. The intention is for it to become a generic "everything" app, so a generic name makes sense. It signals a message too. The change from a community where everyone is chirping each other to one which values long-form discussion and balanced discourse. X also symbolizes strength and the crossing of paths.
  - michaelmrose 3y ago
    But it has no useful function except to chirp at one another. It neither encourages nor possesses a body of long form writing or intelligent discussion and it's only more balanced insofar as it has more fascists and Nazis than it used to in addition to angry left wing folks.

> generic names that might seem cool to a 5 year old I love how selectively we apply this criterion to entities we wish to vilify. You could say the same about Google.

esafak 3y ago

As well you should, because it was coined by a child! (Googol, not Google.) Same with Hadoop; the toy elephant of the cofounder's son.

djmips 3y ago
Which I understand was the toddler's pronunciation of the elephant Horton from Dr. Seuss which also this spawned another 2 billion dollar elephant logo company Hortonworks (now part of Cloudera) who started by developing and supporting open-source software primarily around Apache Hadoop.

metamet 3y ago

Snake, Google, X, Spike, Twitter. Some of these sound like things cool to 5 year olds. I wouldn't expect a 5 year old to know what a googol is.

redder23 3y ago
I only know what googol is because Google exists.
dylan604 3y ago
I learned what Google was when I was 8, so not exactly 5, but still pretty young. My parents bought an encyclopedia set that came with a separate set of books aimed at kids. Early 80s for reference

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rchaud 3y ago

Google's name makes perfect sense, it's a derivative of the word "googol" which is 10^100. For the first decade of its existence, Google would show the top 20 links for your search and at the bottom of the page say, "...of 2,000,000" or some other giant number, indicating to users how vast their index was. "X" is just stupid. They could have at least waited until they added significant new functionality to differentiate it from Twitter with a new name.

moffkalast 3y ago
Missed opportunity for Plex to have been a Google service.

DistractionRect 3y ago

> You could say the same about Google. Can you though? Googol is word to describe a large number few people would ever have need, or want, to articulate. It's not generic at all. X is super generic. So much so it's the defacto choice for the placeholder when discussing general things, or the first variable used in maths problems. It's among the most generic a name one could come up with. When speaking about X, you really need context to determine if we're talking about things in general, or the service formerly known as Twitter.

_jal 3y ago
> Can you though? Yes, you can: "The term was coined in 1920 by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta (1911–1981), nephew of U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol
flkenosad 3y ago
Generic-ism is the goal with the name. The intention is for it to become a generic "everything" app, so a generic name makes sense. It signals a message too. The change from a community where everyone is chirping each other to one which values long-form discussion and balanced discourse. X also symbolizes strength and the crossing of paths.
- michaelmrose 3y ago
  But it has no useful function except to chirp at one another. It neither encourages nor possesses a body of long form writing or intelligent discussion and it's only more balanced insofar as it has more fascists and Nazis than it used to in addition to angry left wing folks.