3 ms·

Why do people call things `verb`ly? Does it make more sense to native English speakers than to me? Some even go through the trouble of getting a Libyan domain,

by lucian1900 14y ago

Why do people call things `verb`ly? Does it make more sense to native English speakers than to me? Some even go through the trouble of getting a Libyan domain, which is simply foolish.

lingben 14y ago
I think we'll look back on this and other similar fetishes like .io TLDs and laugh just like we chuckle at the geocities web designs and AOL CDs of yore.
- lucian1900 14y ago
  .io sort of makes sense as I/O, and is from a less unstable territory to boot.
- sudonim 14y ago
  As a .io company... when we bought our domain over a year ago, the only other io I had heard of was http://drop.io http://drop.io (now gone). It has been nuts how many other new companies became .io in the past year.
simonw 14y ago
Because all of the dictionary domain names went a decade ago.
netcan 14y ago
IMO, it's just a formulaic way of naming a company that sends a predictable message. In the 90s, dotcom meant internet startup. 'noun'dotcom told people it's an internet startup to do with noun. verbly or nounify tell people this is a post bust, Web 2.0-ish company to do with noun/verb. 'x'soft, 'y'systems, 'q'solutions... There are lots of ways this is done. Once a convention is established, it's just an easy way of naming a company that projects more or less the right signal and getting on with things.
- lucian1900 14y ago
  I'm saying the word doesn't make sense to me. "Quickly" makes sense. "Jumply" doesn't mean anything. "Bookify" sort of makes sense, vaguely.
  - freyr 14y ago
    In English, many adverbs end in -ly. Adverbs modify verbs. Often, adjectives can be turned in to adverbs by adding -ly, as in the case of quick and quickly, or sly and slyly. Obviously, Optimizely is like jumply, in that it doesn't make sense. But it sounds good, it's descriptive, and it was available. Also, it's probably better to make up a word rather than use an existing word so that it can be identified easier in search engines and conversation.
pbiggar 14y ago
When optimizely started in lat 2009/2010, that was a popular naming scheme. In my YC batch (w2010), there were a lot of '-ly's (including optimizely).

Why do people call things `verb`ly? Does it make more sense to native English speakers than to me? Some even go through the trouble of getting a Libyan domain, which is simply foolish.

lingben 14y ago

I think we'll look back on this and other similar fetishes like .io TLDs and laugh just like we chuckle at the geocities web designs and AOL CDs of yore.

lucian1900 14y ago
.io sort of makes sense as I/O, and is from a less unstable territory to boot.
sudonim 14y ago
As a .io company... when we bought our domain over a year ago, the only other io I had heard of was http://drop.io http://drop.io (now gone). It has been nuts how many other new companies became .io in the past year.

simonw 14y ago

Because all of the dictionary domain names went a decade ago.

netcan 14y ago

IMO, it's just a formulaic way of naming a company that sends a predictable message. In the 90s, dotcom meant internet startup. 'noun'dotcom told people it's an internet startup to do with noun. verbly or nounify tell people this is a post bust, Web 2.0-ish company to do with noun/verb. 'x'soft, 'y'systems, 'q'solutions... There are lots of ways this is done. Once a convention is established, it's just an easy way of naming a company that projects more or less the right signal and getting on with things.

lucian1900 14y ago
I'm saying the word doesn't make sense to me. "Quickly" makes sense. "Jumply" doesn't mean anything. "Bookify" sort of makes sense, vaguely.
- freyr 14y ago
  In English, many adverbs end in -ly. Adverbs modify verbs. Often, adjectives can be turned in to adverbs by adding -ly, as in the case of quick and quickly, or sly and slyly. Obviously, Optimizely is like jumply, in that it doesn't make sense. But it sounds good, it's descriptive, and it was available. Also, it's probably better to make up a word rather than use an existing word so that it can be identified easier in search engines and conversation.

pbiggar 14y ago

When optimizely started in lat 2009/2010, that was a popular naming scheme. In my YC batch (w2010), there were a lot of '-ly's (including optimizely).