Piece of advice... it's not because you have a great idea and a decent business model that you should under-estimate the name of your company and more importantly the domain name you are going to get to drive traffic to your website.
Don't get me wrong, these companies mentioned below might have a good product and some good value added to the online customer proposal but with these names and URL, could it really work?
1. Voyij.com - the name is hardly convincing the audience that it is about travel and also you can't remember how to spell it
2. Dopplr - ok here's a good example of a great slick design website with a name that only geeks could remember.
3. Boo - when a domain name got history like this, don't purchase the domain name and don't even use it other than generating advertising traffic
And any other suggestions that didn't make the top 3 ?
When we launched Bezurk.com we did not realise how hard it would be for customers to recall and spell correctly ( there are 10 different ways of spelling Berserk )
We discovered very quickly how important a simple brand name ( with URL) is to the success of an online business.
Thankfully the Gods were kind to us and dropped Wego.com into our laps 2 years ago
Craig Hewett
Founder
Wego.com ( Bezurk.com)
Posted by: Craig Hewett | Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Hehe... another daft name for our lists, Guillaume.
London Oxford Airport!
http://bit.ly/o7Kim
http://bit.ly/gY1qe
Posted by: Alastair McKenzie | Monday, August 17, 2009 at 03:12 PM
@Alastair, thanks for your comment. I learnt something new :-)
Posted by: Max TheUrbanSuites.com Barcelona | Monday, August 17, 2009 at 03:00 PM
@Dallas Howard: thanks for your kind words!
@Max: Ouch!
@Sheheryar: Yes and any others you would like to mention
@ Alastair: it's ok your list complements mine anyway. You are spot on the history behind the Opodo name!
Posted by: Guillaume Thevenot | Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Curses, Guillaume! You beat me to it! I had collected seven daft names, which I've just posted on my blog http://bit.ly/3CjLm5
On Opodo, Max. It seems a bit daft, but I was there when Giovanni Bisignani (the first ceo) launched it and explained the thinking behind the name. Not only is it a visual palindrome (looks the same upside down, back to front) but they spent months looking for a name that would have no meaning or association in the 9/10 (can't rem how many airlines launched it) countries & languages they were launching in. They absolutely did not want to invest all that money and then discover opodo means 'bottom' in Finnish or something!
Posted by: Alastair McKenzie | Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 04:52 PM
We follow the top 3 worst name in travel as listed websites as you mentioned
Posted by: Sheheryar Khan | Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 12:14 AM
OPODO ain't that better anyway
Posted by: Max TheUrbanSuites.com Barcelona | Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:21 PM
worst name for a blogger: guillaume thevenot
Posted by: dallas howard | Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 07:21 PM