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Okay… I will write about iGoogle. Damnit.

May 4, 2007 | Tate Linden
Stop with the emailing! I will write about it. (But I do so under protest.)

Yeah, you all are exactly right. I don't like it. There are so many reasons for me to potentially be displeased that it becomes even less likeable due to the fact that I have to sort through the pile of bad stuff figuring out what reasons I want to share...

Whatever... Let me start digging.
  1. Where the heck did Google pull the "i" prefix from? I don't see it on any other products or services provided by them. iGotnoidea.
  2. Okay, so I know where they pulled the "i" from. They got it from Apple. (And I suppose until recently they might have gotten it from Cisco too.) Note that only the iMac, iPhone iTunes and iPod are well known - and Apple has tons of stuff with the iPrefix that we don't talk about much.
  3. Five years after they send a cease and desist order to WordSpy for verbing "Google" they appear to be verbing the word themselves. If I'm not mistaken, if you hear "I Google" doesn't that imply that Googling is something that one can do? Think about it... if someone says "iGoogle" couldn't a logical response be, "you do?"
  4. With all the great new ideas Google puts out there, where do they get off using a copycat name? (Is it because they're trying to disprove my theory?)
The only way I can see this name as being good for Google is if there's a merger coming up that we don't know about.

I have about five other reasons why this ain't a good thing, but I'll leave it to the many other bloggers who have already covered this. Just rest assured that I'm probably as peeved as you all thought I'd be about it.

I'd be more peeved if I didn't just get "Shaun of the Dead" for a birthday present from my wife. (Yeah, I'm probably the only person in the world that has this on his top ten movies list, but I wear that badge proudly!)

Tate Linden Principal - Stokefire 703-778-9925

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Comments (5)
5 Comments
Guy May 7, 2007 4:57 AM

I do imagine that iGoogle, as in "I Google", might possibly not be an attempt to rip off Apple but might actually be an honest idea for a personalized homepage. I Google, the Google that I use, the Google that is mine. However, the lowercase i kind of makes this a moot point.
(PS Shaun of the Dead rocks. My students' dorm favorite genre is the zombie-horror-survival flick, and Shaun manages to make fun of them all - and be a worthwhile addition to it)

Tate Linden May 7, 2007 11:06 AM

True Guy. I think your interpretation is right - they're using it to personalize the service.
I guess my issue is that even though this interpretation makes sense it doesn't set the service apart from any of the other failed "iSites" on the internet who are all either using "i" to personalize or to connote "internet."
Sadly I think that the name might actually work for them. They've got close to a Midas touch when it comes to product releases (even though this is just a rebranding) and the fact that in most cases the customer doesn't have to pay a cent rather helps things...

John Xavier May 8, 2007 9:21 PM

I agree completely with you, the "i" prefix has gotten out of hand. Bad enough that even Google is picking it up. This seems just like the "e" prefix craze many years ago (eBay, eBooks, eLoan). It's time to come up with more original names!

Tate Linden May 8, 2007 10:09 PM

Thanks for stopping in John X. Agree that the i and e prefixes are seeing a similar spread. If you think back a little bit we had an "x" craze right before the slew of "e" names hit. Gen X, Xtreme, Xetera...
Thankfully the internet hadn't quite come into its own then. X was mostly limited to tech products and strangely enough... food.
I'd have to consult some books to find single letter prefix patterns going back further than the late 90s.

Denise Wymore May 10, 2007 1:05 PM

iAgree that eVerything is getting Xtra annoying.
D.