MappingTheWeb //

Or is it the legend of the lack of ‘e’?

In any case, Flickr started the grammatical error trend. My guess is that they wanted the domain Flicker.com, but it had already been taken. So lazily, they dumped the ‘e’ and the name was born. This web 2.0 naming trend still lives on…

Today, when I see a company name ending in ‘r’ but lacking the ‘e’, I instinctively and unconsciously group it in a wannabe web 2.0 category. In 95%+ cases, the company has made a lame attempt at trying to jump on the bandwagon and ride the web 2.0 buzz to the bank. But I believe most new web observers can see right through the smokes and mirrors.

Now, I said 95%+ as there have been a few Flickr successors who have achieved some level of fame and success using the ‘r’ suffix. Here’s my list:

• Jaxtr (in BETA)
• Zooomr 

On the other hand, there have been many ‘r’ companies that have failed to impress - not because of the stereotypical web 2.0 name, but because of the product or service. Here is the rest of the pack:

• Blufr
• Browsr
• Coastr
• Empressr
• Flagr
• gpokr
• Grazr
• GTalkr
• Isolatr
• Preloadr
• Retrievr
• Scanr
• Socializr
• SoonR
• StockPickr
• Streakr
• Talkr
• Wrickr
• Zapr

I know that there are many others I missed. Please feel free to add your favourites in the comments.

From now on, let it be known that ‘r’ is the power letter of web 2.0. Also let it be known that if every second start-up uses this naming scheme, we are definitely in a bubble.

NOTE: Some of the companies listed with the rest of the pack have produced quality products and/or services, but have failed to generate traffic and a revenue model.