Sunday, May 31, 2009

What's in a Name?

Having a catchy name to wrap an innovation around is a great way to create buzz. With announcements by Microsoft and Google heralding game-changing services, I couldn't help but consider the names chosen.

Microsoft is getting back into the search game with BING, while Google is considering how to consolidate the social nature of communication with WAVE. I suspect that you will be as surprised as I was in discovering the most common definitions for each of these words. To consolidate what I found, I ran the results through Wordle.


Definitions of BING on the Web:

Bing is a surname.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(surname)

Bing is a Unix program which is essentially a ping with added network throughput measurements.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(program)

Bing or Gebrüder Bing was a German toy company founded in 1863 in Nuremberg, Germany by two brothers, Ignaz and Adolf Bing, originally producing metal kitchen utensils. They began toy production in 1880, their first teddy bears in 1907 . ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(company)

A slag heap (also called bing, Boney piles, culm, waste coal, Terekons (Russian), gob piles, or slate dumps) is a pile built of accumulated tailings, which are by-products of mining. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(mining)

Bing is a soft drink produced by the Silver Spring Mineral Water Company Limited, based in Folkestone, Kent, UK. It is dark orange in colour and has a cherryade quality to it. The flavor has been compared by some to original Tizer(before they removed the artificial flavourings). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(soft_drink)

Bing is a Chinese term used to describe dough-based Chinese flatbreads, pancakes, unleavened dough foods, or indeed any food item with a flat disk ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(Chinese_flatbread)

The Twin Bing is a candy bar made by the Palmer Candy Company of Sioux City, Iowa. It consists of two round, chewy, cherry-flavored nougats coated with a mixture of chopped peanuts and chocolate.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_(candy)

Bing is a slang term for solitary confinement in prison. Also: a heap or pile, such as a slag heap
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bing

Bing is an annoying lizard in "The Angry Beavers", an animated television series.
www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/The_Angry_Beavers

Bing - In Feng Shui, One of ten heavenly stems... the sign of growth like fire in the house.
www.noblestarfengshui.com/glossary.html

Bing is, with Shark, one of the original founders of RPG World. He runs the server's day-to-day operations and oversees the rest of the ...
encyclopedia.wizards.pro/index.php/RPG_World


Definitions of WAVE on the Web:

* one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water)
* a movement like that of a sudden occurrence or increase in a specified phenomenon; "a wave of settlers"; "troops advancing in waves"
* (physics) a movement up and down or back and forth
* something that rises rapidly; "a wave of emotion swept over him"; "there was a sudden wave of buying before the market closed"; "a wave of conservatism in the country led by the hard right"
* beckon: signal with the hands or nod; "She waved to her friends"; "He waved his hand hospitably"
* the act of signaling by a movement of the hand
* brandish: move or swing back and forth; "She waved her gun"
* a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
* roll: move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion; "The curtains undulated"; "the waves rolled towards the beach"
* an undulating curve
* curl: twist or roll into coils or ringlets; "curl my hair, please"
* a persistent and widespread unusual weather condition (especially of unusual temperatures); "a heat wave"
* set waves in; "she asked the hairdresser to wave her hair"
* a member of the women's reserve of the United States Navy; originally organized during World War II but now no longer a separate branch
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* The wave (British English: Mexican wave; also stadium wave), is achieved in a packed stadium when successive groups of spectators briefly stand ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(crowd_action)
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