BING? Really? [BoB]

We love to talk about Google, Bing and Twitter. But you probably don't know the origins of these famous company names.

Yahoo: “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”

Google: Originating from a misspelling of the word "googol,” the number “1” followed BY 100 zeroes, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.

Blog: From “Web Log.”

BoB: A short-form blog from “Web Observation.”

BING: “But It's Not Google?” (Fact or fiction? Opine please!) Owned by Microsoft.

ChaCha: From the Mandarin Chinese word “Cha” which means “to search.”

Twitter: “A short inconsequential burst of information, chirps from birds.” (Oxford English Dictionary).

Almost named Jitter or Twitch by founders. The Twitter bird icon/logo is named Larry, after Larry Bird, the legendary Boston Celtics/NBA star from French Lick, IN and Indiana State University (note: the designer, Doug Bowman, is a Boston native).

“Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.” (Nod to Mark Twain) 

Way back in 1997, Jorn Barger coined the term "blog" as a shortened form of "web log." After 16 years, I finally decided it was time for something new and coined the term "BoB," short for "web observation."  

BoBs consist of a short observation about marketing—ALL MARKETING...inbound, outbound, digital, traditional...ALL of it. And,  a famous quote that helps to “stamp” the observation into the reader’s mind. Add a relevant link and appropriate graphic…maybe even a well-known “BoB” graphic and that’s all there is to it.