If you are superstitious and believe that names can bring (or deny) good luck, avoid giving your products a name that ends with "me".
This is not a recommendation of any soothsayer but just a personal observation - there are least three product names that end with the word "me" and were either a complete failure and or faced a very "rocky" start.
1. Windows Me - Windows Millennium Edition (or Windows Me) was a successor to Windows 98 but PC World dubbed it as one of the worst version of Windows ever and included Me in the "high-tech hall of shame."
2. .me Web Domains - GoDaddy recently made a much-hyped announcement that it will begin accepting application for .me web domains. Chaos followed and GoDaddy’s mismanagement brought lot of "bad reputation."
3. Apple Mobile Me - You rarely see buggy products from the iPhone inventors but Mobile Me (formerly .mac) is definitely one. Apple customers have lost thousands of important emails in the past few days while some did not have access to email for over a week thanks to this new cloud computing platform called Mobile Me.
The service received enough negative press and this comment from a former Apple fanboy sums up the sentiment best - "We’re not just angry. We feel betrayed for having been Apple’s greatest PR reps for many, many years."
Is the word "me" to blame for this fiasco ?
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/believe-in-superstitions-avoid-word-me/3972/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
oh…great analysis Amit…thanks for sharing this..thats why I’ve not taken roshanbh.me domain.. LOL
Written by Roshan Bhattarai on 07.24.08
Can’t agree with you completely
Java ME - rocketed after Sun re branded its mobile version as Java ME
Meebo - Most successful online chat.
Even Mini-ME by Dr.Evil was a huge hit. :)
Written by Anoop Engineer on 07.25.08
How about Techmeme!!it has a double me at the end ;)
or does it hold only for physical products!
Written by Anand on 07.25.08
huh!!! i dont believe in this! coz my blog is digitme.com ;)
Written by Renjith on 07.25.08
Me? Perhaps thinking of oneself only will bring failure? The saints and sages teach us not to be selfish, aren’t they? Why not end with “us” or “we” rather than me. Perhaps it will bring success. Ha3. “We” means “you and I”, perhaps can be interpreted as the “software company” and the “users”. :)
Written by Yanto on 07.25.08
Actually, Windows Me wasn’t so bad as people made it. (It had a decent share of improvements - link ). And Vista isn’t too bad too as people make it.
Written by anonymous on 07.25.08
Amit,
I was thinking the same thing about two weeks ago as I prepared to register windows.me…. Microsoft snapped that one up pretty quickly; however, GoDaddy listed it as available!? I figured I’d avoid the inevitable “cease and desist” from Microsoft and passed.
I wanted to register educate.me (also available), but passed on that too. I’m glad I didn’t jump on the .me bandwagon!
Written by Rich on 07.25.08
labme ??? … apparently ‘labsup’ didnt work for you amit …
Written by igizmore on 07.25.08
Yes, i agree with Yanto . :)
& Great observation
Written by khinelay on 07.25.08
Apple omitted the punctuation: “Mo’ bile, me.”
Written by Soren Kierkegaard on 07.25.08
That’s probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
Written by Ankur Banerjee on 07.26.08
Ah, hope this could’ve been valid for me-too apps too ;)
Written by manuscrypts on 07.26.08
What about the Mii service in Nintendo Wii? It isn’t Me but still read as Me.
Written by Nicholas on 07.26.08
That’s why double the ‘me’ in Techmeme has negated the jinx. Huh!!!
Written by Sujoy on 07.27.08
Don’t forget Atari’s “Touch Me” game which utterly failed. Milton Bradley came out with their own version called “Simon” and it has been a best seller for decades! ;-)
Written by Jason L on 07.27.08
I don’t believe in Superstitions. However I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. Anytime “me” is promoted in a product (or) an individual promoting themselves with too much “me”, they really end up distancing themselves with others.
Written by Ramesh | The Geek Stuff on 07.27.08
haha,very interesting.
but i think all those are a mere coincidence.
Written by doumiao on 07.27.08
I’m not sure the issue is with the .me domain. Having had a major hassle with GoDaddy over their practices, I’d say (even though it doesn’t fit into the spirit of your post)that GoDaddy is the problem in the situation you mention.
Written by Jack Carlson on 07.29.08
I can’t stand the MobileMe name. It doesn’t relate to anything “Mac,” and seems suitable only for juveniles. Had the name been MobileMac, it would have made more sense. As for the me.com address, there’s nothing intuitive about it as Mac products are supposed to be. Mac.com worked just fine. Can’t imagine what Apple was thinking when they came up with these two monikers.
Written by Kathleen on 08.09.08
Could Apple just treat “Mobile Me” as the New Coke , dump the thing and go back to the .mac service ? (as Coca Cola returned to Classic Coke after the New Coke debacle ?
In my 24 years as an Apple user this is the first time I’ve truly been embarrassed of an Apple product, both the name and the poor function . (now I know what it feels like to be a Windows user) . Who thought of that idiotic name , “Mobile Me” ?
Written by David Nethery on 10.19.08