At Lifehacker we love a portmanteau. A lot of our sister sites, as well as their subdomains, are combinations of existing words: Deadspin evokes backspin but also ESPN; Gizmodo contains gizmo and mod. Lifehacker’s subsites find a second meaning within a word or phrase: Skillet contains skill, Two Cents is money advice. We’ve covered some great tools for inventing pun names before. Now there’s Entendrepreneur, a powerful tool for combining any two concepts into a portmanteau or a rhyme.
This year, Google officially dropped the 'Android Wear' moniker from its operating system for wearable devices, switching to the way less cumbersome Wear OS. Google started using the Android brand back in 2008 when it launched its competing mobile OS, following the success of Apple's iPhone in 2007.
Journalists, and bloggers who pose as journalists, get a lot of pitches over email. I get about 20 a day, so I'm pretty heavy on the archive button. But if you're trying to pitch something you've worked on, and you aren't a professional publicist, you're actually at an advantage. Last month, game developer Andrew Miller asked me for advice on how to pitch his work for coverage. Here's what I told him.
Dear Lifehacker, Would you be able to suggest some merchandise to put my small business logo on? (Aside from the obvious calendar and business card options.) I want something useful like a mug, but that's cool/quirky enough to stand out and be noticed. The aim is to get people talking about our brand without having to spend a fortune. Any ideas?
About a week ago, I received a press release letting me know that Dropbox was updating their style guidelines with new typefaces and colours. To be honest, I didn't think it was that interesting. But that new look is making an appearance in app and online updates now. And not everyone is happy.
Naming things is hard, especially if the name needs to be unique. Over the years I've worked for sites named Urlesque (rhymes with burlesque, it's about memes), Slacktory (it's a factory for slacking) and Valleywag (which came scarily close to being called "Boomshank"). I always loved the evocative site names of the Gizmodo network. Sploid connotes splatter, tabloids and explosions; Deadspin promises ESPN with an unexpected angle; Kotaku puts the slightest spin on the Japanese term for obsessive nerdy interest. More famous names like Instagram, Medium and Upworthy also compactly convey multiple meanings. The same approach is popular for fictional character names: Darth Vader, Voldemort and Ebenezer Scrooge read immediately as bad guys.
Branding is incredibly important when you're trying to build a new business. Sometimes, a company strikes gold on the very first try and their brand becomes instantly iconic. Other times, the name fails to register with customers and a return to the drawing board is required. This infographic reveals what 12 famous brands used to be called: from Pepsi Cola (formerly "Brad's Drink") to Nike ("Blue Ribbon Sports"). We think they made the right choice.
A few months ago, Woolworths decided to replace its entry-level Homebrand range with the similar "Woolworths Essentials" in a bid to address consumer perceptions of low quality. Now, it's giving the same treatment to the mid-tier Select label. The only reason to care about this is that Woolworths' private label products will soon be cheaper.
