With the recent attention Google wanna-be “cuil” is getting, I thought it may be time to take a look at some of the other websites that try to pawn off the lack of ability to secure a strong domain name by using a ridiculous spelling of a normal every day word.
(and I know how hard it is to get a good domain name nowadays, so I understand trying something different, but really…)
1. Cuil.com - pronounced “cool”
Ok thank goodness som article explained it becuase I never would have guessed. Of course, everyone knows that available 4 letter domains became non-existent eons ago (in internet years), but this is really stretching. Whoever came up with this one was probably smoking a little too much Web 2.0 “kraq”.
2. Kuler - pronounced “color”
Adobe must not think much of their built-in spell check to let this monstrosity out into the wild. Plus, it is just a SUBDOMAIN at adobe.com. If you are only using it as a subdomain, why not just call it whatever you want.
3. Sphinn - pronounced “spin”
SEO is one of my focus areas so I always run across this on and it just “phisses” me off. Any reasonable person would likely read this and think it was pronounced closer to “Sven” and hey, who wouldn’t be interested in a social linking site to articles for and about about dudes named Sven.
This one always reminds of the dork quiz bowl team I faced off with (and obliterated) that called themselves “ghoti” a.k.a. “fish” (explanation). But for the life of me, I dont’ know what the usage cases for a silent “h” are when preceded by “p”. (and yes, it is possible to be on a cool quiz bowl team)
There are more out there and I’ll update this post as I run across them.
Got some you want to share? Post in the comments!
But right now I am hungry, so I think I will kuk some dhinnr.
