I’m not wild about list posts. Apparently I’m the only one, because I’ve never heard anybody else complain about them, and blogs great and small are overflowing with “ten ways to [whatever]” posts. They’re generally quite popular, too.

Frankly, I think they’re a symptom of laziness on the part of writers and readers alike. But I do have to admit that with all the info we have to process these days, they’re sometimes better than nothing. It’s true that, as Umberto Eco (who loves lists, BTW, and is no slouch) says, they “make infinity comprehensible.” I guess people can always dig deeper into a subject if they want something they can sink their teeth into. I wonder how many do.

Anyway, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I’ve been known to write a list post or two in my day. In fact, the last two I wrote for Web Worker Daily were just that: 5 Japanese words that start with S, and 3 words uttered by Mel Gibson that start with E (and might help you get a content strategy, which you should do).

It was sheer delight translating Claire Ulrich’s article Les Censeurs du Net, originally published in Le Monde 2.

In Internet history, 1994-2004 was the era of the pioneers. 2004-2007 was the era of the merchants. Now we’re entering the era of the bullies. Everywhere in the world, sites are going dark, arrests are increasing, more people are going to prison. The Web just celebrated its 20th birthday. Nobody used to take it seriously, but those days are gone. Read the rest…

Almost as much fun as translating her lyrical Plus belle, ma vie en ligne for Kiva (not available on line, but I will send you a PDF if you wish).

Google is messing with my reality and that is simply unacceptable. A while back I noticed that, more and more often, my searches were returning a lot of junk that was unrelated to what I was looking for. I have concluded that Google thinks I’m an infant. Or a moron.

I google some weird stuff because I’m a translator. I’ll spare you the explanation. The other day, I googled the words narrow area reality and Google, in its infinite wisdom, didn’t bother to ask me Did you mean realty, it just gave me a bunch of crap having to do with real estate. The first instance of the three terms I had typed didn’t appear till three results down the page.

Google consistently pollutes my search results and abuses my mental bandwidth because it thinks it’s smarter than I am, and I resent it in a major way.

The Did you mean… option is essential. Just making the decision for you without providing that option sucks. And I can’t figure out why sometimes Google asks the question and sometimes it doesn’t. Do you know?

Not long ago, Google even refused to return results for a word it didn’t like, an obscure French word I was trying to find a picture of for a translation I was working on. Google just corrected my spelling to some English word that came somewhat close because obviously I was too stupid to know what I was typing.

I had to go into my preferences and change the search to the French web. Because Google constantly and randomly resets my preferences. I use Google Images a lot when I translate, sometimes as a dictionary supplement, sometimes as a replacement. And I also need equal access to French and English web content. Duh.

I’ve never paid much attention when I see an article go by in my RSS feed about Google’s latest algorithm “improvement.” But I think I’m going to have to start. And I’m thinking of switching search engines too. Any suggestions?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, right? Maybe not so much on the Web, where our olfactory senses don’t do us much good.

When you name your startup zlignob, you’re playing a dangerous game. Some people try to compensate for the meaningless signifier they’ve chosen to represent their company with an evocative image to accompany the name, but many don’t manage to succeed at that either.

Now, I know all the good domains are taken but, really, words are supposed to convey meaning. It’s their job.

If you ask me, the most essential questions you should ask when you’re picking a name and logo are, first, do the word you picked and its accompanying image, alone or together, clearly state what you are about? And second, once a user learns what you are about and has context for your name and logo, are they memorable? (At the very least, the latter should be true.) You would think these things are no-brainers, but obviously a lot of people need to be reminded of them…

I grabbed some random logos off my reader not long ago, when I was in logo design hell myself (still there, but taking a breather).  If you don’t already know these companies, do you have any idea what they do? (Or did, as the case may be. Some may be in, or heading for the dead pool.)

Playfish. A social gaming site for kids. If you know there is a card game called Fish (or Go Fish), this name is effective. Even if you don’t, the word play gives a hint that it might be about games (but it could be about music or video). I really can’t stand the Fisher-Price, baby-toy look of Web 2.0 sites and logos, but in this case it’s appropriate.

Yoono. Yet another aggregator. Obviously a phonetic spelling of you know, which is not bad for memorability—if you speak English. I could see how it might be the name of a site that lets you keep track of everybody you know, especially with the little humanoid image. But that’s a tenuous connection and doesn’t really encompass what the site does.

Snipd. For collecting and sharing bits of Web content. My first instinct was to pronounce this sniped. Why? Because the single ” p ” after the “ i ” indicates that it should be pronounced that way (gripped/griped, stripped/striped). The scissors pointed me in the right direction, as far as pronunciation goes, but they made me think of haircuts. (Online haircuts?) Without knowing what this site does, the name and image are a fail. But once you do know what it does, it’s easier to remember the name.

Spot Runner. A company involved with online advertising. Without knowing that, I would have no idea what this company is about. I did not instinctively make the leap to advertising, even though I know that spot is a synonym for ad and that one runs ads. (In fact, the dog probably hindered my making that connection.) If you do know those things, the name is memorable once you learn what they do. The logo is a little too playful and looks odd with the rest of the site. But the dog is so cute!

Akamai. Provides servers and services worldwide. Lucky for me, I lived in Hawaii for 5 years and knew the word and what it meant. And I know how to pronounce it. If I didn’t, it might be an uncomfortable word in my mouth, which is not a good thing in terms of usability. (Yes, usability. You don’t want to make your users work.) Its foreignness would also hinder memorability. Of course, the wave didn’t strike me as incongruous given that it was a Hawaiian word. But how many people know that? If you think real hard, I guess you can get from wave to surf and eventually end up at data centers… But the casual and cartoonish logo just doesn’t work with the corporate look and feel of the site, or with the magnitude and seriousness of what this company does. It would be more appropriate for a designer of board shorts.

My advice for choosing a name… Make the effort to find someone who works with words to brainstorm company names with you, or review and comment on your working list of names. Of course, startups don’t have the budgets to see how their names will work in other languages, so if your invented word is the worst insult in the Swahili language, that sucks for you. But these days, it would be nice if even those targeting the anglophone world could come up with something meaningful.

And when you go to tech events… As I walked around LeWeb 08, startup hunting and reading badges, I felt like I was looking at the character name reject list for The Fifth Element. If you must name your company something totally random, at least put a tagline or some keywords somewhere visible (on your badge, on a t-shirt, wear your own stickers, whatever) so the people whose attention you want to catch (investors, bloggers) can get an idea of what you do!

• A surprisingly great name for a web app: Say Hi to Doris, Your Task Management Assistant
• Enough with the bubbles already: Mr. Bubble Leaves His Mark on Web Design