It’s great to see that tech events are giving women a little limelight of their own. I’m going to an event soon that has given women their very own panel! And they’ve called it “Women’s Panel.” Kind of like Women’s Room. But with the latter, there’s little doubt about who uses it or for what. But what about this mysterious Panel…?

Read the rest of this article on frogblog.

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).

Speaking of fatigue, I saw the expression “social media fatigue” for the first time in a while the other day, just a few days after announcing to my husband “I’m bored with the Internet and Twitter right now.” Maybe that’s what I’ve got.

And of course, with what’s happened in Haiti, the expression “compassion fatigue” is on my mind, especially since I can’t seem to inspire even 188 Francophilia members to donate five bucks each to reach my $1,000 donation goal for earthquake relief. Inspiring is hard work. It’s making me tired. They must be fatigued too…

One of the suggestions from the first panel, composed of successful French entrepreneurs: Get a global name. In other words, they were encouraging French startups not to choose names only francophones could understand or pronounce. Good advice!

So run your list by speakers of several different languages. In a city like Paris, they’re not hard to find.

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