Thursday, November 29, 2007

Google's "RE < C" is < Smart


UPDATE: As of today (December 1st), it seems you CAN search for (the name of the initiative) on Google and Google Blog search. However, it still returns nothing on Google News.




The week, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, announced a new initiative to promote renewable energy. Worthy enough endeavor, but they inexplicably saddled the initiative with what has to be the worst brand name in recent history.... RE <C.

The first and most obvious problem is that typing "<" keeps messing with my html. It is a pain to fix.

You can't pronounce it: I was going to list various ways to pronounce it, but couldn't even get started.

It's the wrong message: Google says it stands for "Renewable energy is cheaper than coal." I read it as "Renewable energy is less than coal." Shouldn't renewables be greater than coal?

It has zero domain/url potential: bob@re<c.com? I don't think so.

You can't type it:
Quick-without looking try to find the "<" key.

YOU CAN'T SEARCH FOR IT ON GOOGLE!!!
Go ahead, try it. This is unbelievable to me.

It just _s the fact that some people need it #ed into their heads that that, @ most times, mixing PhDs and marketers is "<" ideal.

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