I've been reading Theodore Rex -- the biography of President Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris -- and came to a fascinating part where Roosevelt got behind a "simplified spelling" campaign to drop superfluous letters in words. Looking at the spellings, I realized that Teddy Roosevelt would have loved the Web 2.0 era.

It's a long standing joke how Web 2.0 names drop letters in words. Flickr, Zooomr, Moviemappr that I talked about on yesterday's Daily SearchCast podcast are some examples. Compare them to some of the simplified spellings Roosevelt was pushing for:

• clipt rather than clipped
• dasht rather than dashed
• dript rather than dripped
• fixt rather than fixed
• lapt rather than lapped
• ript rather than ripped
• winkt rather than winked

You'll find some background on Roosevelt's campaign here, along with his list here. Scanning through it, I can't see that there were actually any words where an e was dropped before an ending r. So maybe he wasn't so Web 2.0 after all.

Then again, looking through resource like Ludwig Gatzke's collage of Web 2.0 logos, there actually don't seem to be that many companies with missing letters after all. Still, perhaps some of Roosevelt's proposed spellings might inspire new companies while the venture capital well is still spewing out Web 2.0 money.

By the way, Four Concentric Circles of a Web 2.0 Name is a nice rundown on Web 2.0 names classified into different groups. Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character? is a new classic quiz that you must take. And Web 2.0 and The Letter “e”: The Interview is a must read interview that will make you chuckle. From the opening:

The darling of the dot-com bubble -- the letter “e” -- is conspicuously missing and has decided to take a wait and see attitude this time around.

In an exclusive e-mail exchange with our editors, the reclusive vowel talks about what he’s been doing since the year 2000, his investment strategy, and his thoughts on whether we’ve entered a new technology bubble.

Next Post: Dear S. Larson Of Citibank: You're Not Real, So Please Retire
Previous Post: SEW/SEW-Owner Incisive Going Private
All Posts: Daggle Archives
Posts By Category: Daggle Categories
Return To: Daggle Home Page

Comments

Want to comment? If you are signed into TypeKey, you'll see a form below. No form? Click on the sign-in link below, and you can sign-in or sign-up for a free account. Sorry you have to use TypeKey, but I use it to avoid comment spam. All comments currently appear automatically after posting.

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)