[Web4lib] What's in a name (Google Book Search, that is)?

[Walt.Crawford at rlg.org]

This doesn't strike me as rocket science--rather as a rudimentary awareness
of the nuances of the English language.

If I see "Microsoft Books," I'd be inclined to expect a place where I go to
get books (and Microsoft does publish books, but they call it "Microsoft
Press")

If I see "Microsoft Book Search," I'd be inclined to expect a place where I
go to search for books. And I'd be right, except that Microsoft chose to
call it MSN Book Search.

"Joe's Books" is likely to be a bookstore.

"Joe's Book Search" is likely to be a catalog of some sort, or perhaps a
service to locate books.

Seems to me Google made a good choice, since most items in Google Book
Search will be searchable but not directly available. I still don't quite
understand why people feel the need to override Google's choice of names,
substituting an ambiguous name for a fairly specific one. Surely one extra
syllable can't be THAT hard. Or that some "principle" that Google names
never have more than two words means that Google doesn't get to change the
"principle."

Heck, "Librarian's Internet Index" is three words and nine syllables, but I
haven't seen too many people decide that it should be "Librarian's
Internet" or "Librarian's Index" or "LibIntInd" or "LibStuff" instead.

Back to lurker mode, since I'm unable to comprehend the need to dumb down a
simple three-word name.

Walt Crawford
wcc at rlg.org, 650-691-2227
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