<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, webvan]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, webvan]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/webvan http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/webvan <![CDATA[Webvan is back!]]> Hoo boy. It was one thing to see the return of Pets.com. Then came Flooz 2.0. But all joking aside, Amazon's resurrection of the Webvan business model should scare the bejeezus out of us all.

Yep, Amazon's taking a cue from one of the most flammable of dot-com bubble burnouts and mailing groceries to your home, according to Valleywag's big sister Lifehacker. Oh, it's not that big of a deal. Amazon can afford to waste some money mailing out organic fair-trade potato chips.

Get your groceries from Amazon [Lifehacker]

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<![CDATA[Easy names make easy cash]]> Science mag Nature.com says,

A psychology study has found that, at least in the short-term, stocks with names that are easier to pronounce consistently outperform those with more confusing monikers.

Some really rough tests indicate the effect could last a year. Ridiculous assertion? Shaky evidence? Not at all! For instance, consider the marketability of these names:

Gnyarky names

  • Yahoo! — How do you pronounce the second syllable? If Yahoo! is in the middle of a sentence, does it get its own shout? What about Spaniards confused by the missing ยก? This company's doomed.
  • Flickr — "Flick-rah". Sounds like a He-man mount to me. Who'd want to buy this startup?
  • Craigslist — All those consonants! What a mouthful! No wonder the newspapers are laughing — this company poses no threat to their business.
  • Cisco Systems — "Kisco"? "Sisco"? NO CHANCE.

Fluent names

  • Boo — What a simple dot-com name! Warp Drive 9, Scotty, and chart a course to profits!
  • Amiga — So friendly! (Handy Spanish tip: it means "female friend"! You might have some!) Destined to beat the world's Intels and Adiums and rise to dominance in the personal computer field.
  • WebVan — Two English words. Couldn't be simpler. Shift into third.
  • Dabble — Whoops, how'd that one get in here?

Simple sounds make for sound investments [Nature.com]

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