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April 2006
4/4/06
What's in a name?
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4/1/06
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Well, it's official.
AOL has changed its name to... AOL. Or rather, to be more
specific, America Online, Inc. has changed its name to AOL LLC (as our
internal mail points out, no periods, no commas). In doing so, we
join a list of illustrious corporate giants that have changed their
names to their initials, including American Telephone and Telegraph
(AT&T, which, of course is enjoying its naming renaissance after
being bought by SBC, itself an acronymized name), International
Business Machines (IBM) and NCR (National Cash Register). Ok, so
maybe the last one wasn't so illustrious.
But I do have to say that the idea of droping the "America" from our name is an idea that I think is welcome. We've been a global company for some time, with extensive operations in Europe, Canada, and earlier joint ventures in Japan, Australia, and China which didn't quite pan out. At a time when nationalism is running high (thanks in no small part to our involvement in the Middle East and continuing debates about immigration domestically), I think it's healthy for us to take a broader view and to just be AOL.
Of course, there's much more to it than that. There's all of the PR materials and notepads and business cards and signage that will need to be changed, and I think even my voicemail message at the office says "You've reached Edwin at America Online." I can just imagine our corporate printing partners smiling as they read the press release.
But sometimes that's the price of progress, I suppose. Until the world uses electronic paper, we'll have to do this each time our name changes. Then again, it's been over 15 years since our last name change, so we've still got some time to get that right. Then again, who knows, maybe by then, vCards will have their renaissance. :-)
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What's in a name?
But I do have to say that the idea of droping the "America" from our name is an idea that I think is welcome. We've been a global company for some time, with extensive operations in Europe, Canada, and earlier joint ventures in Japan, Australia, and China which didn't quite pan out. At a time when nationalism is running high (thanks in no small part to our involvement in the Middle East and continuing debates about immigration domestically), I think it's healthy for us to take a broader view and to just be AOL.
Of course, there's much more to it than that. There's all of the PR materials and notepads and business cards and signage that will need to be changed, and I think even my voicemail message at the office says "You've reached Edwin at America Online." I can just imagine our corporate printing partners smiling as they read the press release.
But sometimes that's the price of progress, I suppose. Until the world uses electronic paper, we'll have to do this each time our name changes. Then again, it's been over 15 years since our last name change, so we've still got some time to get that right. Then again, who knows, maybe by then, vCards will have their renaissance. :-)
eaokiatwork at 4:44:00 AM PDT Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
4/4/06 6:52 AM