Good Names Never Die: Kijiji Lives Again in West Oakland

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Once upon a time, Catchword named a company Kijiji. It was a non-US version of Craigslist, part of eBay, and the name was supposed to be globally neutral: from everywhere and nowhere. The name we came up with, Kijiji, is a Swahili word that means “village”.

Eventually eBay ditched the name (except in Canada) and it’s now known as eBay Classifieds. We were sad to see it go, because we loved the word and what it means and even the way it looks. But such is the way of naming. (Anyone remember Petopia? Loved that name!)

Yesterday I went to the Oakland Earth Expo (it was awesome, great food, and I got good advice about my backyard compost) and what did I see?

So cool!

Turns out these folks are aquaponic gardening specialists called Kijiji Grows, based here in Oakland. They had a cool set up showing how they grow plants in water, along with a tub full of beautiful goldfish. It’s all totally organic and high tech in a low tech kinda way. If that makes sense.

Anyway, they rock and it was great to see someone using the name Kijiji. Kuna Karamu!

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