‘This.’ is new social network. It’s simple: you can only share one link per day.
WHAT?! But but but but what if I ask nicely? What if I have two or twelve links that I—
—No! No more mollycoddling and second chances by social networks that just let you throw [an anagram of This.] against a wall to see what sticks! One link per day, that’s all you get! You see what your friends deem as the single most important article, picture, game, or link that day. And they see the one thing you share.
What a great concept. And what a name, too! This. fits exactly with the premise: it points directly at something close by (it isn’t ‘That’ after all), which could be anything, as long as it is singular. And it hits all the right naming criteria for a start-up: short, confident, cool, graphically interesting, and oh-so-unique in the space.
The period gives the name visual appeal, and a bold finality that works wonderfully with the concept. The period says, “This one thing and nothing else.” Furthermore, punctuating names is common enough to not be startling, but distinct enough to really set the name apart. Think Burger. or moe. or Yum! The point is, the period is a lovely embellishment.
My one concern with This. is Googleability. Using a word that is SO COMMON will make it very hard to find on the Internet. Don’t even bother searching just “This.” If you want to try “This. social network,” be my guest—careful not to get sucked into a vortex of pictures of Justin Timberlake though. And since they don’t have the exact .com domain name (they have This.cm), aspiring users will be forced to search for it, possibly leading to the aforementioned vortex problem.
But despite the searchability shortcoming, I am inclined to give the name an A for being so unique and memorable. So there!
