i think it’s really interesting that john lewis have decided that their own brand name is a more useful online asset than the generic “buy.com”. there was a way of thinking a few years ago that you needed to have a generic sounding domain name to succeed on the web. it’s not true in any other realm and i don’t think it’s ever been true on the web either. i think they just show a lack of imagination myself.

we picked “loquax” out of a latin dictionary when looking for an interesting demon node name and i think the name has worked better for our business than generic names featuring competitions and prizes have for others. somehow it’s just more memorable and has more personality. if we started over again i might try and find a name that was easier to give out over the phone, but i would never waste time or money trying to obtain a generic domain.

the fact that it’s john lewis discovering that generic names aren’t much cop is also interesting because many of their stores only use “a john lewis department store” as a tagline. we have bainbridges, tyrell and green, knight and lee, heelas, george henry lee, peter jones etc. instead.