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March 26, 2009

Cloud Computing: The Brand Naming MacGuffin for 2009

It seems that I am not the only person fed up with the term cloud computing.

This term, which the Wall Street Journal, among others, struggles to define, may become one of those annoying trend labels, like Cyberspace and Web 2.0, that the tech industry will look back upon with some embarrassment.

Never mind that Sun Microsystems has "Sun Cloud," that Apple has the "MobileMe" offering that features a cloud, or that Dell applied for a trademark for the word. And forget about the fact that Cloud.com is set to be one of the big ticket auction items at the Cloud Computing Expo and that open source leader Canonical is getting into cloud computing ("open source" is another term that may already be meaningless).

There is just way too much confusion over what cloud computing actually means even among supporters of the trend.

As ZD Net points out, the term is getting more meaningless by the moment. It has been overused and has become so "splintered" and hard to define that it's quickly becoming a term that identifies geeky tech head wannabees who want to see the industry experience a "paradigm shift" to "Web 3.0."

Names like "pop" and "indie" have become meaningless through overuse as applied to real products and services. "Thought leadership" is now passe. But Cloud Computing is one of those terms that never really stood for anything to begin with, and because of it, is slowly imploding on the naming and branding launch pad.

Will the name Cloud Computing ever truly take off?

Only if someone takes hold of the name and turns it into a concept that is easy to understand.

Right now it's the tech world's MacGuffin. Like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, it is a thing that is desired for no other reason than it is something to desired. Or, as Hitchcock once said, "a MacGuffin is nothing at all."

Technorati Tags: Cloud Computing, MobileMe, Sun Cloud, Dell, Canonical, Cloud Computing Expo, Web 3.0, Product Names

Posted by William Lozito at March 26, 2009 8:07 AM
Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Industry | Marketing | Naming | Product Naming | Technology | Trademarking

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