Shortly after I announced that NewsGator had acquired my company, I started seeing comments from people wondering whether NewsGator was related to the "Gator" spyware company (now known as "Claria"). The answer, of course, is NO (you don't really think I'd join a spyware company, do you?).
NewsGator founder Greg Reinacker wrote about this problem a few months ago, and wondered whether a name change was in order to prevent the unintended association. But renaming a company isn't the simplest thing to do, and even if the rename took place, people would still refer to us as "the former NewsGator company," defeating the purpose.
Funny thing is, I had a similar post in my own blog last month, related to some people taking offense to the "demon" part of FeedDemon's name. Given the problems with both names, I think it's safe to say that if we ever rename the company, we won't choose the name "GatorDemon" :)
I would be more worried about you calling it FeedGator ;)
Posted by: Ryan Guill | Wednesday, June 08, 2005 at 02:12 PM
How come you sold your company? It's so awesome...
Posted by: April | Wednesday, June 08, 2005 at 10:24 PM
You should switch that around, Nick; nothing screams ultra-hip retro-kitsch like using the 50's Z-grade horror name "DemonGator".
"Crawling from the depths... to feast on LIVING FEEDS!"
Posted by: Eric Meyer | Thursday, June 09, 2005 at 10:14 AM
Eric, I'd be willing to switch to that name just to see the icon :)
Posted by: Nick Bradbury | Thursday, June 09, 2005 at 12:22 PM
an RSS-reader that lives in the sewer.... and grows and grows...
hmm, the sewer part would have associations with the spyware 'gator' ;-)
Posted by: Jeff Wilkinson | Thursday, June 09, 2005 at 12:37 PM
DemonGator - FeedGator - NewsDemon
hummmm. They have ALL a better ring than 'NewsGator' anyway.
Posted by: Steve Brereton | Friday, June 10, 2005 at 06:23 AM
the program formerly known as feeddemon
Posted by: msober | Friday, June 17, 2005 at 01:45 PM
Next they'll be changing the alligators name to dis-assciate with the damn spyware b0770cks!
Posted by: Burt Lancastor | Saturday, July 09, 2005 at 08:07 PM
don't overreach yourself with similar spyware and non-spyware company names. you can always check if a name belongs to spyware on the anti-spyware site, providing spyware database.
Posted by: spyware removal | Monday, September 05, 2005 at 07:42 AM
why would company chose name so similar to something, thats so related to spyware?
Posted by: remove spyware | Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 08:51 AM