The creative naming habits of big web portals

Google is working on a Flipboard clone called “Propeller.” This is yet another example of a product from one of the big web portals having the same name as a product from another big web portal.

Kind of a surprise, given how creatively named “Google” and “Yahoo” seemed in the first place. But not really, given how uncreative the portals tend to be these days. Here’s a short matrix, which I’ll update as new offenses are committed.

	AOL	Facebook	Google	Yahoo
Buzz	—	—	Kind of a Twitter or Facebook clone, launched Feb. 2010	Kind of a Digg clone, launched Feb. 2008
Places	—	Kind of a Foursquare clone, launched Aug. 2010	Kind of a Yelp clone, launched Apr. 2010	—
Play	Music app for mobile, launched Mar. 2011	—	Kind of an iTunes clone, launched Mar. 2012	Music app for mobile, launched Jun. 2011
Propeller	Kind of a Digg clone, launched Jun. 2006 as “Netscape,” renamed in 2007	—	Kind of a Flipboard clone, launching 2011	—

Also: The most impressive thing about Yahoo is that it still exists