Google's First Name in Foreign Languages
Google just announced it's Chinese name - 谷歌 in Beijing on April 12. (谷 - gǔ - grain / corn / valley 歌 - gē - song) Together, Google's new Chinese name can be translated as "harvest song" and the Chinese pronounciation is very similiar to "google" in English. This is Google's first name in foreign languages which is purposed for the non-English speaking Chinese surfers. 谷歌.cn had been registered by Google.
This action has sparked a wave of registration of Guge-related domain names. Domain names that has the "guge" combination are all gone as of today.
Comments:
Comment from: Some people against GuGe [Visitor] · http://www.virtual-china.org/2006/04/the_people_agai.html
A grassroots anti-GuGe campaign is being waged by some hardcore Chinese Google fans. As of 10:40 pm Monday evening April 17, 944 had signed an online petition against using the new Chinese language name, GuGe "谷歌". 468 prefer the original English name (indeed, the Chinese version is the first time Google has changed its name to another language); 177 say they'd prefer 狗狗 (dogdog). They'd like the company to rethink the name. Rough translation:
"Google, we love you, but we do not love "GuGe"" [Song of the Grain].....
"The name "GuGe" makes us feel ill! Even more, it makes us disappointed!"
Google, do you hear us?
We believe that the name GuGe will influence the hearts and minds of Chinese Google users and Google supporters, and could even eventually affect Google's influence in China. We don't feel the company respected the vast majority of users during the process of choosing a Chinese name for Google, nor did we experience Google as having a consistently transparent, equal, and open corporate culture...
GuGe makes you think of:
in any case, it's something that is not google
it's a bird name
a poor peasant busy doing the spring plowing
...
link:
www.NOguge.com
"Google, we love you, but we do not love "GuGe"" [Song of the Grain].....
"The name "GuGe" makes us feel ill! Even more, it makes us disappointed!"
Google, do you hear us?
We believe that the name GuGe will influence the hearts and minds of Chinese Google users and Google supporters, and could even eventually affect Google's influence in China. We don't feel the company respected the vast majority of users during the process of choosing a Chinese name for Google, nor did we experience Google as having a consistently transparent, equal, and open corporate culture...
GuGe makes you think of:
in any case, it's something that is not google
it's a bird name
a poor peasant busy doing the spring plowing
...
link:
www.NOguge.com
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04/18/06 @ 10:26
Comment from: JimboY [Visitor]
Very interesting points... Matter of fact, the rumors I have heard is that when Kaifu went to the restaurant and asked for a proper receipt after a good meal, the restaurant asked for the company he works for in order to fill in the title. Kaifu said "google" and the waiter heard it as "JuGo" (or Zhu Gou as 猪狗 as "pig and dog" which is an insulting word in Chinese). Therefore, Google planned for a name change. This is really just rumors, no facts to back it up.
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04/19/06 @ 03:55 Comments are closed for this post.