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Quote:Andrew Frame had several criteria for the name of his VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) startup. It had to be universally pronounceable, memorable, and short—ideally, no more than four letters and two syllables. Of course, the dot-com domain name also had to be available.

There are now more than 71.1 million registered .com domains—about three times the number of domains registered using .net, .org, .info, .biz, or .us combined. Every possible two- and three-character dot-com domain name was claimed years ago, as was virtually every word in the English dictionary.

So Frame, much like an increasing number of entrepreneurs, has been playing with sounds in hopes of hitting upon a unique combination of vowels and consonants that he could turn into a brand—and a top-ranked result on Google (GOOG). It's a strategy that's given rise to a generation of startups with monikers more Teletubbies than high-tech—Lala, Lulu, Zlio, Zoho, Ning, and Zing...