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Where did the name "@U2" come from?

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spooked1oo:
It just seems pretty random. Where'd the idea come from originally?

briscoetheque:
Random?

Random would be calling it $tr7eyyyrt6w88eruiee@@jdjhgj$.com

I suspect it may have something to do with being one of the earlier U2 sites on the internet, and the @ symbol being something rarely used until the advent of internet and email.

@U2.

Simple. And not that random. Just a hunch.

m2:
The old address used to be http://users.owt.com/pleeker/U2.html until 1998, when I realized it was time to get a domain name that was easier to type. I think it was just me and maybe one other person on the staff at that time.

I don't remember the whole thought process, but the first rule was that the domain had to be short. Second rule was that I wasn't going to register U2.com since the band should have that -- or maybe they already did, I'm not sure.

I was working for a local ISP/webhosting company at the time with a great, short domain (OWT.com) and I also knew that your email address was really a strong identifier. You were either @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com, or you had your own ISP's email "@" -- anyway, the point is that, in my head, since I worked for an ISP, the "@" symbol was central to your online identity.

It was also unique for a website at the time -- the @ symbol was only associated with email then (unlike today when Twitter has basically made it a primary piece of the web).

So it had pretty much everything I was looking for, and we went with it. Very happily so. :)

spooked1oo:

--- Quote from: m2 on January 19, 2012, 11:38:17 AM ---The old address used to be http://users.owt.com/pleeker/U2.html until 1998, when I realized it was time to get a domain name that was easier to type. I think it was just me and maybe one other person on the staff at that time.

I don't remember the whole thought process, but the first rule was that the domain had to be short. Second rule was that I wasn't going to register U2.com since the band should have that -- or maybe they already did, I'm not sure.

I was working for a local ISP/webhosting company at the time with a great, short domain (OWT.com) and I also knew that your email address was really a strong identifier. You were either @hotmail.com or @yahoo.com, or you had your own ISP's email "@" -- anyway, the point is that, in my head, since I worked for an ISP, the "@" symbol was central to your online identity.

It was also unique for a website at the time -- the @ symbol was only associated with email then (unlike today when Twitter has basically made it a primary piece of the web).

So it had pretty much everything I was looking for, and we went with it. Very happily so. :)

--- End quote ---

Thanks for the info!

jenniferh aka jen:
Matt - I love your tagline!!! ;D

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