What's in a name?

You may have heard it: We are no longer allowed to refer to Second Life *) as the title of a website. So I have decided to change the name of this blog to "White's Virtual Life" instead of "White's Second Life".

People say Linden Labs must have been afraid the name Second Life would go the same way as Kleenex or Xerox: No longer a brand, but more a product. Well, I must say I see no problem with Kleenex or Xerox. The same happened to Google: The word google is nowadays not just used as a noun, but even as a verb! So what? It makes Google into a search engine nobody will ever forget. Yahoo tried to reach this effect on purpose with their slogan: "Do you Yahoo?" but it did not work for them.

The way I see it, this change of name in the blog takes me one step away from Second Life. Sure, I am still a resident of Second Life, but with this name on the blog it can also be about other virtual reality, like VRML, VirtuoCity or even the World of Warcraft. :)

*) Second Life is a registered trademark of Linden Labs.