Everywhere you read online these days the catch phrase & debate in the marketing circles is content curation. What it is, if it's ethical, the best practices and other such over intellectualized matters. The writers and articles I've enjoyed are the ones that step out those issues and focus on the doing side of it.
Content curation is the taking of one style or source of digital information (mostly website articles) and repositioning the content on another site.
Some sites simply lift content from one site and post the best parts to their web page in hopes of increasing ad revenue. Most red-blooded males have frequented such sites which to their delight offer a treasure trove of password free pretties & download options.
Many of the most popular online destinations (Mashable, Gawker, MSN & Facebook) rely heavily on the concept to draw users back to their content streams.
In all this people have deconstructed every logistical & theoretical consideration but have not even mentioned that the practice is not a new one. The Sear's catalog use by the rural American merchants is one of the clearest examples in recent history of the act of content curation. Content curation began when we first came down from the trees and gathered things under our hairy arms for survival.
For a great example of content curation in the retail world check out Mxyplyzyk. It's one of my favorite stores in NYC for little gifts and personal indulgences for myself. Most my holiday gifts to my relatives and mirth minded loved ones usually comes from the shelves of this little store on the border of the West Village & Chelsea. Anyone who has visited my rest room will recognize the store's wares.
Mxyplyzyk - a Superman name that's Super Bad
Submitted by our Sous Chef, Caroline “Ruby Sneakers” Leavitt, our most outrageous inductee into the Name Shame Hall of Fame ever is a quirky Greenwich Village gift boutique named Mxyplyzyk. The store claims "the name is inspired by a character in early Superman comics." Ironically, they didn't use the actual character's name,(Mr.) Mxyzptlk, (pictured below) which is spelled differently than "Mxyplyzyk," (perhaps thinking they might head off a C&D letter from D.C. Comics), because you cannot, after all, confuse Mxyplyzyk with Myxzptlk.
Mxyplyzyk hits all the criteria to qualify for the Name Shame Hall of Fame and is a leading contender for the annual Head Scratcher™ trophy, awarded each December by Eat My Words. Here's why:
- It’s difficult to pronounce the first time you see it (actually every time you see it)
- It’s meaningless unless someone explains it to you (even then)
- It's forced and unnatural sounding (oh boy)
- It has an unnatural spelling (ya think? )
- It’s just damn annoying (did we say oh boy yet?)
Inc. magazine briefly discussed Mxyplyzyk in an article entitled "What's in a Name"?
Here is an except from the full article:
Kevin Brynan spends a large chunk of his day explaining over and over
again how to pronounce the word Mxyplyzyk--the name of his gift shop in
New York City's Greenwich Village. As it happens, the name (which is
pronounced "mix-ee-pliz-ik," in case you were stumped) is so long that
Brynan's business card is a three-part foldout. The unusual moniker,
created by a co-founder and inspired by a Superman comic book
character, is fitting for a shop with unusual items like pug dog
"puggy" banks and warped vinyl record serving bowls. On the other hand,
it's hard to tell your friends about a store when you can't pronounce
the name, and good luck finding it online. Ultimately, Brynan thinks
the unusual name has been a plus, highlighting the store's quirkiness
and helping to draw foot traffic. Nonetheless, he adds, "sometimes I
wish we'd named it John Doe."
So, welcome to The Hall Mxyplyzyk. It's a rare name that is so very wrong on every level and makes us scratch our heads super hard. However, we can give credit where credit is due. We are quite sure that every extension of the domain name was available on GoDaddy for $9.95, which is a deciding factor for many companies when choosing a name. More on that later...
Read more at eatmywords.typepad.com
