July 17, 2007 4:00 AM PDT
Gadgets aren't the only tech products susceptible to being disappointments in spite of cool names. Take Truemors, the "social information" (i.e., gossip) site founded by former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki: that's one heck of a clever name, and Kawasaki built up significant buzz thanks to the star power of his own moniker. The concept of the site, like the name, is pretty cool--you submit tidbits of information, and then Truemors users rank them up or down (ala Digg) based on whether they think the rumors are true.
That'd be all good and fun, except that Truemors was almost immediately swamped by spam; bloggers criticized its lack of focus; and all Kawasaki could seem to talk about was how he'd managed to put the site together on a shoestring budget. (Who cares if it sucks? It was cheap!) Yeah, not particularly clever.
Photo by Truemors.com