How we came up with the name GrabDuck

Interested in how brand names appear in the IT world? Today we will talk about our experience — how we came up with the name for our service. What drove us to the decision to name our remarkable bookmarking service GrabDuck.

So you’re probably thinking, why would someone grab a duck and not just try and catch it? And how does the name #grabduck actually relate to bookmarking? Hmm, let’s see…

What would someone normally do when trying to invent a cool new name for their service? Well a great place to start is understanding what your service is doing; it’s strengths, it’s weaknesses and it’s limitations.

As part of our basic requirements for coming up with GrabDuck, we wanted to identify the reasons our service existed. Why do people use bookmarking services? The simple answer is — they want to save internet content to return to at a later date. Essentially the user wants to find what they need without wasting too much time. We have always kept this at the front of our mind when working on making GrabDuck what it is today.

With that in mind, it was imperative we give the user the ability to easily save and search through their content. The goal? Save the user’s time at all costs. But how to do this…

First of all, the service needs to be invisible. Yes exactly, invisible! The best tool is the one you do not notice, it just helps you do your work. Therefore we abandoned the main sinkers of time in today’s web services to create a service which is more streamlined.

Less high resolution images, auto playable video and content streams which eat away at your free time. Does the interface still need style? Yes! For GrabDuck we went for a minimalist design, taking away the time spent organising collections, folder structures and manually assigning tags, to give a clean and simple experience.

Our user’s time is precious; they can spend it doing something more useful, so GrabDuck needs to just work. The key point here? GrabDuck pays attention to what the user likes and must deliver a service which is intuitive, easy and gets the job done!

We wanted to create an internet boundary, a place to operate already known behavioural patterns learnt from GrabDuck’s big sister — the search engine. We see GrabDuck’s job as providing the user with the own “mini-internet” — a single place, with all the content they need.

After all, GrabDuck is primarily a tool for working with internet articles. And what should a good tool do? Be inconspicuous, not need any special attention and just work!

So, the search for a great name resumed in our heads — GrabDuck is the place for the user to create their “mini-internet” where they can store their internet. A place to store something — Hmm, a jar? A money box? A stash? What about a Piggy Bank? You know, where you save your treasure, to some of us a good article is like a shiny piece of treasure!

We explored this idea for a long time, we even created several sketches of our new logo, working off of the child’s piggy bank reference. The more we thought and the more we drew we realised it wasn’t what we needed.

Yes the idea went into the logo well but it required some explanation. People would still say- “Yeah, I get it! You’re storing finance stuff, right?” Or they would ask us — “So, what are you? A tax advisor?”

After all this confusion, we threw the pig’s penny idea into the trash and we were left with nothing.

But suddenly, everything changed overnight. A friend from the US called and said “You guys owe me a coffee, I know what you’re working on and I have the perfect name.” We were intrigued and let him explain.

“Have you heard of the Grab-a-Duck game?” We were confused, “What game do you mean? Why the duck and why should it be caught?”

“It’s everywhere” he said, “Have you really never seen the Grab-a-Duck game? Everyone must have seen it in their childhood — it’s an arcade game! A big box, filled with yellow ducks, put in your coin and try to grab the one you like with a big mechanical claw!”

“It’s not an easy game but it makes every child happy! Here they filled them with yellow ducks, you should know the kind, they have them all over Berlin as souvenirs. They’re everywhere, right?”

It was then we realized, this is it! After all, this is what GrabDuck offers. The user simply throws all of their internet articles (their ducks) into a big stash and they wait there, ready for their hour to be chosen by the “mechanical claw.”

So finally we had it, we would call it GrabDuck. We realised straight away it was a great name because it was interesting; the minute we said GrabDuck, everyone was curious.

So when the user is ready, they simply “take their coin,” throw it into the machine and search for the specific duck they need. Since we already knew the problems with finding bookmarks in other platforms we decided that in GrabDuck, as opposed to the claw machines, we would let you win!

Whilst you don’t need a coin, or the skill to control a mechanical claw we wanted to keep the idea exactly the same. Well, with one big exception — Finding an article in GrabDuck is much easier than beating the Grab-a-Duck machine!

With GrabDuck you get a prize with every play — The ability to achieve your goals and save time thanks to your inconspicuous assistant. In other words — GrabDuck just works!

And yes, in the same way the Grab-a-Duck machine requires just 2 clicks, GrabDuck allows you to store your favourite content just as fast. Don’t just take my word for it, give it a try! Your favourite content, where you need it, in just 2 clicks!

So the name was found, the domain was registered and the service came to life. We could write a lot about how wonderful the service is now, we are proud of what GrabDuck is today! But we have one great rule — it’s better to make your own opinion, the one based on your own feelings.

Now it’s up to you! GrabDuck is free, so check it out and take your chance to catch your very own ducks. The difference? You’re guaranteed to win with GrabDuck, the bookmarking platform which just works.