There are some good examples in this slide deck, but it seems to be lacking a deeper explanation of "why" the author came to each conclusion.<p>There is a reason companies choose abstract words for their products. If the Wii was still "Nintendo Revolution", it would quickly become un-revolutionary. If Twitter was called "Status" or "Update", they would be narrowly defining their intent for the product. Abstract names don't carry the baggage of a definition.<p>As an aside: I am coming to hate these slide decks filled with one-liners and little context. Why can't we get a transcript of what the speaker was saying for each slide?
I hated when Gmail changed "Older" and "Newer" in favor of "<" and ">".<p>It wasn't "Previous" and "Next", since it wasn't clear, but with the UI redesign they skipped that consideration.
Be sure to click through the slides. The blog post may not be overwhelmingly useful, but the presentation has plenty of helpful examples of interface copywriting done right (and wrong, too).