Dropbox makes me think of storage. iPhone is straight to the point as well as Evernote. Of every application you know with a large user base can you tell what the product does by it's name?<p>So why does it seem that so many companies give up such a valuable piece information into what their product does for a shorter domain name? To sound unique? If there is no connection between the name and the product how likely am I to remember the name when I try to talk about it?
It might be worth pointing out that this is not a recent development. For example, take the names of text editors:<p>- Obvious: Word, Notes, Writer, ed, Notepad etc.<p>- Less obvious: vi, vim, Emacs, nano/pico<p>Or car brands:<p>- ‘Obvious’: General Motors, BMW, Volkswagen<p>- Less Obvious: Mercedes, Ford, Audi<p>So this is definitely not a recent phenomenon and I hence doubt that you could link it to the length of domain names.
When it comes to retail, I have a self-rule about never buying from any retailer whose name makes it obvious what they sell.<p>"amazon", "ebay", "Tesco" don't make it obvious.<p>"PC world", "Phones4u", "Lawyers4u", "buycheapstuffonline" make it obvious.<p>I think a unique name helps build a brand over a descriptive name which to me often sounds cheap.
I don't know for certain, but I get the sense that "intellectual property" concerns play into naming pretty heavily these days. That is, folks don't want to hassle with trademark dust-ups, so they use semi-random nonsense names to avoid even appearing to infringe.