Catwalk? SiteBites?Nufo? This is better than “RSS”?

According to Amy Gahran, RSS needs a better name.

These are suggestions for a new colloquial name for RSS, since acronyms are inherently geeky and tend to alienate nontechnical people. The intention of this contest is to come up with a common-usage term that will help make RSS more accessible to a mass audience – similar to how the term “World Wide Web” fosters greater popular interest than “HTML.”

Huh? How exactly does one equate ‘World Wide Web’ to ‘HTML’? Oh yes, I always get mixed up and say “I will SMTP this to you” rather than “I am e-mailing you”!

Anyhow, Amy has created a contest to bless the new name. How about a sampling:

Fread, Freshware, gates, gen, GetFeed, g-info, Glue, Grapevine, grate, Headline Broadcast Format, Headline Synch Service, Heads&Tales, Hotlink, ReadyHeads, Real News, Real Syndication System, Relay, Remote Headline Feed, ReSScue, Resurrective Realtime, Channel2U, CheckPost, Chum, Cindycation, c-info, Clarion, Cleanfeed, sitevoices, Skimit, SkipJack, Slide, Slingshot, Snatchet, Snippet List, snipples, Source, Speed Line, efeed, eFeel, e-fit, electronic flux, Elert, E-News, E-news To Go, feedeef, Feeder, Feeder Select, FeederWeeder, FeedLine, FeedMachine, FeedMe…

Wow, much better.

It’s all fun, but look Amy, you cannot rename a meme that is out of the bag. RSS is out there and is less recognized just because it is new.

Do you have problems with zip code, scuba, radar, laser, sonar, snafu? All acronyms that have become words. Language is a leaving, evolving beast, not set in stone.

Anyhow, Amy’s contest ends February 7. Expect the world of RSS to change forever after the results have been contentiously posted.