00:00Welcome to Truth and Trends.
00:09Today, Charles and I are taking a look at a fun topic.
00:12The hilarious origins of some of the world's biggest brands.
00:15We're going to start with a company that you use every single day, Google.
00:18That's a great name, isn't it? Short, catchy, and it's even a verb now.
00:23But I heard that it wasn't always called Google.
00:25That's right. The original name was Backrub.
00:28The founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, chose the name because the search engine analyzed backlinks
00:34to figure out the importance of a page.
00:36But they wisely changed it to Google, which is a misspelling of Google,
00:39a number with a one followed by 100 zeros.
00:42Thank goodness for that. Backrub is not a good brand name.
00:45I agree. And speaking of names that almost were, Amazon's original name was Kadabra.
00:50No way. Like, Abracadabra?
00:52Yes, but their lawyer misheard it as Kadabra.
00:55So Jeff Bezos went back to the dictionary, and he found Amazon.
00:58He liked it because it was exotic, and it started with an A,
01:01which would put it at the top of an alphabetical list.
01:03I have a limited knowledge of this, but it's a good example of how a small detail can change everything.
01:08It is.
01:09What about the LL Bean boot? That's a classic.
01:12A total classic. The founder, Leon Leon Wood Bean, created the boot to solve a problem, wet feet.
01:19But the first batch he mailed out was 90% effective.
01:2290%? He must have been a little worried.
01:25He was. He had to refund all of the customer's money. But he persevered, and he created the boot that we all know and love today.
01:32So, a brand that's known for its quality started with a hilariously failed first batch. That's a great story.
01:37It is. And it's a reminder that a lot of success stories start with a lot of failure.
01:41So we've covered the bizarre and the hilarious. It's a great reminder that a lot of things we take for granted have a very surprising history.
01:47It sure is. So thank you for being with us today.
01:49Our pleasure. We'll see you next time.
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