WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.440 There's no doubt that the familiar Bitten Apple image 00:00:03.440 --> 00:00:06.800 has been an incredibly effective part of Apple's brand identity. 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:11.800 But why are they named Apple in the first place? And how about these other giants? 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:17.200 If you know anything about the history of Apple, you probably know that Steve Jobs was kind of a hippie. 00:00:17.200 --> 00:00:21.440 And around the time of Apple's formation, he visited a commune in Oregon, 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:25.680 where they grew, you guessed it, apples and maybe some other stuff. 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:29.720 And it didn't hurt that Jobs was also on a fruitarian diet at the time. 00:00:29.720 --> 00:00:33.240 The name Apple also sounded unintimidating and fun, 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:36.560 and Jobs liked it, since choosing a name that started with A 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:41.960 meant they'd appear near the front of the phone book. And remember, this is 1976 we're talking about. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:46.800 The other big A tech company, Amazon, chose its name for similar reasons, 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:52.240 minus the fruit commune stuff. Jeff Bezos originally named his company Cadabra, 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:57.280 as in Abra Cadabra, the Pokemon. But after someone misheard it as Cadabra, 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:02.120 and a friend suggested his alternative idea of relentless sounded too sinister, 00:01:02.120 --> 00:01:07.080 Bezos cracked open the dictionary and picked Amazon, because it would appear at the top of many lists 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:10.980 since it started with A. Bezos also liked the exotic sound of the name, 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:16.640 as well as the fact the massive Amazon river could imply that he had the world's largest selection 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:19.720 of books. Okay. 00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:23.480 Google also got its name as a way to suggest a large scale project. 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.500 The word Google had already existed, 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:31.040 and means the number you get when you take a one and write 100 zeros behind it. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:36.040 Larry Page and Sergey Brin liked the name since Google was originally only a search engine, 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:39.480 and they wanted their brand message to be that you could use Google to access 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:42.840 huge amounts of information. They just changed the spelling 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:45.840 to something they liked better. Speaking of liking something better, 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:51.040 Facebook got its start because Mark Zuckerberg was frustrated that the administration at Harvard, 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:55.880 where he was a student, didn't offer an online version of, well, a Facebook. 00:01:55.880 --> 00:02:01.120 Traditional Facebooks are just printed directories given out at colleges containing students photos 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:07.240 and a small amount of information to help everyone get to know each other. Facebook, the website, was originally a more detailed, 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:10.480 digitized version of a paper Facebook that Zuck built 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:14.800 because he didn't have any faith in the Harvard administration to do it themselves. 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:19.280 And if you've seen the movie, The Social Network, you might remember that it portrayed Napster founder, 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:24.760 Sean Parker, who later joined Zuck's team, as the person who convinced him to drop the 00:02:24.760 --> 00:02:28.180 from thefacebook.com's original name. 00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:31.560 The story of Microsoft's name might not seem that interesting. 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.780 It's just derived from microcomputer and software. 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:40.440 But did you know they actually wrote the operating system for the first successful home personal computer? 00:02:40.440 --> 00:02:46.700 It was called the Altair 8800 and Microsoft OS for it called Altair basic 00:02:46.700 --> 00:02:51.820 was successful enough for the fledgling company to make a name for itself back in the late 1970s 00:02:51.820 --> 00:02:56.700 as a software developer for smaller systems. Larger mainframes and mini computers 00:02:56.700 --> 00:03:00.580 were more common at the time. But after Microsoft struck a deal with IBM 00:03:00.580 --> 00:03:06.060 to have their DOS operating system power the original IBM PC, the rest was history 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:10.060 as they still led the way in microcomputer OSes thanks to Windows. 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:14.180 But lest you think we're going to leave you with just the origin stories of the big five, 00:03:14.180 --> 00:03:20.740 we have a bonus for those of you that remember PC maker Gateway, which hit its zenith in 2001 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:24.580 after shipping PCs in those familiar cow patterned boxes 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:28.420 all over the US. But why did they use a cow theme in the first place? 00:03:28.420 --> 00:03:32.960 Well, Gateway was actually formed in a farmhouse in Sioux City, Iowa. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:38.300 And the cow box wasn't just a reference to farm life in the Midwest, but also that the founder's family 00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:42.400 had been in the cattle trade for generations. And at a time when there were lots of low cost 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:47.700 PC manufacturers cranking out systems that suffered from quality and reliability issues, 00:03:47.700 --> 00:03:51.260 the homie farm motif made Gateway seem approachable 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:55.500 and trustworthy, both essential bovine qualities. 00:03:55.500 --> 00:03:59.420 Hey, thanks for watching the video, guys. Like it if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it. 00:03:59.420 --> 00:04:04.540 Check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions, and don't forget to subscribe and follow. 00:04:04.540 --> 00:04:08.980 It's gonna change your life, okay? It's too easy steps.