Such is the dilemma facing any company, new or old, that wants a name with a Web presence. The problem is, we've run out of actual words. Lau isn't exaggerating. By most estimates, nearly every word in the English language is registered through InterNIC, the organization that regulates the domain-name system. If you're looking for a name that is short or that's descriptive of your services, good luck.
Popular nouns are big business.
Plus, you have to contend with online marketplaces that have tied up thousands of words and phrases in hopes of selling them off at a nice price. N's proximity to M on the keyboard. Microsoft is, after all, an online giant. You have to buy up everything around your name and everything that even sounds like your name, or else somebody can do a guerilla marketing campaign and register something that sounds like you in order to pick up wayward traffic. One company needed a word that expressed its skilled use of navigational tools and its ability to visualize complex relationships and move intelligently among them.