Why the switch from Miningco.com

by Gerald Burstyn

  What's in a name? If you're a mid-level portal struggling to create an identity with consumers, maybe everything.    That's at least the assumption being made by About.com, the portal known until this week as Miningco.com. The company changed its name on Monday to reflect its evolution from a portal into a "network of destinations that combine original content, search, and community," in the words of John Caplan, senior vice president of marketing at the New York-based company. How important is the name change? "It's a defining moment in the company's history," crows Caplan. "We believe that we have a strategy that will propel us to the top."   About.com is organized around some 600 topics, with each topic area hosted by a live guide who is an expert in the field. Company officials insist the new name is a better reflection of what the service offers.   "Is it a great name? No," says Bob Risse, CEO of Xceed Interactive, an internet consulting firm. "It's a boring name. It's not an edgy name."    But it still may do the trick, he allows. "Overall, the search engines are lousy," says Risse. "So the approach they're taking with the guides might result in a better selection."   Risse says he would choose to advertise on About.com for the same reasons he would pick a portal like Yahoo or Excite. Each provides a diverse audience that's been segmented into different interest groups. "You're reaching people who are looking for certain kind of information," he explains.   Jordan Bitterman, a media planner at Amarati Puris Lintas Digital, thinks the name change may make About.com more appealing to a broader internet audience. "I think something more abstract will serve them better in the future," he says. The switch to About.com was presaged by a mysterious advertising campaign that launched two weeks ago, featuring only the tag-line, "Hello, is there anybody out there?" (The answer: yes in the case of About.com because of its guides, no for all the other search engines.)   Caplan says the campaign was designed to draw attention to "user frustration" with existing search engines, which he says do an inadequate job of finding the most useful information on the web. "It's a lot easier to have a relationship with a person than a robot.''    The campaign appears to have worked, at least with advertisers, says Caplan. They've accepted the name-change and better appreciate how About.com differs from other search engines.   In March of this year, Media Metrix ranked Miningco.com the 24th largest web property.