That’s Zero, X-E-R-O

This firm’s name (and domain name) is hard to spell.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday and heard an ad for Xero (prounounced Zero), an online modest business accounting program similar to Quickbooks Online.

Xero is a nice looking name. It’s short and easy to remember once you see it.

The problem is that it literally fails the radio test. As a result, regarding a quarter of the commercial was spent explaining how to spell it.

“That’s Zero… X-E-R-O”.

So it’s not really that good of a domain name. If you tell someone to visit Xero.com and don’t tell them how to spell it, they’ll end up at Zero.com.

Google owns (but doesn’t use) Zero.com. It would be a real bummer for Xero if someone bought Zero.com from Google and used it for a financial products or service. That’s an entirely logical use for Zero.com.