

Don't confuse it with Quickster, QuickStar, Quik-Star, Kwik Star, or Kwikster. - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2011/09/19/qwikster-not-to-be-confused-with-quixtar-quickstar-kwikster-quickster-kwik-star-quik-star-or-kickstar/

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uptown
So they don't own @Quikster .... and they don't own quickster.com (the likely
typo that their users are going to make). Even if you accept their premise
that it's the right move from a business standpoint, they're dropping the ball
on ensuring their customers don't get lost in the transition.

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shakes
Even worse to me, they don't own @Qwikster and looking at the timeline of the
person who has it now is just... scary.

This seems like an all around PR nightmare. Regardless of whether or not the
name is terrible, why wouldn't they shore up their name on major social media
players before making the announcement? Were they worried if they did this
word may leak?

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uptown
This is a perfect example of how much this will confuse customers. I'd meant
to type @Qwikster in my post, but got their new name wrong.

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hollerith
I am tempted to think that maybe the DVD business should have been called
Mailflix or Flix by Mail or Next-day Flix.

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phoboslab
I have the feeling that they're trying to separate both companies completely
in the long run. The DVD by mail business is ultimately doomed. Why use DVD by
mail services when you can directly stream movies?

Granted, Qwikster will still stay around for a while, but I have no doubt that
it will slowly die, just like Blockbuster right now.

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Jun8
Maybe not as soon as you think. Studios keep a tight control over which movies
can get digitized, some will not release some of their old movies to
streaming.

Blockbuster dies rather quickly mostly because of Netflix. So, in order to
predict DVD by mail business dying you have to show the alternative. Streaming
currently is by no means a match. One could see Redbox putting more advanced
kiosks with more selections (there was talk about kiosks with thousands of
titles that would burn the DVD while you shopped) which might be threat.

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hollerith
To start burning DVDs while the customer waits probably puts Redbox in the
same difficult negotiating position with the content owners that streaming
movies does.

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perezda
took me 3 tries to find their website. also funny that they chose that name...
given that streaming is a hell of a lot qwicker than mail.

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0x12
snailflix.com is still free...

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socratic
Is this what extremely good organic SEO looks like?

Most of the other names are not really used on the Internet at all. Now, when
anyone fails to spell qwikster, they're going to find this article. It seems
like they rank for every misspelled query now.

(Google may start spell correcting to qwikster, though for the moment they
seem to spell correct to quickstar when they do.)

Are there other variants of this technique?

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ryan42
Don't forget Quixtar!

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artmageddon
Must we remember them? :)

Any time I've heard about them(outside of friends who were suckered into their
schemes try loop me in as well) it's all been through sites that have
complained about how bad they suck. I'm surprised they're still around.

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cjdavis
Netflix is well known for its amazing delivery system, and this new name
emphasizes that - not what product is being delivered at all. I think Qwikster
will be expanding into shipment of all sorts of non DVD movie type things.
They are already going to be doing video games.

That said, yes Qwikster sounds stupid. But the same could be said for such
words as Google, iPad, etc.

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Roboprog
Trickster?!?

