The Venice Project Becomes Joost

We have just got to know that The Venice Project is replacing its codename with an absolutely new brand - Joost. The information is already in all the important Web 2.0 blogs - and they actually found it out before it was officially on The Venice Project (now Joost) blog.

Although the service is still in private beta (and I have not received an invitation I asked for - please!) the interesting thing is that the logo does not have a usual Web 2.0 Beta - a TM mark instead. This is very peculiar. An obvious reason for sticking with a code name (where Venice was actually only the name of a hotel conference room where the project's founders decided to start the venture) could be negotiating the prices for several domain names - and trying to buy the best domain for less money, I guess. But having a TM means that there was a certain time involved for trademark registration.

But it still seems to be a smart move: the service is in private beta and everyone can only cover it once until the public release (or twice if a blogger gets an invitation to beta testing). But here we have a new reason to write about it - and the interest to the project is gaining momentum although nothing actually changes with the project progress - at least for the general public.

With the new name comes a new website, while the previous one still exists as of writing this post and does not even redirect us to Joost automatically.

So we'll now have to change the bookmarks in our browsers… and continue waiting for the beta testing invitations. Unless they give us a new reason to cover The Ven… oops - Joost.

Update: I have just received a press release from Joost and it contains another version of their logo. And the usual Beta sign is here - fine, it looks much more Web 2.0-ish now.