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Funny enough, I was recently working with a startup that wanted to buy the ot.to domain. It looked like it was being used for directions to an event or someone's house no longer than a month ago.

We were also thinking of branding as Otto, and had a hard time finding anything about a company named Otto -- stealth mode indeed.



Directions to a BBQ at someone's country house, phone number included. I bet they made a pretty penny selling that domain.

MY GOD. The bbq was in 2002, and they kept the site up and running through 2015 before selling it. This is like a piece of history or something.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150709120858/http://ot.to/


Has anyone actually followed it? Did they find the remains of a barbecue - or vanish silently away?


My goodness driving directions used to be such a nightmare!


Or if someone on Otto's management team has parents with a vacation house in NY.


I thought about doing a little doxxing..


Otto [1] is the world largest mail order company[2], so not really a good name to pick anyway

[1] https://www.otto.de/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_GmbH


And the logos are eerily similar as well. I was thrown off track shortly and wondered what this traditional company was doing with uber until I realized, that someone would probably not have done enough research into the potential dangers of this branding.


Yes, here in Germany Otto is a household name despite mail order becoming a thing of the past.


Several other major Ottos:

https://www.ottomotors.com/

https://www.ottoproject.io/

https://github.com/square/otto

Disclaimer: I'm an employee of Clearpath, who are behind OTTO Motors.


Not to forget otto.de...


ah 1 1/2 years of my engineering life... good memories





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