The curious name Ozlo debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 2016, stuck around for one more year, then disappeared again:
- 2019: unlisted
- 2018: unlisted
- 2017: 6 baby boys named Ozlo
- 2016: 5 baby boys named Ozlo [debut]
- 2015: unlisted
- 2014: unlisted
What was the influence?
A short-lived artificial intelligence startup called Ozlo.
The company was founded in late 2013, but it didn’t start making headlines until October of 2016, when the Ozlo personal assistant app was launched.
The face of the app was a wide-eyed, light blue creature named Ozlo. Initially he helped users find restaurants and recipes, but, as time went on, he moved beyond food and learned to talk about other topics (like movies and weather).
One reporter, recounting a discussion with Ozlo’s CEO, said: “[T]he two of us immediately had a nice laugh about the repetitive female names for assistants in the marketplace right now — Ozlo, by name alone, is already something different.”
Ozlo was also different from the “female” personal assistants (Alexa, Cortana, Siri, and Viv) in that it performed searches “from a position of information neutrality” — that is, it extracted information from many competing sources, as opposed to a handful of preferred sources.
But the startup was acquired by Facebook in July of 2017, and the Ozlo app — less than a year after being introduced — was shuttered as part of the deal.
If the company had remained independent, do you think the baby name Ozlo would have continued popping up in the data?
Sources: Introducing Ozlo by Charles Jolley, Ozlo Week 1 by Charles Jolley, Ozlo, the Assistant That Works for You, Launches on iOS and Web, Ozlo AI assistant is the new underdog filling the void left by Viv, Facebook buys Ozlo to boost its conversational AI efforts, Ozlo – Cruchbase Profile
(h/t Becca)
