On my most recent peek at the budding exhibit hall, I noticed an exceedingly colorful display I hadn’t seen before. It turned out to be the in-construction Tucows booth or, in this case, the OpenSRS booth – a bit of a monument to the big branding move the company is making starting today.
The look of the booth coincides with an announcement the company sent out over the wires this morning about the re-launch of the OpenSRS brand, though it has been the name of the company’s domains platform for years.
I’d heard a bit about this, but today was the first official word on it. According to the press release, the company is announcing “the return of the OpenSRS name for its wholesale reseller services group,” which as far as I understand it is the large bulk of Tucows business.
Along with domains, the OpenSRS brand now covers SSL certificates and email, along with its new “personal names” service. That is, as far as resellers are concerned, Tucows is now OpenSRS.
Tucows seems to still be operating the same software download site at tucows.com, but the reseller.tucows.com domain is now redirecting to the nice-looking new site at opensrs.com.
According to the posting on that site, the company feels “we feel this name best captures our heritage as a provider of services to hosting companies.”
As you can see from the pictures, the imagery involves a cute little milkman type character and an old-fashioned looking logo. It all seems intended to evoke the company’s history and reputation among resellers, as well as a sort of friendly service approach. The press release says it’s meant to recall a 50s-era company and “a time when service mattered most.”
The character they describe in the press release as “iconic” might actually be a little bit more generic, but it’s a nice looking booth. I like it.
I’ll have to find somebody and ask them today, but I also get the sense that we’ll generally be referring to Tucows as OpenSRS from now on.
Justin Lee is going to be talking to Tucows tomorrow about the change, so we’ll have a more informed discussion of the change up.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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