One for the hackers…

Yes, but the deeper you go into the origins of this term, the clearer becomes its potential as a brand with wider appeal. It’s a gorgeous word even if you didn’t know the meaning, but let’s dig into the meaning of the word to help make the brand proposition a little clearer..

The term ‘homoglyph’ is of Greek origin, stemming from the earliest writings of Western civilization, where books were laboriously copied out by hand. It basically means a character that appears almost identical to another character.

In writing, this typically translates to a letter that looks like another letter, but the term is also used in architecture to refer to any kind of mark (a line etched into a facade, a symbol carved on a door).

Extras:Logo.

Touchwords:Savvy. Seductive. Spiky.

How does a H0m0glYpН work?

Hack-minded actors take advantage of such similarities to trick internet users into visiting a more ‘artisanal’ version of a well-known site, syphoning off traffic and engagement intended for the authentic version of the website.

Such a move is known as a ‘homoglyph attack’, and we discuss it in greater detail in the blog article ‘How Homoglyph Attacks Deceive Internet Users’.

As regards the mechanics of how this works, let’s take and example of homoglyph..

The English letter ‘а’ and the Russian Cyrillic letter ‘а’. Given the font used to publish this text you’re reading and our ‘pair’ selection, you should be able to discern a slight difference between the English letter and its Russian homoglyph.

But would you spot it in that instant when you are being redirected to a particular site?
Like in amazon.com or аmazon.com…

Spotting them is really quite a tricky business and there are far harder tо detect homoglурhs out there. In fact, the last sentence contains three homoglyph ‘pairs’, with the alternate Cyrilic script letter in each drawn from: Macedonian, Ukrainian and Mongolian.

And what is the branding value?

As a value proposition, the brand Homoglyph.com thus plays on the technicals and context of homoglyphs in the modern world. Instantly situating its offering within the realm of the tech-savvy.

Your brand story is already halfway composed for you, too..

The world we live in has entered a new phase of things not appearing as they seem. From media, to government, to anonymous commerce, the veil has fallen, and the messaging is in-, un- and mis-intentionally clouding the cloudy clouds. An environment that sees Homoglyph.com well primed to play (in and on).

A bleeding edge tech project or a mover in the gaming space would thus work beautifull here. Any position where the hacker connotation is beneficial and the word itself functions as an kind of ‘in joke’ and rite of passage..

Assuming they are attracted enough to give the brand any time at all, there are two likely positive user scenarios that could emerge upon seeing Homoglyph.com for the first time:

1) You know the meaning of the word and so are part of the ‘in’ crowd — the word attracts you into the site, leading to potentially long-lasting brand association and/or affiliation.

or

2) You are intrigued by the word and want to learn its meaning — the word pushes you to strive to become part of the ‘in’ crowd, leading to heightened engagement, and therefore perhaps even more long-lasting association, affiliation.