[mijoharas]

So, I can't find the reference googling it now, but apparently Jeff Bezos really wanted Alexa to be called "Amazon" (pretty similar to Ok Google).

I think he didn't want to dilute the brand, and have the association front of mind or something, but the people on the alexa project managed to convince him to go with alexa instead (as it's confusing, and arguably a better name).

I think that's part of the reason for the different wake words, one of which is amazon (though the confusion with people called alexa is likely a much bigger one. It's probably why they have amazon in that list at least).

[bretthowell]

Very interesting. I can’t help feel the irony given Alexa itself was a brand Bezos acquired* in 1999 to get in on being a Search Engine just when Google was on the rise...

I can hear it now “We finally have a use for that brand we spent all that money on..”

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet

[mijoharas]

Oh wow, I didn't know that, they're the guys that do alexa traffic rankings. Didn't really know it was owned by amazon. Thanks for the info!