Back in March, Adobe was making lots of noise about a new piece of technology they were pushing then called Apollo. To avoid drowning you in buzzwords: Apollo lets you create desktop apps using web programming. Kind of neat.
But Apollo was always just a code name, and we were threatened told that the project would be renamed sometime later.
Today, Adobe [announced](http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/06/11/apollo/index.php) the official name: [AIR](http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/).
This is problematic for handful of reasons.
One: “AIR” is a [fairly generic word](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_%28disambiguation%29). It’s the stuff we breathe. It’s a quality or manner. It can be a musical composition. It’s also a [terribly popular French electronic music act](http://www.intairnet.org/). Best of luck to Adobe as they try to [make page 1 on Google](http://www.google.com/search?q=air).
Two: Despite the acronym expanding to “Adobe Integrated Runtime”, it is being referred to repeated on the web page as “Adobe® AIR™”. That’s right: *Adobe Adobe Integrated Runtime*. Rolls off the tongue as easily as *automated teller machine machine*.
Three: I would argue calling it a *runtime*. Perhaps a *runtime enviroment*, like Java. But this is a geek quibble.
Finally: You would think “Adobe AIR” was a unique name. [It’s not.](http://www.adobeair.com/)
A golf clap for the renaming team. Brav-o.