Formerly Known As... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Confinity

The money transfer service was originally launched in 1999 under the name Confinity. In March 2000, Confinity merged with X.com to become X.com. By 2002, the name had been changed to PayPal which used eBay as its platform for e-commerce. PayPal was then acquired by eBay from 2002 through 2014 when it split off on its own.

Answer: Marathon (UK)

The candy bar Marathon was first marketed in the United Kingdom until July 1990. Then the Mars company took over the product and changed the name to Snickers, a name used by the Mars Company since 1930, after Frank Mars' favorite horse.

Answer: AuctionWeb

Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb in September 1995. Its goal was to provide a site to bring "together buyers and sellers in an honest and open marketplace". The first item sold was a broken laser pointer (go figure?). In September 1997, after having sold one million items, AuctionWeb was officially renamed eBay.

Answer: Quantum Computer Services

On May 24, 1985, Jim Kinsey founded an online services firm called Quantum Computer Services. In 1989, the name was changed to America Online. The online service was marketed to people who were not familiar with computers (i.e. most everyone at that time). In 2006, the official name became AOL. In 2015, Verizon bought the company.

Answer: Blue Ribbon Sports

In 1964, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman from the University of Oregon founded Blue Ribbon Sports. BRS was originally created as a distributor for a Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Tiger (now ASICS). On May 30, 1971, the name was officially changed to Nike, named after the Greek goddess of victory. Nike has become the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel. "Swoosh".

Answer: Jerry's Guide to the WWW

If you knew that Jerry Yang and David Filo were responsible for Yahoo!, then this was probably easy for you. Actually, in January 1994, two Stanford grad students created a website whose full name was "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". It served as a directory of other websites. Just three months later, the site was renamed Yahoo! ("Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle").

Answer: Brad's Drink

In 1893, pharmacist Caleb Bradham of North Carolina was experimenting with fountain drinks to help in digestion and energy, and "Brad's Drink" was born. In 1898, the drink was renamed Pepsi-Cola, incorporating 'dyspepsia' with the kola nuts used in making the drink. In 1931, the company entered bankruptcy and was ultimately bought by the president of the candy manufacturer, Loft's.

Answer: Research In Motion

In 1984, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin founded Research in Motion (RIM) in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The company was a mobile communications pioneer which changed the way we communicated. In fact, their technology went on to win them both an Emmy and an Oscar for technical achievement. On January 13, 2013, Research in Motion officially rebranded itself as BlackBerry.

Answer: Sound of Music

Richard Schultze and James Wheeler opened an electronics store in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1966. Specializing in high fidelity stereos, the store was called The Sound of Music (possibly based on the popular 1965 film). By 1978 they had expanded to nine stores. In 1983, the company was renamed Best Buy Company, expanding its products to include home appliances and VCRs.

Answer: BackRub

BackRub is perhaps one of the oddest original names for a company. In 1996, as a research project, Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin created a new search engine. Referring to the technology involved, i.e., "backlink tracking", they called it BackRub.

The following year, the name was changed to Google, a take off on 'googol' which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. In 2015, Google became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet.