As a social franchise, SSE’s brand is important…and is included in our license agreements (along with brand guidelines and the rest). And, as we look internationally as well as to the UK, trademarking in different countries becomes a relevant concern. Unfortunately, our acronym / abbreviation is an increasingly common one, as I discovered whilst buying shaving oil this weekend. That’s right, King of Shaves have "Shave Surface Enhancing" technology. Or, as they call it, SSE.

I was already aware of Scottish and Southern Energy, whose website makes great reading from our point of view: "SSE has consent to build a 288 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in Germany"; "SSE supplies electricity and gas to 8.45 million customers"; "SSE owns and operates the UK’s largest onshore gas storage facility at Hornsea in East Yorkshire". Who knew?

Then there are newcomers, like the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign. Slightly less impressive here ("SSE Float at Bishop’s Stortford Carnival"; "Where can I buy SSE’s Calendar, Christmas Cards and Notelets?" etc) but a worthy cause, one could say.

Here’s a big threat: Simple Sharing Extensions for RSS; if Microsoft start bandying that term around as SSE, we’re in trouble…not to mention potentially baffled: "This is a required element of all items in all feeds wishing to participate in SSE-based synchronization." Absolutely.

We also have the Society for Scientific Exploration ("the SSE supports a Young Investigators programme"; sounds mysterious), the Society for the Study of Evolution, various Schools (of Systems Engineering, that sort of thing), and the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Which brings me to the newest, most pertinent arrival: the Social Stock Exchange; here’s to calling it a social stock market from here on in……