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Dual Names Double Trouble It has been suggested that the town / city of Wanganui should have two names, Wanganui and Whanganui. The following is my view In the world today, the public frequently use the search engines to locate products and information in their local area. The search engines being Google, Yahoo and Bing and when keying in the query into the search engine search box, the searcher types in the name of the town or city as this reduces the numbers of non complying results and / or increases the number of expected results. And, providing the website owner has undertaken website search engine optimisation as per the search engines rules, policies and guidelines, the search engine results should display the product or service required plus the name of the town or city. A match has been made, success for the searcher and the business. Should dual names come into being, problems arise: Should a searcher type in the town name as 'Whanganui' but the website denotes only 'Wanganui' a match cannot be made, a lack of success. The contrary is also true if 'Wanganui' is the searchers choice but the website denotes 'Whanganui'. There will be those who say put in both names but the progress of obtaining good search engine results is not a simple as that. Try it: Key into a search engine search box, an occupation, product or service available in Wanganui, plus in one instance the word Wanganui and in the other instance the word Whanganui. The results will differ widely yet it is the same product, service or occupation. Why do we want to go out of our way to confuse the person who wants information about what is available in the city? Dual names will do our business people a disservice and promote confusion among potential customers both local and out of town. In today's world people are increasingly online and if we want the city to succeed in the Internet Age we must put forward one name, and Wanganui has already been factored into the infrastructure of the Web, and indeed is the expressed preference of the majority of the citizens of Wanganui. Contact Firstsearch