At cereal bar this morning we had friends stop by from a few ’ster companies. Ted from Dogster/Catster was here, as was Jennifer from Eurekster, and someone from Browster was here last week. This got us thinking of the myriad offshoots of the Napster name, and we compiled this partial list of companies ending in “ster”. Leave your vote for the best logo (or add one we missed) in the comments. The prize for the winning ’ster is yet to be determined; maybe if you all show them love they’ll want to send out some shirts with their rocking logo.

Aimster was a free IM-based music swapping service that took aim at the RIAA, who took aim back. Click the logo to see who won.

Blubster is, you guessed it, a free music download tool. All we know about them is that their name ends in “ster”, and we have no idea what happens if you download the app.

Browster is a plugin that pre-loads search results, so you just mouse over a link and you can see what lies beneath. Cool!

Catster is the social network for cats. Seriously.

ClickCaster has something to do with Podcasting. It almost didn’t make it into the competition since “caster” is almost a real word, but Valleyschwag is a big tent.

Dogster is like Catster, except it is way better since it is about dogs (sorry, personal preference). Dogster has the best personal profiles of any social network. After a few hours of browsing you’ll learn that pretty much all dogs like playing and eating peanut butter.

Eurekester provides community powered search and monetization, and we love their space-age logo.

You’d think Feedster was pet food site, but in fact it is a searchable archive of RSS feeds.

Friendster is the original napster name ripoff site, the concept being that Friendster makes gathering friends as easy as stealing gigs of music. We have to admit that we find the smiley face a little creepy, but it is much much better than the anonymous drones waiting in line next to the MySpace logo.

Grokster was another music/movie sharing product. It must have been a good one, because when they got sued it went all the way to the Supreme Court. The site now hosts an empty threat from the recording/film industry (”Don’t think you can’t get caught. You are not anonymous.”). We would love to get some Grokster stickers or something. Also, they get extra credit for not putting a TM on their logo. We always snicker when music sharing/stealing sites try to protect their intellectual property.

Jobster, a job search site, shows a different job-seeker in their logo each time you refresh the page. We love all the little people, especially this one who looks a little like Enid from Ghost World. (Side note: after re-watching Ghost World over the weekend we’ve had this “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” video on repeat.)

Jookster is a social search site with a jumping-j-man logo.

AIMster eventually became Madster, but it didn’t keep them from becoming dead-ster. The site now hosts an invitation for former customers to join a lawsuit against the company. They get extra credit for TM’ing their name even as they were being sued to death over IP issues.

Napster is, of course, the grandfather of all ’sters. The logo outlasted the original company, so it must be solid. It has been reborn a couple times, most recently as a free music subscription service. If you don’t have a record fetish, and iPod allegiance, or an old-style desire to “own” your music, these subscription services are the best thing ever.

Snubster is the anti-friendster, where you can build a dead-to-me-list and put people on notice. Check it out and see if you’ve been snubbed.

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