Hi all, there is a question that seemed to me as "off-topic" as it could be easily answered by a google search. But now it has 14 upvotes and the accepted answer has 35 upvotes. I am not complaining about the question or the answers. If it has that much positive feedback, then may be I was wrong to have thought it was off-topic. Here is the link: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/226370/what-does-ikea-like-mean

My issue with the question is that OP did not google what IKEA is. If they had they would know (the first link in google shows what IKEA is). Rather they might have thought it was a verb or something and went on to find definitions. I don't know how to elaborate. OP's question is "I found the text below in a website and I'm trying to understand the meaning of IKEA in the context" and their title was "What does IKEA mean?" (before being edited by another user).

So clearly OP was not asking about what the whole thing meant, just what IKEA was. I thought this had nothing to do with learning English language. Can someone tell me what is wrong with my reasoning?

I am certain I will get lambasted for this. The highest voted answer (the accepted answer) that has 35 votes wrote the following: IKEA is just the brand name, or business name, of a global business; it's a name just like "Apple" or "Google" or "John's Grocery Store".

... continued A person who founds a business can give it any name they want (so long as no-one else legally controls that name). The founder of IKEA was a Swedish businessman called Ingvar Kamprad. He made up the name by using his own initials (i.e. the initial letters of his first and last name) and then adding on the first letter of the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd) and then the first letter of his home town (Agunnaryd). Hence, the made-up name is "I-K-E-A".

That seems more like a "history" lesson than solving an English Language problem. I am really, really confused. Can someone please tell me why I am wrong to say this is off-topic?