Facebook is planning to change its name, report says | Hacker News Reader

Facebook is planning to change its name, report says

cnn.com

29 pointsIgorPartola31 comments

Maybe they can just accept their position as one of the worst companies in technology and just call themselves “exploitation inc” or something and just be done with it.

And apparently to some name that reflects their new "metaverse" positioning. I wonder if that will backfire on them. I'm struggling to think of a metaversy name that doesn't sound ominous, like panopticon.

Spacebook

Innovative Online Industries

This is going to end up similar to the "Alphabet" rebranding Google did.

Interesting conclusion. Was this the line in the article that led you to it?

>A name change could position the three mega platforms under an umbrella brand, similar to the structure used by Google, which sits under parent company Alphabet.

Yeah, but the problem for Facebook is they're trying to distance themselves from their brand, whereas Google didn't really mind.

I suspect they want to remove things in articles like "Instagram, a Facebook company" because the Facebook brand is tarnishing the others.

They'd rather have "Instagram, which is owned by TillWeHaveFaces LTD (which also owns Facebook)" or similar.

They don't seem to mind as they plaster the Facebook brand all over Instagram.

Plastering the Facebook brand all over everything I suspect was done to defend against various data protection agencies worldwide trying to claim that Whatsapp, facebook, and instagram are seperate apps and should not share any user data.

That sharing of user data is very important for both facebook and instagram - ever notice how talking to someone new on Whatsapp makes them be a suggested friend on facebook or instagram? Without that newly added friend, user retention will fall as people don't bother to hunt out people they know to follow.

And the cross-branding is probably from before the Facebook brand began to become toxic.

That would make logical sense, but it’s not really what happened. Facebook really began making their brand more prominent in Instagram and WhatsApp only within the past couple years. Perhaps brand perception wasn’t quite as bad then as it has become within the past couple weeks, but it certainly wasn’t great.

Interesting conclusion. Was it these lines in the article that led you to it?

> A rebranding could be part of an effort to overhaul Facebook's reputation following a tsunami of bad news

> Some high-profile name changes have followed scandal or controversy.

'Faecebook' would be a good choice, it's familiar but brings a nuance of meaning to the brand.

Changing the name isn't going to change their business model of exploiting users for ad profits.

This is more likely to be part of a move to pre-empt efforts to split them up into separate companies.

The name just leaked, it will simply be "Meta".

Disappointing and frustrating if it’s true.

It’ll become an even more overloaded term, except now, instead of just the legitimate philosophical meaning, we’ll also have people associating the term with the most toxic and harmful business in tech.

Can't tell if this is a joke or not.

Metha?

classic strategy:

   - European Ferries (Townsend Thoresen) 
   - Livestrong (Lance Armstrong Foundation)
   - Netflix (Qwikster)
   - ...

The association with metaverse and the increasing commitment to virtual reality seems to make a lot of sense for an ad-oriented business like Facebook. It seems so much easier to track the user that is immersed in a virtual world; and the tracking could be a lot more extensive too; it also seems easier to find an ad space, do product placement, etc.

> Facebook wants to be known for more than social media, according to the tech publication.

Yes, Facebook should also be known and remembered as a company that amplifies human suffering, and threatens the stability of communities around the world.

We watch as people close to us are going down the drain. What poor education has started, Facebook is now finishing off, and with a huge profit.

That is Facebook's true legacy, human misery.

Then, will they revert the fb.com domain back to the farm bureau?

Even though they're rebranding, I guess their business model will probably remain the same.

They have one of the largest facial recognition libraries available. I'm surprised they haven't started creating surveillance products for governments and law enforcement like Ring.com have.

Do you recon we would know if they had done so?

I don't think FB would have been fined $5bn for the Cambridge Analytica scandal by the FTC if they were a federal contractor.

Will they have the guts and bravery just to name themselves "Metaverse"? And Zuck's title changes to "The Architect".

(DARPA) Lifelog.

facebook -> book

I'm let you finish, but the perfect name would be "Ye".

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