Facebook Renames Itself Meta

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook rose to prominence over the past two decades with some of the world’s most recognizable branding: A big blue letter F. No longer. On Thursday, the social networking giant took an unmistakable step toward an overhaul, de-emphasizing Facebook’s name and rebranding itself as Meta. The change comes with a new logo designed like an infinity-shaped symbol, slightly askew, almost like a pretzel. Facebook, Instagram and other apps will remain, but under the Meta umbrella.

The move punctuates how Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, plans to refocus his Silicon Valley company on what he sees as the next digital frontier, which is the unification of disparate digital worlds into something called the metaverse. At the same time, renaming Facebook may help distance the company from the many social networking controversies it is facing, including how it spreads hate speech and misinformation. “I’ve been thinking a lot about our identity” with this new chapter, Mr. Zuckerberg said, speaking at a virtual event to showcase Facebook’s technological bets of the future. “Over time, I hope we’re seen as a metaverse company.”

Mr. Zuckerberg has been committed to building the metaverse, a composite universe melding online, virtual and augmented worlds that people can seamlessly traverse. He has said the metaverse can be the next major social platform and that several tech companies will build it over the next 10-plus years. On Monday, Facebook telegraphed its intent to be a big player when it separated its virtual reality and augmented reality business into a division known as Facebook Reality Labs.

But the timing of the shift has a double advantage. Facebook has grappled with some of the most intense scrutiny in its 17-year history in recent weeks. Lawmakers and the public have criticized its Instagram photo-sharing app for hurting some teenagers’ self-esteem and the company has faced questions for its role in amplifying misinformation and stirring unrest with inflammatory content.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/technology/facebook-rebrand-meta.html

---

LOL sounds like that will be a big tax evasion scheme.

[rurallib]

1. Gosh, now no one will remember what a turd of a company Facebook was

[Champp]

44. Psssst! Don't mention that Monsanto is now Bayer

Let's keep this our little secret.

[rurallib]

72. that was at least a merger - Facebook is hiding in plain sight

[Chipper Chat]

2. There goes my "Face Us on LikeBook" sign.

[CentralMass]

3. Meta few assholes there.

[underpants]

11. 👍

[Harker]

39. Great tagline.

And companies pay advertising executives for catchy ideas like that.

[moonscape]

78. This name choice pisses me off because

my mom’s bestie, and like a second mom to me, was Meta. While she lived a very long, full life, glad she didn’t live long enough to have to witness the defiling of her name.

[CentralMass]

83. I feel the same every time I hear about a "Karen"

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Lipstick on a Pig

How does this differ from the witness protection program?

[Eugene]

5. Damn! Saw a similar headline and was hoping is was satire.

As long as *uckerberg remains a principal, this trip into Blackwater territory changes nothing.

[dweller]

6. Yeh

MAGA was taken



✌🏻

[milestogo]

7. Z meta lotta money

[Ray Bruns]

8. Isn't this like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

[Jilly_in_VA]

9. And so?

This makes a difference exactly how?

[rickyhall]

10. A tax evasion scheme for a that doesn't pay taxes.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

12. What is that saying?

A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Yeah, I know Facebook/Meta is not a rose but you know what I mean.

[Lithos]

13. Should have been renamed - Faceplant

n/t

[Stainless]

41. FacePalm......

Is another good name. Meta sucks.

[QED]

14. Metamucil

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Let me be the first to say

DUzy!!!!!!!!!!

[Budi]

16. Replaced the Blue F with a giant pretzel shaped M. Is it a Red M like MAGA?

if any corporate rapid dash to rebrand as fast as this one, doesn't SCREAM, Tax Scam, Covering My Sorry Global Corruption Owned Ass, it's this one.

[ShazzieB]

43. It's blue. And it looks like a distorted infinity symbol.

I didn't know it was supposed to be an M. It still doesn't look like one to me.

[Budi]

47. So it's sort of a merging of F&M. Fark Marf Zuckerburg.

Fark Marf Zuckerburg.

[Budi]

17. META CEO renamed Zark Muckerburg

[dchill]

82. AKA Innocente Noguiltyguy.

[House of Roberts]

18. MetaWaste

of my time.

Don't use Fakebook, Instacrap, Twittier or any of it now. Won't make me start using any of them going forward.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. MetaZuck

[marble falls]

20. I think he'll discover his bridge too far.

[iscooterliberally]

21. They spelled 'Mierda' incorrectly. n/t

[PatSeg]

22. Well, that was truly pointless

It changes absolutely nothing and the name is rather unimaginative and lame.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. It immediately reminded me of

DU's old "Meta" forum - where people went to complain about DU and create circus sideshows.

[PatSeg]

30. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten that

I wonder who came up with this brilliant new name and why they chose that name.

[not fooled]

34. It's creepy and dystopian.

For a company under fire for relentlessly collecting and exploiting users' data, didn't it strike any of the pricey consultants no doubt involved in laying this turd that "Meta" might not be the best moniker?

Are we supposed to bow to our Meta data overlords?

[PatSeg]

67. Absolutely bizarre

How did these fools become so successful? Dumb luck?

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Well

as we know, Google renamed themselves "Alphabet".



That's why this Facebook thing seemed a bit silly and lagging, but then I know both companies have bought out large, previously-independent companies (like Facebook owning Instagram and Google owning YouTube). So...

[PatSeg]

68. It makes my head hurt

[BumRushDaShow]

69. ...

[Doc Sportello]

24. Jibes with Zuck's Russian asset handle

Meta Harry

[Earth-shine]

25. By any other name, sh*t is still stinky. nt

[GoneOffShore]

26. Neal Stephenson's 1992 book Snow Crash used the term 'metaverse' to describe VR.

Zuck is stealing.

Again.

[orangecrush]

27. "Cthulhu"

Would have been more appropriate.

[nuxvomica]

29. I was hoping for "Ash Nazg"

One app to rule them all, one app to find them, one app to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. I bet it was on the short list but the Tolkien estate wouldn't let them.

[orangecrush]

54. ....

[PoliticAverse]

28. Shoulda just pulled a Kanye and went with "Me". n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

32. Or the artist formerly known as

[Wicked Blue]

31. Meta-MUCIL

Keeps the crap flowing

[Javaman]

33. this is the beginning of the end.

rebranding bullshit doesn't make it any less bullshit.

they are using the "wavy hand look over here" to distract from their mountain sized problems.

[kimbutgar]

36. So they are now admitted meta data collectors with that name?

[TrogL]

37. There already is a metaverse

It's an open source virtual universe based on opensim server software and a viewer like Firestorm.

Same idea as Second Life but non-proprietary.

[BumRushDaShow]

40. There are apparently entities tracking it

In fact, I had stumbled on a tweet that had an image of it.

[TrogL]

84. The Metaverse I'm talking about didn't make the cut

It would be in experience similar to Fortnight and Minecraft

[BumRushDaShow]

85. My thought had been "Second Life"

which was probably one of the earliest "online" versions of the type immersive interaction with multi-person involvement, but apparently not on that chart that I can tell.

[TrogL]

93. There's an open source version called opensim

Lets you build your own grids and regions

[BumRushDaShow]

96. I have heard of that

I haven't done any "sim" type gaming in almost 20 years. After awhile, online game had so much lag that it was a nuisance, whether it was you or one of your team mates.

(I know it's improved significantly now but still... )

[sinkingfeeling]

38. Is that as close as they could get to MAGA?

[BumRushDaShow]

45. And that is another

DUzy!!!!!

[Sancho]

42. Sounds like "New Coke" to me....

[PSPS]

46. This is to conform to his weird 3-D video video game vision of "the new internet."

As far as I can tell with the way his people explain this is that, instead of bringing up Amazon and buying a box of detergent, you get into some Sims/WOW video game experience where "your avitar walks down the virtual street and sees a virtual display of laundry detergent. You can interact with other peoples' avitars about the detergents you see advertised or anything else like the weather, size of genitals, etc., and then your avitar pushes the 'buy' button." It seems to me that the audience for something like this would be very small, mostly online video game addicts.

[BigmanPigman]

61. After seeing the new video, I have to agree.

[LudwigPastorius]

48. This is like the basketball player who punched a fan changing his name to "Metta World Peace".

Zuckerberg should have just named the company "ChampionOfDemocracyAndAdvocateOfScience Inc."

[Me.]

49. So He Now Want Us To Live In Virtual World

and forget the one we now live in. Sounds trumpian to me,

[Skittles]

50. a pox on everyone who made that slimy worm Zuckerberg a multi-billionaire

[Budi]

51. "The problem is HIM"

"...this interview with @karaswisher about Zuckerberg offers a good diagnostic of FB: A company that is radically hierarchical, that wants to think of themselves as radically horizontal."

Link to tweet

[Budi]

52. The jokes are writing themselves

Q: Why did Mark Zuckerberg change the name of Facebook to "Meta?"

A: Because "Bot or Not?" didn't do as well in focus group testing.
******

Other names that didn't focus group well:

Harmville
Liespace
Macedonians R Us
Putinanny
Dataminecraft
******

.."still think they should have gone with Death Note"

"Death Tabs For Putie"
***

This is not going to be pretty.

[texasfiddler]

53. Meta Static Cancer for the nation and world.

[Bengus81]

55. Sooo...now Trump Insurrectionist say lets meet on Meta instead of Face Book??

Gosh...I feel all warm and fuzzy about this

[blugbox]

56. I don't like Zuck and haven't had Facebook for over 10 years...

But I am very excited about the prospects of the metaverse. I can't wait to see it evolve.

[Initech]

57. Because that's what perfectly innocent companies do!

[Marthe48]

58. meta (Me Elect trump Again)

Just saw it on facebook :/

[dalton99a]

59. Metastasis

[consider_this]

79. i was thinking the same.

[BigmanPigman]

60. Is this for real?

Link to tweet

?s=20

[BumRushDaShow]

63. I don't know if you have ever tried any of the VR devices

but I expect that this takes that to the next step of allowing multiple people to interact in the same one scenario that is selected. The gaming industry has essentially done this for years with multiplayer gaming online, although generally gamers were watching their character on some monitor as they controlled it. I expect with this, you don your headset and have at it "as the character" (although to get the motion from arms/hands, I expect other things would need to be attached or you have some controller on your person (looked like he had some "watch" type thing on his wrist - the older VR devices have controllers like a wireless remote thingy), unless a headset has sensors to detect that motion.

I have a Samsung Gear VR that I bought 3 years ago and it was pretty cool (it worked with my Samsung Note9 and was made to work with that generation of phones) but haven't had chance (or time) to get back to it. It was nice to be able to watch Prez. Obama's tour of the White House video in VR because as he moved from room to room, the video had been shot with a 360 camera, so I could actually turn my head or look up and down and "see" all around each of the rooms.

I.e., this video -

(the above has up/down/left/right arrows that will allow you to actually "move" the image around in the same fashion and there is a VR version of it for VR devices)

[panader0]

62. "a composite universe melding online, virtual and augmented worlds that people

can seamlessly traverse." That sounds ominous.

[BumRushDaShow]

65. ...

Zuckerberg was 15 years old when that movie came out.

[Trueblue1968]

64. no one will call it that. EVERYONE WILL STILL CALL IT ..... FACEBOOK

[BumRushDaShow]

66. Well

I still call Google... "Google" and not "Alphabet".

(it's a "parent company" naming gimmick)

[twodogsbarking]

70. Comcast became Xfinity, meaning they will screw you forever.

[Rhiannon12866]

71. I remember when the forum by that name was eliminated here

Because it became too disruptive due to infighting.

[BumRushDaShow]

74. Yeah I posted the same thing upthread

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2819201



That's basically what seems to happen on those platforms.

[Rhiannon12866]

75. That was my first thought, too!

[Brainfodder]

73. Who?

No middle finger smilie availability continues to be upsetting at moments.

[BumRushDaShow]

76. You could use one of these

[RobinA]

77. Well

that’s creepy.

[DallasNE]

81. Metaphor

Zuckerberg is not my knight in shining amour.

[Vinca]

86. A conspiracy theory monger by any other name is still . . .

a conspiracy theory monger. Big bucks in bullshit.

[twodogsbarking]

87. I would change my name to Turd Ferguson.

What could be better.

[bucolic_frolic]

88. Meta is at the forefront of a new corporate trend!

Link to tweet

[Polybius]

89. This is set up to be a cataclysmic failure

Has any super-major company ever changed their name at the height of success?

[3825-87867]

90. Meta - acronyms wanted

My
Enormous
Trillion dollar
Ass

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

91. I guess "Meta" was available. "Ye" was recently taken.

"Academi" or "Xe" would have been nice, but Blackwater took those.

"Meta" it is.

[twodogsbarking]

92. Some irony is that a number of people on Meta have changed their names too.

[Jim G.]

95. Telegram Is Not A Reliable Source

It's a place for the gullible.

[EarthFirst]

97. Sponsored by Sweet Baby Ray's? nt