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Facebook is Changing Its Name To Meta (businessinsider.com) 149

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Facebook said Thursday it's changing its name to Meta. "From now on, we''ll be metaverse first, not Facebook first," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's Oculus Connect event. "Over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services."
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Facebook is Changing Its Name To Meta More

Facebook is Changing Its Name To Meta

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  • First Post! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Digital Avatar ( 752673 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:28PM (#61936237) Journal

    Very Meta, don't you think?

    Seriously, though... no name change could possibly change the fact that Facebook is a steaming pile of shit and no one likes it.

    • Seriously, though... no name change could possibly change the fact that Facebook is a steaming pile of shit and no one likes it.

      I think Assbook would do the trick.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xenx ( 2211586 )
        That would just bring a different crowd.

        • Nice FP thread, though Funny mod points seem called for. But as is often the case, I'm not fond of the Subject.

          At least I can't recall Facebook or Zuckerberg ever claiming to be original, so the "new-but-old" brand might deserve credit for honesty. Rather Facebook is dedicated to instantiating the worst dystopian nightmares of science fiction and fantasy. From another discussion on a related story it seems I urgently need to read Snow Crash (even though it's hard to find in English around here).

          My fixatio

      • Re:First Post! (Score:4, Funny)

        by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @03:09PM (#61936661)

        Metastabook

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Rufty ( 37223 )

      That a bit unfair. I dig great steaming piles of shit into my cabbage patch, but Facebook would make the coleslaw taste bad.

    • They've moved beyond just harvesting your data...

    • Yogi Berra? (Score:5, Informative)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:45PM (#61936289)

      Your comment that Facebook is a steaming pile that no one uses reminds me of Yogi Berta's comment about a famous club: no one goes there anymore, it's too crowded ".

      As for name change I guess
      Fascebook
      Was taken?

      Meta is a terrible choice since when you google search for meta you will find a lot of meta things. It would be like naming your product "water" or "milk" or "sky". It's a word used in many contexts .

      In the other hand now that face book is nenes meta what will happen is anyone properly searching for some phrase with the word meta in it will now get Facebook hits.

      They will have stolen the word .

      Finally while Facebook conjours up its very purpose " to see and be seen" in a social sense the word meta isn't even a noun.

      • A perfect name is Soylent because like Facebook it's made of people. And even if u you complete this to Soylent green then that's good too because green is good. Something both a hard of hearing Gordon gecko and OAC might agree on .

      • Well Google changed to Alphabet so there's nothing new about bad name choices.

      • Wait wait wait - my PhD wife talks all the time about "meta analysis". Does this mean she's now going to get a doctorate by Facebooking^H^H^H Meta-ing all day?

      • Re:Yogi Berra? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @04:54PM (#61937055)
        This problem is caused by the USPTO granting trademarks on simple English words like Alphabet, Apple, Windows, Office, Word, etc. Pre-existing non-compound dictionary words should be off-limits for trademarks. Force companies to use two brain cells to come up with a name which don't create a namespace collision with pre-existing words. Google, Mobil, Xerox, Vaio, Logitech, Thinkpad, even Facebook for example.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        They will have stolen the word [meta].

        They already stole facebook. In years gone past, at places like Harvard College, the facebook was called that because it was a literal book of faces, that is, it contained an array of the names and ID mug shots of the incoming freshman class. The official use of facebooks was for things like advisors, professors, teaching assistants, etc., to know their students, and for clubs and social groups to identify potential recruits. Then, he-who-still-looks-disturbingly-like-a-robot came along and stole the wor

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Cinder6 ( 894572 )

        To be fair, OP didn’t say no one uses Facebook—just that no one likes it. And while I know many people who do use it, I don’t know many who like doing so.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        As for name change I guess
        Fascebook
        Was taken?

        I believe Meta's flagship produce 'Facebook' division should be renamed to 'Stasis'.
        Sounds futuristic. And apt.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dargaud ( 518470 )
        Also I have a dutch friend named Meta, she's really happy about this news (not!). She's gonna form a support group with our other friend Alexa I guess...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jddj ( 1085169 )

      They Didn't like my suggestions:

            FukMuhLife
            DisasterBook
            HateRUsers

      • My suggestion didn't hit either...
        Innovative Online Industries

        I guess they wouldn't like being called what they really are.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      Google tried it when it became synonymous of monetizing people and promoting quacks. But who really knows Alphabet. In this case it could let Facebook take the narrative back.

    • So Facebook is now set to become like the IOI megacorp from Ready Player One, the Very Fat Dog of the VR industry.

    • the fact that Facebook is a steaming pile of shit and no one likes it.

      This seems like a rather moronic thing to say.

      It seems like a solid 1.5 billion people like Facebook and another 1.5 billion people at least tolerate it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        That's, like, basically nothing. It's only 1/3 of the World's population.

      • >It seems like a solid 1.5 billion people like Facebook and another 1.5 billion people at least tolerate it.

        I feel that's kinda like saying 50% of heroin addicts love heroin and the other 50% at least tolerate it.

        Just because they use it doesn't mean they like it; it could be a necessity for lack of other/better options, or it could be a literal type of addiction [bbc.com], or anything in between. I can't imagine many people actually enjoy becoming psychotic.
        =Smidge=

      • 2/3rds of those are bot accounts from India, Saudi, Iran, Russia and scam farms in Africa anyway, so the actual real numbers are far lower.

        Back in the day, we used to run blade farms through ghost ports to manage teams to do that stuff.

      • Just because something is popular doesn't necessarily mean it is good.

  • F that (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:34PM (#61936245)

    "Over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services."

    After they went to all the trouble of forcing e.g. Oculus users to connect to facebook in the first place? Why do I get the sinking feeling that now they plan to force users of all their "services" (including ones they buy up that people are alreaady using) to use something even worse and more privacy hating than Facebook?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Why do I get the sinking feeling that now they plan to force users of all their "services" (including ones they buy up that people are alreaady using) to use something even worse and more privacy hating than Facebook?

      Given their new name I think that is implied, combined with their past actions it would actually be a shock if their plan wasn't to centrally pool data in a "meta"verse for their easy data collection services. This really is just fear that facebook as a service is in decline and if it goes down they don't want the company name associated with it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ghoul ( 157158 )
        My 14 and 16 yr old kids dont use Facebook. My 83 year old dad does. My kids are on discord and twitch. Facebook is doomed. My son had to reactivate his facebook account this year after not using it for years as he got an Oculus. Facebook the company's future is in VR.
        • yep, and this is an unavoidable trend for social media companies that has repeated over the multiple decades now. Kids don't want anything social media that their parents and grandparents use. a name change is not going to save facebook the product, but it may at least let them disassociate their name with that future failing product.

    • Itâ(TM)ll be your âoemetaâ login tracking instead of your âoefacebookâ login tracking tool.

      See, Facebook canâ(TM)t be blamed!

      Move all the evil stigma away from the apps and keep it in a dark corner with suitable distance.

    • "Over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services."

      Of course not. Now, you'll be forced to use Meta to use their other services.

  • Labels, Schmabels (Score:4, Informative)

    by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:34PM (#61936247)

    "Over time you won't need to use Facebook to use our other services."

    Which is only to say that your Metaverse account will eventually be just as cancerous as your Facebook account. A name change won't do dick to stop the constant bad press relative to other tech giants. You're gonna have to commit to "stopping the next Trump situation" by helping to "fortify" elections accordingly, like Google did.

    P.S. Notice how everyone calls Google "Alphabet" now? Me neither.

    • P.S. Notice how everyone calls Google "Alphabet" now? Me neither.

      Yeah, whenever "Alphabet" is mentioned, invariably there's some sort of additional clarification involving "Google".

    • Re:Labels, Schmabels (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:51PM (#61936325) Journal

      Yeah, its kind of amazing really when you think about it. The crowing achievement in 20th century marketing was to achieve house hold name status. The fact that facebook is so toxic as to out weigh the value of the brand recognition is really telling.

      Google's rename was a bit different. I think Google wanted to communicate, 'hey we are more than search' to investors and clients. They are still very actively using the Google brand on all sorts of things beyond search. Its still the "Google Play Store" for example not the "Alphabet Play Store." I recognize facebook isn't planning to rename/brand their 'facebook.com' site but it terms of recognition, revenue etc arguably Alphabet's other properties are more significant with respect to the corporate whole, than anything at facebook beyond facebook.com and instragram scopes.

      This plus the 'we are going focus on serving young adults' blather makes me feel like this is much more about pivoting away from facebook.com as a survival strategy, than about diversifying beyond it to support growth like Alphabet.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          Yes, thank you I understand what a holding company is.

          There is also Facebook vs facebook - I don't know if they are truly proper legal entities or just divisions and I can't be arsed to look it up. However Google/Alphabet is a rename in that I am pretty sure Alphabet is the old Google and Google is a new entity the search assets were moved into. You will note the Ticker GOOG -> is Alphabet Inc! So it was very much a re-brand, they could have called the holding company Google Holdings, if they'd wanted an

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            There is also Facebook vs facebook - I don't know if they are truly proper legal entities or just divisions and I can't be arsed to look it up

            It's FACEBOOK and facebook. The latter is the (anti-)social media website and platform. The former is the company that runs the latter. The thing is, FACEBOOK is no more, it's "Meta".

            Thus, you use the "facebook" app written by Meta to access the "facebook" platform. Or you buy an Oculus thing (the brand is being discontinued) made by Meta, which requires a facebook ac

    • This is also the opposite of what was usually meant by the metaverse, until facebook just pooped on the term. The metaverse was envisioned as the interconnected network of independently run servers (which basically act as connectors for VR interactions) much like the "web" is to HTML pages and "federation" is to social networking and file sharing. So this is actually very similar to if microsoft, in the 90s, rather than releasing a windowing system product named "windows", which was bad enough, had instea

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Like Google, I think that having a boring and generic corporation name will help them bribe politicians more easily without the general public noticing.

      Sure, the sharp eyed people will still notice funds flowing from Meta to some SuperPAC that generates nasty attack ads against the politician who's trying to break up their company, but this will make it more difficult to notice.

  • a rose by any other name (Score:5, Funny)

    by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:35PM (#61936251)

    Would a giant pile of fertilizer by any other name smell the same?

  • Stupid, pointless name (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:36PM (#61936257)
    for a stupid, pointless company. How lame. Now they'll probably automatically sign up all FB users to all of their products automatically out of the goodness of their hearts. Aren't we lucky.
  • Was thinking, "Will he change his name to Mark Dotcom?"

  • This is an Asset Shuffle. (Score:3)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:40PM (#61936269) Homepage
    Spin off a parent company to protect assets from the current FaceBook mess.

    But these names show no imagination. First Alphabet now Meta, what's next? A company called Hello?
  • Well, I been to one World's Fair, a picnic, and a rodeo and that's he stupidest thing I ever heard someone name a website.

  • Is anyone calling Google by it's "new" name, Alphabet?

    I assume people will continue to call Facebook Facebook.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Though in Google's case, the switch from Google to Alphabet was not to cause a rebranding. It was really a corporate restructuring to isolate liability from different parts of the business. AKA, you don't want the liability of your self driving car business to bankrupt your google search income.

      • Though in Google's case, the switch from Google to Alphabet was not to cause a rebranding. It was really a corporate restructuring to isolate liability from different parts of the business. AKA, you don't want the liability of your self driving car business to bankrupt your google search income.

        Which is why married couples should put their home in both names (joint ownership) while their cars should each be in their own names (single ownership). From: How To Title Your Cars To Limit Liability [rodgers-associates.com] (and other places):

        For instance, one of the most common misunderstandings for clients is who should own the cars they drive. For married couples the rule of thumb is for each spouse to individually own the car they drive. The reason for this is to limit liability in the event of an accident. Liability is assessed on the owner of the vehicle and the person driving at the time of the accident. If the owner and driver are one in the same liability can only be attached to that person. This shields joint assets from exposure to liability.

  • Close (Score:5, Funny)

    by Flexagon ( 740643 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @01:48PM (#61936307)
    Closer: "Metastasis".
  • Fuck you, Meta/Facebook.

  • OMG! This is so exciting!

    I can barely contain myself!

    A new name! ...so exciting...

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Remember to update your DNS blacklist (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    To include meta.com

  • Metadata (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:29PM (#61936489) Homepage Journal

    Just call it Metadata because that is what the product is - selling your metadata.

  • FTFY (Score:4, Funny)

    by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:37PM (#61936523)
    "Over time you won't need to use Facebook or our other services."
  • A new CEO will be assigned to Facebook distancing Zuckerberg from Facebook while still being in power behind the scenes. Nothing but new name added to the pile of shit that is Zuckerberg's empire.

  • "Meta" makes me think the guys have got into the Halloween spirit a little too far. Ya canna use witchcraft on the Internet! Or maybe it's just the spirits they're into. This is the daftest thing ever. Branding matters and new names have less value than old. However, I suppose they can pull a Windows 98, claim it's a new product and so exempt from any punishment of the old. Just finished Alan Garner's "Treacle Walker" and it makes more sense than this move unless it's about evading the law.

  • Bad choice... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LordHighExecutioner ( 4245243 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:51PM (#61936579)
    here in Italy we have:

    the village of Meta [wikipedia.org], located not far from Neaples.

    in italian language [treccani.it] "meta" means:

    metà: it means "one half" of something. Maybe Zuck will cut the company in two parts ?
    mèta- : as a prefix like in "metafisica", meaning what comes after something else
    mèta: as substantive, was a pyramid-shaped column placed in ancient amphiteaters. It was the arrival point for a competition.
    méta: a heap of straw, manure, rotten stuff. This seems the term that most adapts to the situation
    META: is the commercial name of a solid fuel [picclick.it], used for camping. Could be useful to burn Zuck at stake, if he insists with his nasty behaviour...
    There are a few more "meta" uses in italian language, but they are not very relevant and nearly forgotten.

  • The only person that will profit from meta.com... (Score:3)

    by presearch ( 214913 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:51PM (#61936583)

    ...is the person that sold the domain name.

  • The decline of western civilization's social media (Score:3)

    by peterww ( 6558522 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @02:58PM (#61936609)

    "And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

    So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in D.C. and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

    Facebook has now begun to pivot from social media to virtual reality. It's time to start shorting the stock, kiddies.

  • adverse. Works on so many levels which makes it kind of meta

  • Facebook -- I mean "Meta" -- will be laying claim to the HTML element of the same name.

    (Actually, I'm betting someone will think they're related at some point.)

  • I'm looking forward to this! After all, once Comcast rebranded as Xfinity, their service and product became just stellar!

  • Short for metastasized (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ranger ( 1783 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @03:12PM (#61936673) Homepage
    Facebook has become a Stage 4 ass cancer on society. Meta indeed.

  • When she can't get on Facebook anymore, she's done with it and if FB starts shuffling her off to this meta thing, she says she's outta here.

  • As in Meta World Peace?

  • Then Faceâ"ck

    If they're now going to change to a four letter word, I can think of a lot better ones.

  • And henceforth ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @04:05PM (#61936871)

    ... they shall be known as Metards.

  • With this rebranding, I suddenly trust Mark Metaberg again!

  • Just like their Fearful Leader, who is a Beta and not an Alpha

    Now excuse me while I remove some ad tracking they're trying to slip in to my phone

  • Facebook isn't changing it's name. Their parent company is. Just like Google changed the named of their parent company to Alphabet. Facebook will still remain the name of the social network. The parent company that owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, etc will be renamed. Much the same where Snapchat rebranded under the parent company which had its name changed to Snap Inc.
  • Artest will be proud

  • After all, just about all their services are written by douche bags for douche bags. That's how it will be as long as "Zuck" is in charge.

  • Is this why Twitch streamers are always yelling "Dude, no meta!!!" at their chats?

  • Meta is the new blockchain (Score:3)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @06:07PM (#61937301)

    Good to see Facebook getting on board. It's about time they built their own Metaverse to compete with Epic's metaverse or Roblox metaverse. In fact the only thing which could be better is if their Metaverse supported blockchain. Oh wait https://www.coindesk.com/busin... [coindesk.com]

    Fuck me the world is dumb.

  • Join the Underverse! (Score:3)

    by Kiliani ( 816330 ) on Thursday October 28, 2021 @06:10PM (#61937313)

    So here's The Zuck trying to entice us to join the Necromonger faith by crossing the threshold to the Underverse.

    I believe the correct response to be: "I bow to *no* man!"

  • It's short for Metamucil (Score:5, Funny)

    by magusxxx ( 751600 ) <magusxxx_2000 AT yahoo DOT com> on Thursday October 28, 2021 @06:50PM (#61937419)

    Cause its going to shoot out a bunch of crap.

  • Just like that shitty Chinese restaurant in town that changes its name every couple of years, it will not mean anything. New name same greasy, bland and nasty food served by the same rude waiters. Zuckerberg is not fooling anyone except maybe the fools on the board.

  • #Facebook #Meta #Metaverse #AdVerse #AddPalm #FacePalm #FaceZuck #BookZuck #BookVerse Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
  • ... anyone "swallowing" this re-branding Facebook to Meta can figuratively be accused of tea bagging Mr Zuckerburg.

  • Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I have the best words!

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