On Sat, 2005-12-10 at 20:10 +0000, Daniel Carrera wrote: > > Some times I like them :) Besides, it's not like we'd be changing to > a > totally different name (Mozilla -> Phoenix -> Firefox).
What happened to firebird? I definitely have a copy of "Mozilla Firebird 0.7" on my server, and jolly good it is too :-) Seriously, though, it is clear that, outside of the OOo community, the world at large uses the term "OpenOffice" either instead of, or alongside "OpenOffice.org" The battle to get people to say/write "OpenOffice.org" is already lost. Why do I make this claim? Well, my reference source is the "in the media" items that, presumably, the openoffice.org web team have filtered as appropriate items for people interested in the product to read! Example 1 - go to www.openoffice.org , and click on the FIRST "in the media" item (Google adds doc preview...) The media article in question says "OpenOffice" (no org.) Example 2 - go to www.openoffice.org, and click on the SECOND "in the media" item (Accountancy firm...) The media article in question uses a mix of openoffice.org and openoffice. Example 3 - go to www.openoffice.org, and click on the THIRD "in the media" item (OOo Base...) The media article in question, on their own site, uses the title "OpenOffice 2.0 Base..." (no org) When talking to "IT manager type people", most of them seem to assume that the product is called "OpenOffice", and the WEBSITE is called "OpenOffice.org" At a push, the community might be called "OpenOffice.org", but not the product! The use of ".com" and ".org" as part of the name of a mass-market succesful product is, well, something for which I'm struggling to think of examples. There are, however, a few organisations that have used DNS suffixes as part of their names. However, my analysis is that the only organisations who've got traction in doing so are those that have a website-centric approach - ie the attraction to the organisation is GOING TO THEIR WEBSITE TO DO STUFF rather than "downloading their products." Examples like amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and lastminute.com spring to mind. The PRODUCT one gets from amazon.co.uk has a name like "Real Estate Finance and Investment Manual" (the book that their collaborative filtering is pushing my way.) Do I think it's worth asking someone to trawl through EVERYTHING removing the ".org" where inappropriate? Nah - there are far better uses of everyones' time. Do I think that it's worth "lightening" the .org (both in colour terms on the logo, and in the overall marketing approach in English-speaking markets.) I suspect I do. Do I have any view at all about the best approach to use for non-English speaking markets? No, no really. However, I do remember that Microsoft Windows Arabic edition didn't have a splash screen that said "Windows" in a roman font, back as long ago as 3.1, and whatever else one may feel about them, no-one has ever accused MS of missing a marketing trick :-) (FWIW - I have a lot of time for MS, they have, in my view, done an awful lot of GOOD for the IT world at large - however, I also believe that office suites are now too commoditised, and that MSO12 is too big a re-framing of the metaphors to cope with, so OOo will continue to gain market share by leaps and bounds, irrespective of the name we use.) Mark --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
