Name Changes for Facebook and Google My Business
Two social media and technological giants, Facebook and Google, have each made name changes in the past month.
For Facebook, the change is a significant one. For Google, only one aspect of their company was renamed. For both, the logic behind the name changes is the same.
In this article, we will brief you on the changes Facebook and Google made and how they will affect business owners.
Facebook is now Meta
Social media giant Facebook recently announced that it will be changing its name to Meta. The social media application known as Facebook will retain its name, but the parent company (which owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and many other social media brands) is now called Meta.
This change is seemingly cosmetic to the uninformed eye. However, a significant amount is going on behind the scenes that prompted this change.
Meta claims it has changed its name as a way of expanding outside of social media and deeper into the realm of social technology. The so-called Metaverse will be focused on building and implementing technology that will alter social contact between humans.
An early example is “smart glasses” that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg feels soon will become as ubiquitous as smartphones are today.
However, a little background knowledge says that the goal to expand outside of social media is not the only cause for the company’s change.
Recently, Facebook has stirred up a great deal of controversy after a former employee alerted public and private trusts to misdoings by the company. The issue of Facebook’s wrongdoings is complex, and we won’t cover them here, but the document leak caused public trust in Facebook to tumble in recent months.
Many have speculated that the name change from Facebook to Meta is a way to distance the parent company from the controversy of Facebook.
Changes for business owners won’t be overly complex, but it’s something to keep an eye on as more changes may call for an update to your website. In addition, if public trust in Facebook continues to fall, businesses may have to move their social media strategy away from Facebook and Instagram.
Google My Business is Old Business
Google recently announced that they will be changing the name of their business management app, Google My Business, to Google Business Profile.
Their stated goal is to move business profile management away from the Google My Business app itself and on to Google Search, Maps, and other apps under its control.
The Google My Business app will be phased out entirely in 2022.
This is not the first time the app now known as Google Business Profile has changed its name.
It began under the name Google Local, then changed to Google Places. After that, it changed its identity to Google+ Local, then back to Google Places. Finally, it changed its name to Google My Business, which it held onto for a long while. As of 2022, it will be Google Business Profile. Will the name stick? Only time will tell.
New features include:
- Users can now claim and verify their businesses on Google Search
- Comprehensive call history for each business
- Messaging directly from Google Search
What’s in a Name?
New name, same company, or will these changes to identity have a massive impact on how these tech giants do business. It’s impossible to say, but the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.
Facebook’s change to Meta may seem dramatic, but remember Google did something similar in 2015 when they changed their parent company’s name to Alphabet. The change there was nominal, and most people do not know of Alphabet as a company, still referring to the entity solely as Google.
Meta seems to want to make their change more substantial.
Is the name change part of a plan to take Facebook to the next stage in its development? Or just to escape the bad press of their own making?
We want to hear from you. Do you have questions about how the change to Meta will affect your social media sway? Do you want to know more about Google Business Profile? Reach out to Legend Web Works now and will clue you in.
