Comments on: What’s in a name?

By: AndaDogg

AndaDogg — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:12:36 +0000

My workplace has blocked NewsGator, presumably thinking that it is Gator….

Sadly, I’m going to have to find another RSS program, as I need to access and sync the feeds at work too.

By: ??

?? — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:05:54 +0000

Your asking the wrong people. Anyone who’s here now, knows NewsGator is not related to Gator/Claria. How many will never see this page? I booted into linux today, if I were on the Win98 partion, I might NEVER have clicked a link to NewsGator.

By: Sohbet

Sohbet — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:21:19 +0000

I’d be interested in an updated GoogleAnalytics chart (may be two with about six weeks coverage), just to see if the effect did wear off after a while and also, did others link to your new name with the same link-text (allinurl:…).

I hope you will publish a follow up.

By: Vineet Kumar

Vineet Kumar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:54:04 +0000

You should totally change it. I was just looking for an online news reader, and my first reaction was exactly what you don’t want your name to do: “Gator? I can’t use that one. Next.” Same as what Scott Doughty describes above. I’d heard of it many times for the past many months, but intentionally avoided it due to association with Gator.

By: jason m

jason m — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 20:22:16 +0000

Working within the brand identity and strategy world… and reading tons of data an research on this sort of thing, I can say with some confidence, there is no question that if you must ask this question in the first place, then you have a very clear answer. Yes drop the gator and all reference to it.

Truthfully in 2007 people are in no way brand loyal, and it is very easy for people to move on to a stronger more “safe” name, and your new customers like myself (who looked this issue up when i saw gator) will be more at ease.

By: William Crosby

William Crosby — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 01:54:57 +0000

By: Scott Doughty

Scott Doughty — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:51:54 +0000

Change it. I’d heard of NewsGator but didn’t even visit the site as the word ‘Gator’ rang alarm bells immediately.

By: Ken Mages

Ken Mages — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:10:03 +0000

I think your good name has eclipsed the dead Claria Gator product. I also think the quality of any product surpasses its name…

By: Nigel

Nigel — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:57:04 +0000

I think you should rebrand as NetNewsWire on all platforms – its a good name with a good product on the Mac, and an excellent opportunity to ditch the malware connotations.

Plus, didn’t I read somewhere that NetNewsWire is actually the most used RSS reader on any platform? Makes sense to stick with the bigger name.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 17:42:16 +0000

I say change it. As the head of an IT Dept, I found NewsGator while searching for an RSS reader to deploy to our 150 users. It’s hard enough to educate users on how to avoid malware. So, I don’t think I’ll be introducing software that has a malware-related name.

Since it has been so long since the question was asked, it seems that you have decided not to change it. Bummer, a mistake, imho. I think that “mistake” is made even worse by not *clearly* stating that NewsGator has noting to do with Claria on the home page. I found this thread because I searched for “NewsGator Claria” after finding the NewsGator site. I was curious about whether Claria was trying to sneak onto PCs as an RSS reader.