5 ms·

Microsoft Office is one of the most recognizable and valuable brands ever. I'm quite terrible at marketing, and even I can recognize how stupid the rebrand was

Microsoft Office is one of the most recognizable and valuable brands ever. I'm quite terrible at marketing, and even I can recognize how stupid the rebrand was.

airstrike 1y ago
Literally this. It's one of the strongest names in all of software. It really boggles the mind.
- olyjohn 1y ago
  I thought that renaming Active Directory to Entra ID was bad. Every single tech person who ever touched a Windows server knows what AD is. Then they change to name to something that sounds like it's going to give you an anal probe. What a dumpster fire...
  - bradstewart 1y ago
    Thank you for this. As someone who recently had to stumble back into turning a few knobs in (what I thought would be) AD for Office 365 licensing needs, after ~10 years outside of the MS sandbox, I had no earthly idea what Entra was. Until right now.
- TeaBrain 1y ago
  I think there's little chance it won't be changed back. Changing the name was probably motivated by someone in management pushing the name change so that they could list it as a personal achievement as one of the "new" AI products they'd overseen the release of in the current zeitgeist.
OccamsMirror 1y ago
This is the same company that thought it would be an awesome idea to rename "Microsoft Remote Desktop" to "Windows App" on MacOS. It wasn't. It's the dumbest name ever.
- thewebguyd 1y ago
  Don't forget Windows Mail->Outlook (New), replacing Outlook with Outlook (Classic). Same with "Teams (Classic)" and "Teams (New)" Or the Teams download page that had two different versions - Teams for Home and Teams for Work/School. Or .NET->.NET Core & .NET Framework->Back to .NET again.
TeMPOraL 1y ago
Maybe they figured their brand was too recognizable and valuable, and had to knee-cap it to restore the cosmic balance of the Great Material Continuum. EDIT: There's even a rule of acquisition that could possibly apply here: #239 - Never be afraid to mislabel a product.

Microsoft Office is one of the most recognizable and valuable brands ever. I'm quite terrible at marketing, and even I can recognize how stupid the rebrand was.

airstrike 1y ago

Literally this. It's one of the strongest names in all of software. It really boggles the mind.

olyjohn 1y ago
I thought that renaming Active Directory to Entra ID was bad. Every single tech person who ever touched a Windows server knows what AD is. Then they change to name to something that sounds like it's going to give you an anal probe. What a dumpster fire...
- bradstewart 1y ago
  Thank you for this. As someone who recently had to stumble back into turning a few knobs in (what I thought would be) AD for Office 365 licensing needs, after ~10 years outside of the MS sandbox, I had no earthly idea what Entra was. Until right now.
TeaBrain 1y ago
I think there's little chance it won't be changed back. Changing the name was probably motivated by someone in management pushing the name change so that they could list it as a personal achievement as one of the "new" AI products they'd overseen the release of in the current zeitgeist.

OccamsMirror 1y ago

This is the same company that thought it would be an awesome idea to rename "Microsoft Remote Desktop" to "Windows App" on MacOS. It wasn't. It's the dumbest name ever.

thewebguyd 1y ago
Don't forget Windows Mail->Outlook (New), replacing Outlook with Outlook (Classic). Same with "Teams (Classic)" and "Teams (New)" Or the Teams download page that had two different versions - Teams for Home and Teams for Work/School. Or .NET->.NET Core & .NET Framework->Back to .NET again.

TeMPOraL 1y ago

Maybe they figured their brand was too recognizable and valuable, and had to knee-cap it to restore the cosmic balance of the Great Material Continuum. EDIT: There's even a rule of acquisition that could possibly apply here: #239 - Never be afraid to mislabel a product.