Fubar, web 2.0, social networking | Irish Internet Entrepreneur

24 Jul 2007

CherryTAP – a victim of web 2.0

Posted in Work | 3 Comments

I’ve spoken briefly about CherryTAP in the past.. mainly because they’re the closest thing to BeerChief we’ve come across.

I noticed they’ve changed their name to ‘Fubar‘ recently.. plus they’ve hit over 1m members (a fantastic achievement).

Anyhow, here’s a quote from one of the owners blogs “the name doesn’t make the site… the people that use it do.”

So that begs the question why did they change the name if they believe people come to a site based on quality/reputation and not a name?

The answer is simple – greed. CherryTAP is a 9 character word, Fubar a 5 character word. Less typo’s, less to remember = more traffic.

The other advantage is that the name change will generate controversy and talk within the industry and amongst members. So basically, the name change is a move to get more members/traffic.

We often talk about ‘brandability’ and Fubar is a very brandable name – it makes no sense, it’s short, it’s catchy – typical web 2.0 name. But imo, they’ve sold out to the web 2.0 rules. Why not let the members choose if they want that name? Have a poll?

After all, if it’s “the people that use it” that make the site, why not allow them to call the shots? If members like the new name – change it, if they don’t, keep the old name. Simple. Democratic. Members feel a closer connection to the site as they control any change.

That’s my opinion anyway. Social networks are all about empowering members, making them feel part of a community and wanting to build and maintain that community.. this was a perfect opportunity to let the community decide on an important matter and Fubar took the selfish and easy way out.

Alan

Looking at the comments on the sites blog about the name change, it seems most users that have commented are ok by it. They could have held a poll with users on the name change but in all honesty, it’s not a fundamental change to the way the site works so it seems to me that there’s no harm done.

And if it a new, shorter URL is better for the site and brings more traffic, isn’t that exactly what they should be doing to make the site a success and long lived. What’s the point in putting time and energy into an endeavour if you don’t use every means possible to maximise your success.
http://www.smemon.com smemon87

a name change is a huge change imo.. if myspace were to change to ‘ispace’ for example, it would cause mass confusion..

all the logo’s, t-shirts, videos or whatever about on the internet.. all the non hyperlinked links.. it would damage SEO, pagerank, alexa ranks etc.. which would all effect advertising and traffic..

apparently, this is the 3rd name change that Fubar have had. I just think if something ain’t broke, why fix it? the advantages are not worth it imo.. unless of course you have been taken over which fubar have not been. Nowadays, 9 characters is quite acceptable..

rentacoder, technorati, mybloglog, facebook, linkedin, friendsreunited, stumbleupon… these are all super sites with longish names.
connectionfailure

Very simple: fubar is a cooler name than cherrytap. It also makes more sense. It’s supposed to be an online bar, and fubar is actually an anagram- look it up. Cherrytap, on the other hand, made no sense… at least to me anyway.