Shortly after I announced that NewsGator had acquired my company, I started seeing comments from people wondering whether NewsGator was related to the “Gator” spyware company (now known as “Claria”). The answer, of course, is NO (you don’t really think I’d join a spyware company, do you?).
NewsGator founder Greg Reinacker wrote about this problem a few months ago, and wondered whether a name change was in order to prevent the unintended association. But renaming a company isn’t the simplest thing to do, and even if the rename took place, people would still refer to us as “the former NewsGator company,” defeating the purpose.
Funny thing is, I had a similar post in my own blog last month, related to some people taking offense to the “demon” part of FeedDemon’s name. Given the problems with both names, I think it’s safe to say that if we ever rename the company, we won’t choose the name “GatorDemon” :)