Just out of curiosity, what made the developers decide to use the word "open" as part of the product name? I'm curious since doing so usually makes people think such products are GPL/FOSS applications. -40hz
I wasn't a founder of OpenCandy but I do know that the world "open" was used because our network is open for any developer to use. I'm sure our name also has something to do with how hard it is to name a company these days and get the associated URL.
I'm also a little puzzled by this comment you made:
@drapps: I didn’t expect to wake up this morning to a Google Alert about OpenCandy being raked over the proverbial coals.
It seems to me that running an early warning system such as this indicates that there has been serious concern on the part OpenCandy about negative comments to the extent that "Big Brother Google" is being used to seek out and monitor them. I think this says quite a bit about the mindset of the company.
Which leads me to this question: How much negative pushback are you getting with this? Since you're monitoring via Google, I'd guess you'd have some very solid statistics you could share with us on on that topic beyond the usual "overall response has been very positive" PR boilerplate.
The word I track with Google Alerts is 'opencandy'. They isn't any connotation attached to it (negative or positive).
I use Google Alerts for the same reason anyone (person, company or organization) uses Google Alerts -- to find where the conversation is. It doesn't say anything negative about the mindset of our company or any company (person or organization) to want to be able participate in conversations about them. To me it says something positive -- it says that a company/person/organzation is willing to listen and discuss things openly (as I've done here).
Personally, I know a lot of everyday people who use Google Alerts to watch for mentions of their name or blog. I wouldn't be surprised if Mouser used Google Alerts so that he can know when someone mentions DonationCoder. I also received quite a few Google Alerts yesterday about the TechCrunch post regarding handshaking and how those attending the OpenCandy board of directors meeting didn't shake hands (to prevent spreading germs) and instead did the "fist bump". The handshaking topic was something written about by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch last week.
By the way, I'm not a PR person (by training, nature, or past history). I was chosen by OpenCandy to represent them because once I met with them and understood what they was doing I was really excited about it. You're not going to see or hear me use "boilerplate PR speak". It's just not who I am.
I was wondering, how many people here have seen what an OpenCandy powered recommendation looks like? If you haven't, I'd be happy to post a video on YouTube so you see how recommendations are presented to users.
Dr. Apps
Software Community Guru
OpenCandy
http://twitter.com/drapps