<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Kevin Fitchard]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/kevinfitchard/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Viral communications app Plague changes its name – sort of]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>When Lithuanian developer Deep Sea Marketing launched its app <a href="https://plag.com/">Plague</a> last year, there was a fair bit of confusion over its app and a popular game by <a href="http://www.ndemiccreations.com/en/">Ndemic Creations</a> called Plague Inc. Now Ndemic has asked Deep Sea to change the app’s name, and Deep Sea is kind of obliging. The new name of the app will be “Plag**” with the two asterisks representing blacked out letters in its logo.</p>
<p>Yes, Deep Sea is being cute, but the company has always had a rather twisted sense of humor. After all it named an app designed to facilitate communications between people in disparate parts of world after a global biological catastrophe. For those of you who haven’t tried out Plag**, it doesn’t use social networking principles to spread its content. Rather <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/11/26/meet-plague-an-app-plumbing-the-depths-of-viral-networking/">it distributes content like a disease</a>, infecting users of nearby smartphones who further infect new users they come in contact with.</p>
<p>To be fair, Plague Inc. is pretty twisted as well, though highly addictive. In the game you control a pathogen, and your goal is infect and wipe out the entire world’s population before the globe’s scientific community can research a cure. My favorite level is “Neurax Worm,” a parasitic organism that burrows into its host’s brain.</p>
<p>Deep Sea is launching a new website <a href="https://plag.com/">plag.com</a> as well, and while Deep Sea may not be thrilled it needs to undergo a semi-rebranding as it’s just gaining international attention – it <a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/01/20/plagues-viral-communications-app-infects-150k-in-two-months/">reported 150,000 users in January</a> two months after launch – the move will hopefully prevent some confusion. Web and apps store searches for “Plague” intermix results for both apps, and they both use many of the same epidemic-related terms in their marketing.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i2.wp.com/gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/screen-shot-2015-03-06-at-9-14-38-am-e1425669546686.png?fit=440%2C330&quality=80&strip=all]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[293]]></thumbnail_height><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[440]]></thumbnail_width></oembed>