In late September, Google released a compression algorithm called Brotli and gave files it makes the extension “.bro”.

But last week the extension was changed to “.br”.

The reason for the change is threads like this one, in which posters suggest that “'bro' has a gender problem” and “comes of[f] misogynistic and unprofessional due to the world it lives in.”

What world? To many, “bro”, just means brother. To others, the word's been adopted as a prefix in the term ““brogrammer” that denotes macho programmers who bring sexist attitudes into the workplace and make life difficult for women in technology-heavy workplaces. Some people revel in the brogrammer label, to the extent that posters to the thread we've linked to above say they quickly received “bro”-themed jokes of unpleasant hue when Brotli was announced, sparking calls for a changhe.

The GitHub post announcing the change doesn't acknowledge that problem, but posters there are on to the situation. One, “ramriot”, offers this opinion:

So after the change from a connotation of male sibling we get one now named after a country code the full name of which is also a form of pubic hairstyle of minimal proportions. OK, seems appropriate and not at all offensive (SRK). Brotli will hence forth be forever known as "Giving your files a Brazillian wax".

Or perhaps “giving your files a break” might also become current, given that br is commonly used to denote line breaks. ®