Froogle Is No More; Long Live Product Search!
Google decided last night to kill off the Froogle brand name, replacing it with Google Product Search. The product is the same, just the logo and URL have changed (and old URLs, like froogle.com). It’s curious that Google would do this now, as there have been rumors and some word from Google that Froogle would be replaced with a Google Base-based solution one day, but I guess they couldn’t wait.
Google doesn’t have too many actual brand names, especially not many it created itself. Technically, there’s Gmail, Orkut, AdSense, AdWords, and, uh, yeah, that’s it. So with the end of Froogle, the fact that Orkut is practically a seperate island, and Gmail called Google Mail in other countries, Google has practically rid itself of any product name that could be clever or inventive. Jeez, they’re worse than Microsoft!
Google has a few interesting product names Not Invented Here: Blogger/BlogSpot, SketchUp, Picasa, DoubleClick, YouTube, dodgeball (not really, be honest), but they’ll rename anyone they can. Keep in mind, Google Earth was Keyhole, Analytics was Urchin, Docs was Writely, and Groups sorta was Deja.
Coverage:
John Battelle
Andy Beal
Philipp - who suggests new boring/descriptive names for other products, some of which are almost guaranteed to happen
Gray Hat - some funny stuff, too
